Asian

Authentic Indian Butter Chicken Curry

I like the constants in my life. Constants like, reading the daily mantra on my coffee shops A-frame board. Constants like Sunday night movies. Constants like my street guy that sells me corn on Mondays but most of all Butter Chicken. The best constant of all, probably.

Sure, it’s easy to order this in but then you have to wipe away the greasy shit left on your kitchen counter from the leaking plastic containers and thats just annoying. So here you have it… a lil bit of effort for a million head bobbling Indian praises.

Indian Butter Chicken

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

Marinade…

  • 4 chicken thighs cut into cubes
  • 1/2 cup natural yoghurt
  • Juice of 1 lemon
  • 1tbs ginger paste or powder
  • 1tbs garlic paste or powder
  • 2tbs garam masala

Curry…

  • Oil
  • 3 shallots, roughly chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
  • 1tsp chilli powder
  • 2tsp ground coriander
  • 2tsp ground ginger
  • 2tsp ground cumin
  • 1tsp ground cardamom
  • 1tsp turmeric
  • 2tbs tomato paste
  • 1 can tomatoes
  • 2tbs sugar
  • Salt
  • 1/2 cup natural yoghurt
  • Knob of butter

Method

In a bowl mix together the marinade ingredients and leave in your fridge for at least 30 minutes. Up to 3 hours is ideal.

Now for the curry, in a big pot heat the oil over a low heat and add the shallots, garlic and spices and gently fry for 5 minutes. Add a little oil if the mixture becomes too dry. You don’t want to burn the spices, rather release the flavour. Now add your tomato paste, can of tomatoes, that same can now filled up with water, yoghurt, sugar and a big pinch of salt and simmer for 15-20 minutes. Turn off the heat then using a handheld blender, puree the sauce until smooth.

Take your chicken out of the fridge and add it to your curry. Pop the heat back on and simmer gently for 20-30 minutes on a very low heat stirring regularly. In this time cook some basmati rice and pappadums then have a taste of the curry to be sure it doesn’t need a hit of salt. Stir through the butter until it’s melted then you’re done!

This will taste even better tomorrow if you can hold off devouring the whole thing in one hit!