Recipe Highlight Butter Chicken

Chicken Makhani - Butter Chicken

Chicken Makhani or butter chicken originated in the northern part of India. The word makhani means made with butter. Butter chicken is like chicken tikka, but they are two different dishes. Both dishes are consisting of a tomato-based curry. The difference is that butter chicken or chicken makhani is prepared with butter and cream. The butter and cream enhance the taste of the tomato curry. The texture of the curry also changes. Once the butter and cream have been added to the curry, it

becomes silken and luscious, giving it the appearance of an Italian tomato and cream sauce.

I recently prepared this dish and began with a combination of onion, ginger, and garlic paste. These pastes form the base for this sauce. Then, I added the Shan butter chicken seasoning. This blend of spices gave me everything needed to complete my dish without adding other spices and making it complicated. I added tomato sauce and chili paste to the onion, garlic, and ginger mixture. These ingredients blended well and kept the texture of my sauce exceptionally smooth. To further thicken this sauce and maintain the creamy composition, I added cashew paste. After that, I added salt and sugar to this curry. The sugar counterbalance the tomato sauce. To finish the sauce and make the already smooth curry glossy, I added the butter and cream. Use these ingredients in moderation. You do not want your butter chicken to have a strong milky taste. In this dish, a small amount of butter and cream go an exceedingly long way.

For this recipe, I used chicken chunks that were marinated and grilled using charcoal. To finish the dish, I added toasted Kasuri methi. Kasuri methi is dried fenugreek leaves. Toasting them removes moisture and makes them easy to powder. Adding the Kasuri methi at the end gave the dish a rich aroma and remarkable smokey flavor. My focus for this dish was to make it quickly and easily without losing its elegance. Mission accomplished, this dish was unique!

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