Challenge: Butter Chicken

What comes to your mind when you think about Indian food? Some years ago, I would have been fairly overwhelmed and afraid of it. It is far too spicy and mostly curries. Doesn't seem like fresh food or a wide variety of flavors. Well today, I must admit that it was probably one of my biggest food misconceptions I ever had.

Living in Seattle where Microsoft and a huge Indian community is right around the corner, you get a wide range of authentic Indian food. Working closely with Indians made me curious to learn more about. It didn't take long till my favorite dish was Butter Chicken from Mirch Masala. Every time I came back from a business trip, I sat in the taxi, ordering the dish to ensure it arrives 5min after me at my home. It became my "Welcome home" meal and one of my leading comfort foods. Independently of how rough my day was, this dish made my day end in peace.

When I moved back to Switzerland I had to realize that the Indian cuisine didn't make it so far yet. I am still searching for the best Butter Chicken. Due to that I had no other option than to make my own one. Wow, did I research. The difficult part is, it takes time to make Butter Chicken. You can take short-cuts, like boneless chicken breast instead of whole chicken, but it is just not the same.

In the end I took a few recipes, changed details to my taste and came to the following result. You can easily make a larger portion and freeze a part for later.

Meat:

One chicken (take off the skin)

200g yogurt

3 tablespoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons garam masala

1 teaspoon chili powder

butter (to fry)

• Cut the chicken in 15-20 pieces, wash it and tap it dry.

• Mix the chicken with the yogurt, lemon juice, chili and garam masala. Let it soak for at least 10h in the fridge.

• Take the chicken out (keep the spicy yogurt for later) and fry the chicken in the butter, till it's cooked through. Ensure that it is not too brown outside. Put the chicken aside.

Sauce:

3 medium onions

3 garlic cloves

2 cm ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon brown sugar

1-2 tablespoon cumin

1 teaspoon turmeric

2 teaspoon garam masala

3 green cardamon pods

2 teaspoon chili powder

3 tablespoons tomato paste

2 cans crushed, peeled tomatoes

3 table spoon heavy cream

Optional: chicken broth

• Take onions, garlic, cumin and ginger and fry in a little bit of oil until it's slightly golden. Let it cool aside before you put it in a blender to make a smooth paste.

• Roast the green cardamon pods for a few seconds, before you add the onion paste.

• Add tomato paste and crushed, peeled tomatoes. Stir it and quickly heat it up, before you turn down the heat to medium.

• Add turmeric, chili, salt, sugar, cinnamon and garam masala and stir for approx. 2 minutes.

• Put the sauce in a casserole and add the yogurt marinade as well as 50ml water. Mix everything together and put the chicken pieces in the sauce.

• Let the meat and sauce simmer for 2-3h on low heat. If the sauce reduced to much, add chicken broth or chopped tomatoes.

• Refine the taste at the end with a shot of heavy cream. Add spices if your taste likes.

Optional: If you or your guest don't like meat on bones, I would recommend to pull the chicken of the bones at the very end.

Note: You can adjust the spice as you like. I am personally still getting used to spicy food, so the amount of chili is rather low, but feel free to make it real Indian.

The Butter Chicken tastes good with wild rice (healthier than white rice), but it is perfect with fresh Naan.