Butter Chicken (Chicken pieces in a smooth and spicy gravy)

Over the last couple of weeks, I received several requests for chicken recipe. The recipe I am going to describe today is that of one of my favorite party dishes. This is also one of those preparations with which I started making chicken dishes. With several slight modifications made to the recipe over the years, the present form is quite different from my first venture on it.


I have used game hen for this recipe because the meat is softer than usual Tyson or Foster Brand chicken. One can also use boneless chicken for this.

Ingredients:

• Chicken - 1 ½ lbs. (1 game hen approx.) cut into medium pieces
• Onion – ½ medium onion
• Garlic - 2 cloves
• Ginger - ½” piece
• Green Chillies (Thai/Indian) - 2 to 3
• Tomato Paste - 1 ½ tbsp
• Yogurt - 2 tbsp
• Turmeric - ½ tsp
• Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
• Heavy whipping cream - 2-3 tbsp
• Kasoori Methi (Dried fenugreek leaves) - 1 tbsp
• Garam Masala – 1 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Coriander Leaves – ¼th cup chopped
• Butter for cooking – ½ stick (approx.)
• Oil – a little

Marinade:

• Yogurt - ½ cup
• Tandoori Masala – 2 tbsp
• Lemon juice – 1 tbsp
• Garam Masala - ½ tsp.
• Salt – 1 tsp
• Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Garlic Paste – 1tsp
• Ginger Paste - 1 tsp
• Oil or ghee – 1tbsp

Method:

• Mix the marinade ingredients along with the cut chicken pieces and keep aside for a minimum of 2 hours.
• Pre-heat the oven at 350 F.

• After the chicken pieces have been marinated well, line them in a foil wrapped bake ware and bake them in the oven for about 30 minutes. Brush the pieces from time to time with ghee/oil so that the chicken does not become dry.
• Turn off the oven and keep aside the baked chicken pieces.
• In the meantime make a fine paste of Onion, garlic, ginger and green chillies.
• Heat ¾ of the butter in a wok. Be careful not to burn it. To prevent burning, heat the butter with a little oil.
• Fry the above mentioned onion paste until the paste changes color.
• Add tomato paste and cook till the paste has blended well with rest of the mixture.
• Add the turmeric, red chilli powder, and sauté briefly.
• Whisk the yogurt a little and add it to the wok.
• Fry the mixture now until the oil starts surfacing up.
• Add the kasoori methi and give it a quick stir.
• Now add the chicken pieces and coat them with the spice in the wok. Excessive stirring might make the chicken fall apart. Therefore, stir carefully.
• Slowly add the whipping cream and stir gently.
• Add a little water and check the consistency of the gravy. It should be neither too thick nor too thin.
• Once the gravy starts to boil, turn off the stove.

• Heat the remaining ¼ butter in another smaller vessel. Once hot, add the garam masala to it.
• Once this mixture starts to sizzle, pour it over the chicken in the wok and stir it gently.
• Sprinkle the coriander leaves and serve it with hot rice.

Notes:

• I used tandoori masala by Shan. You may use any variety. Sometimes tandoori masala do not have the orange color in it. In that case you can add the color separately. You’ll need just a pinch of that.
• The last part of the recipe calls for the heated butter and garam masala from the top. This is popularly known as “chhnok” in north India or “phoron” in Bengali. The main difference is that phoron is performed at the beginning before anything is put in the oil and chhnok is done at the very end. The two processes have slightly little different results though.