Butter Chicken Curry
Butter Chicken Curry
Equipment
- Knife
- Cutting Board
- Measuring Equipment (Cup/Tablespoon/Teaspoon)
- Pot
- Stovetop
- Baking Sheet
- Oven
- Scale (optional)
Ingredients
- 110 Grams Unsalted Butter or Ghee (½ Cup)
- 1 Onion (minced)
- 1 Head Garlic (minced)
- 400 Grams Tomatoes (1 Can)
- 1½ Cups Fresh Cream (36% fat)
- 2 Teaspoons Salt
- 1 Teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
- 1 Teaspoon Garam Masala
- 1 Skinless, Boneless Chicken Breast (cubed)
- 1 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil
- 1 Tablespoon Tandoori Masala Spice**
Instructions
- Melt a few tablespoons of butter/ghee in a frying pan over medium heat.
- Stir in onions and garlic and cook slowly until the onion caramelizes to a dark brown. It should take about 15 minutes.
- At the same time, melt the rest of the butter/ghee in a pot over medium high heat.
- When the butter/ghee has melted, add the tomato, heavy cream, salt, cayenne pepper, and garam masala.
- Bring the sauce to a simmer, then reduce heat to low-medium. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- When the onions have caramelized, stir them into the sauce.
- While the sauce is simmering, toss the cubed chicken breast pieces with vegetable oil until coated. Then season them with tandoori masala.
- Spread the chicken out onto a baking sheet and bake at 180°c (350°f) for 10 minutes.
- Add the chicken to the sauce and simmer for 15 minutes before serving.
Notes
The Wonderful World of Indian Food
We’ve learned to cooked many dishes from around the world. Nothing is as unforgiving as Indian cuisine. Many Indian dishes are complicated to make, with a delicate of balance of spices and precise timing. If something is off by a little, like the spice mixture not being perfectly accurate, then it’s a good chance the dish won’t turn out very well. Fortunately, Butter Chicken Curry is not a typical Indian dish.
It doesn’t require many ingredients. It is also very flexible and forgiving of mistakes. You will have to miss the mark badly to screw up this curry. That’s what makes this such a nice introduction to the world of Indian cooking.
Ghee vs. Butter
There are a few choices you will have to make, mainly if you want to use ghee or butter. If you’ve never heard of ghee, or used it, allow us to introduce it to you. Ghee is a type of butter, minus the milk content. It’s low lactose, so if you have issues with lactose, ghee should be your go to. Ghee is not vegan friendly, in case you were wondering.
Ghee has a much grainier and coarse constancy than butter. It smells quite a bit different as well. The first time we used it we weren’t sure if it had gone bad. It hadn’t, it just smells a little off. Ghee has a much saltier taste than butter as well, which is something we don’t particularly like. So, if you plan on using ghee, we would advise omitting the salt. Lastly, ghee tends to be quite a bit more expensive than butter.
Choosing ghee or butter will come down to your own personal taste. You should try making it both ways. For us, we prefer to make this dish with butter. If you have your heart set on using ghee, Costco sometimes has it.
Setting The Mood For Butter Chicken Curry
Butter Chicken on its own is a carb-free dish. It’s got a high fat content, so if you’re watching your intake you should be careful.
If you’re not worried about carbs, jasmine rice compliments this dish well. You can always opt for getting traditional Indian bread, like naan. We don’t make our own, We cheat and order this from the local Indian restaurant down the road. If you cheat and win, you still win!
Why stop at dinner? Make a DESSERT to pair with your meal.
Set the atmosphere with the proper music. These Indian beats will get you started.