Live Blogging Butter Chicken - Recipe for an Indian Classic

Marlow Moo has been stalking me for a long time now. His request? Teach him how to make butter chicken. So I finally caved in, and along came Marlow with his friends Connie of Mirabelle Macarons fame and Aditya Raghavan aka Big Addie to learn this Indian classic.

This is a first time experience for me, as Marlow, Addie, Connie and I figured that we would live blog the recipe + pictures on Twitter and our blogs. Talk about racking up the pressure, eh? Luckily for me, I do have a loophole. As I tell all my students, Indian cooking is all about interpretation. Each household in India will have their own recipe for the classics, and everyone will (and should) believe that their recipe is the best. I guarantee that if you go to ten different households in India, you will get ten different versions of this dish. And every one of them will be delicious in their own way. Its what makes cooking so much fun, and gets your creative juices flowing.

So, this experience is unique for me. I will be making butter chicken with my friends, and while I show them how to make this classic, they will be scaring the heebies out of me by posting real pictures along the way. This post is linking all their posts, so check them out and tell us how you liked the experience.

• Follow along on Twitter using the hashtag #yegcurry  
• Follow @BigAddie, @MarlowMoo and @MirabelleMacs on Twitter as they tweet their way through the recipe. I would tweet too, except that I was busy making the damn chicken. 

Here is a link to Marlow Moo's excellent step by step live blogging, and pictures of this recipe.

I come from a long line of women renowned for their amazing skills with food. They can turn the most commonplace dishes into works of culinary art. They could put Michelin starred chefs to shame with the sheer depth of flavours in one bite of food. Compared to them, well, I am a rank beginner. I did, however, grow up in an Indian household, and when you do, there is no way you cannot absorb some of the culinary wisdom of the elders. In fact, I like to joke that the predominant fragrance in my life has been that of the roasting of spices. Even today, when I roast spices to make a masala, I am transported back to my grandmother’s and mum’s kitchen, waiting impatiently for them to finish roasting, frying, grinding, simmering and garnishing that delicious dish that we would then gobble up, while complaining about the need for more salt (that’s a common Indian thing, by the way, our families are never satisfied with the food we cook, there always needs to be more this and more that or less this and less that)

So now that I've disclaimed myself, we get back to butter chicken.

To start off with, I know what a butter chicken should taste like. This is simply by eating it everywhere, from roadside dhabas and friends' houses to five star hotel restaurants and oh, in England too. I've been lucky enough to sample some amazing butter chicken, and my challenge today is to recreate one with at least an approximation of that luxurious, rich, creamy, mouthwatering aroma and taste. 

Here's what's happening.

I am off to the Old Strathcona Farmer's Market, and I've bought some succulent organic chicken thighs from Sunworks Farm. We start off by making fresh homemade tandoori masala. We then make some garam masala from scratch. The chicken will be marinated the night before. We will then prep the ingredients for the makhani (butter) sauce. Then, grill the chicken in the oven (or perhaps the barbeque, if the snow stays away) The sauce will be made. Finally, we fold in the chicken into the sauce and simmer till its meltingly tender, and oh-so-delicious. Then garnish with more cream and butter and fresh coriander. We'll be serving it with some simple saffron rice and a cucumber raita. Plus, what do you know? We're also having mango frozen yoghurt with cardamom and rosewater + pistachios for dessert. No one's calling me a stingy hostess.

Making this dish is actually not that complicated. With a little organisation, this is a simple recipe, that can be made relatively quickly, and with minimum fuss. The sauce is easy to put together, and the once the chicken is marinated, it gets grilled for that smoky tandoori flavour. You can cheat in many ways, if you care to. You could use tomato paste, instead of blanching and pureeing tomatoes, for example. You could easily use store bought tandoori masala and garam masala. The chicken can actually be marinated and then frozen, if you choose to make it in advance. So yes, its not a hugely difficult dish to make.

