Butter Chicken

Butter Chicken is a creamy Indian chicken curry recipe which is one of the most well known Indian dishes around the world.

I often experiment with different Chicken gravies some of my favorite ones being the Goan special Chicken Xacuti, Garlic Chicken, Achari Chicken, Chicken Coriander Curry, Chicken Saagwala.

My hubby loves butter chicken, but I never had the confidence that I would be able to do justice to this delicious gravy. However, this weekend I decided to give it a try. I used a Sanjeev Kapoor recipe which I found online and with some changes, could make perfect butter chicken. I call it perfect more because of the fact that my hubby just loved it and rated it as the best butter chicken he has ever had.

I believe that Butter chicken tastes best when eaten with Naans or Pav (Dinner Rolls). This time I made Butter Garlic Naans to go with it which again turned out great.

Here is the step by step Butter Chicken recipe with pictures.

Serves: 2-3
Preparation Time: 3 hours 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

For Marinate 1:
Chicken: 400 gm boneless
Lemon Juice: 1 tbsp
Chilli Powder: 1 tsp
Salt: to taste

For Marinate 2:
Yogurt: 1/2 cup
Ginger Paste: 2 tsp
Garlic Paste: 2 tsp
Chilli Powder: 1/2 tsp
Garam Masala Powder: 1/2 tsp
Salt: to taste
Oil: 2 tsp
Butter: 2 tbsp

For Gravy
Butter: 2 tbsp
Green Cardamom: 2
Cloves:2
Black Peppercorn: 2-3
Cinnamon: 1 inch piece
Ginger Paste: 1 tsp
Garlic Paste: 1 tsp
Tomato: 2 medium pureed
Chilli Powder: 1 tsp
Salt: to taste
Sugar: 3 tsp
Kasuri Methi: 1 tsp
Fresh Cream: 1/2 cup

Method of Preparation:

1. Cut the chicken into 1 and 1/2 inch pieces. Apply lemon juice, chilli powder and salt. Keep in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
2. For second marinarion, hang the yogurt in a muslin cloth for 15-20 minutes to remove extra water. Add yogurt, 2 tsp ginger paste, 2 tsp garlic paste, chilli powder, garam masala powder, salt and oil to the chicken. Leave in refrigerator to marinate for 3-4 hours.
3. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees celsius. String the chicken pieces to the skewers and cook for 10-12 minutes.
4. Baste with butter and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Remove and keep aside.
5. For the gravy, heat butter in a pan. Add cardamoms, cloves, peppercorns and cinnamon. Saute for 2 minutes.
6. Add 1 tsp ginger and 1 tsp garlic pastes and saute. Add tomato puree, chilli powder, salt and 1 cup of water.
7. Let the mixture boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add sugar and kasuri methi.
8. Add cooked chicken pieces. Simmer for 5 minutes and add cream.
9. Serve hot with Naan, Paratha or bread.

Butter Chicken