You probably have tasted many Indian foods but Murg Makhani or Butter Chicken is truly among best of all across the globe. You have the option to make a mild or hot gravy in this recipe just to make it suitable for most palates. You can have unforgettable taste of Butter Chicken particulalry if it is served with Black Lentils (Kaali Daal), a green salad and Naans. The below-mentioned recipe has been tried and tasted several times and everyone, who tasted, still loves it.
The preparation time of Butter Chicken recipe is around 1 hour while the cook time could be around 45 minutes only. You should not spend more than 1 hour 45 minutes as a whole to prepare this top notch Indian food. You will find butter chicken on every Indian restaurant in Europe, but the best butter chicken i found was at Bindia, and restaurant maharaja in Denmark. To know more about origin of this dish check wikipedia page on Murg Makhani
Ingredients:
2 tsps garlic paste
2 chopped onions
1 cup fresh yoghurt
Seeds from 3-4 pods of cardamom
3 tbsps vegetable/sunflower/canola cooking oil
8-10 almonds
2 bay leaves
1″ stick of cinnamon
6 cloves
1 tsp red chilli powder (or as per taste)
Salt to taste
8-10 peppercorns
1 lime (juice required)
1 tsp ginger paste
Coriander leaves to garnish
2 tbsps kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
1/2 litre chicken stock
Chopped tomatoes 400 grams (14 oz), (prepare in a food processor to make a smooth paste ground)
3 tbsps unmelted, soft butter
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp cumin powder
2 tsps coriander powder
1 kg boneless chicken (skin removed)
Preparation:
1 – Mix red chillie powder, salt, lime juice and chicken in a non-metallic, large bowl. Allow this mixture to marinate for the next full one hour.
2 – Now gently roast the almonds, bay leaves, cinnamon, peppercorns, and cloves on medium heat till they darken slightly. Add cardamom seeds shortly after getting this mixture cool. Now use a dry, clean coffee grinder to grind this mixture into a coarse powder.
3 – Add and mix the yoghurst in this mixture. Now add turmeric powders, cumin and coriander together. Finally, add chicken to this mixture and allow it to marinate for more or less one next hour.
4 – Pick up a deep pan to heat the oil on mdeium heat. Add onions as soon as you get oil hot and fry them till they turned to golden brown color. Now add garlic and ginger pastes. Fry this mixture for around a minute only.
5 – Now add some part of chicken from chicken-spice mix. Let this mixture fry until you get pink to whitish color).
6 – Now add kasuri methi, chicken stock, tomato paste and the remaining part of chicken-spice mix.
7 – Let this mixture cooked till your gravy is reduced to half volume and the chicken becomes softer.
8 – Use another small pan, melt the butter and pour over the chicken mixture.
9 – Use coriander leaves to garnish your food. Serve it with Kaali Daal and Naan.
Indian Punjabi Cooking 