I'll be posting pictures that my friends take, and will be making notes along the way. The idea is to cook, photograph, write out the recipe and post, all today. So. Lets make some butter chicken.

PS - And what about my dear veggie husband and child? Fear not, the paneer has been marinated too.

Recipe:
(Printable Recipe)

Chicken and Marinade:

8 - 10 chicken thighs, bone in, or boneless, cut into bite sized pieces
2 tablespoons tandoori masala
1 cup plain yoghurt
1 teaspoon ginger paste
1 teaspoon garlic paste
1 teaspoon garam masala
1 tablespoon paprika
2 tablespoons unscented oil
2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice
Salt to taste (I use about 1 teaspoon)

Butter Chicken Sauce:

2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon unscented oil
2 medium onions, finely diced
4 - 5 whole cloves + 4 pods green cardamom + 1 inch piece of cassia bark + 1/2 star anise (also known as whole spice garam masala)
2 inch piece of ginger, grated
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons tandoori masala
1 tablespoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (chilli powder) (increase for added heat)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves) + 1 extra tablespoon
2 cups tomato puree (or passata) *see notes
1 cup hot chicken stock (or deglazed pan juices from chicken) + 1/2 cup extra (in case sauce is too thick)
1 cup whipping cream (or half and half)
3 tablespoons cashewnut or almond paste *see notes
Salt to taste
1/2 tablespoon sugar

Fresh cream + fresh chopped coriander leaves (cilantro) to garnish

Method:

Whisk together the tandoori masala, yoghurt, ginger/ garlic, garam masala, paprika, oil, lemon juice and salt.

Rub into the chicken pieces and marinate, at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.

Preheat oven to 400F.

Heat a heavy, cast iron, oven safe pan, add a splash of oil, and brown the chicken pieces in batches. Transfer to an oven, and roast for about 15 - 20 minutes, turning once, until just cooked through. Take out of the oven, remove the chicken, and deglaze the pan with some hot stock, making it up to 1 cup. Keep aside.

You can also barbeque the chicken for an authentic tandoori flavour (in which case you will use stock for the sauce)

To make the sauce:

Heat the 2 tablespoons of butter and the oil.

Add the finely diced onions to the pan, along with the whole spice garam masala. Fry on a medium heat for about 10 minutes, until the edges are beginning to go golden brown and the onion is very soft.

Add the grated ginger and garlic to the onion/ spice mixture, and fry for an additional 30 seconds.

Add the tandoori masala, garam masala, chilli powder, ground cinnamon and 1 tablespoon kasuri methi. Cook for a few seconds.

Add the tomato puree to the onion mixture. Stir and fry together for about 15 minutes until the mixture comes together in a sticky mass. The oil will also start to separate at this point.

Add the hot stock or deglazed pan juices from the chicken. Stir well.

Season with the salt.

Add the chicken pieces to the sauce, and cook for 3 - 4 minutes, stirring to coat the pieces with the sauce.

If the sauce is too thick, you can add about 1/2 cup of stock at a time to thin it.

Slowly add the whipping cream to the sauce, stirring well as you go along.

Add the remaining tablespoon of kasuri methi to the sauce.

Add the cashew paste to the sauce, folding it in. Add the sugar, taste and adjust seasoning, if required.

Simmer on a very low heat for about 5 - 10 minutes, until the sauce is very thick and creamy.

Garnish with fresh coriander (cilantro) and a splash of cream.

Serve with pulao or naan.

Notes:

To make tomato puree, blanch, peel and seed 4 - 5 large, fresh tomatoes. Blend until well pureed in a powerful blender. You can also use passata or Italian strained tomatoes instead of fresh tomato puree.

To make cashew nut or almond paste, place a large handful of cashews or blanched, peeled almonds in a bowl. Add enough warm milk to cover the nuts and let them soak for an hour. Using a powerful blender, blend to a smooth, creamy paste, using a little more milk, if necessary. Skip, if you have a nut allergy.