The name butter chicken does not only imply the large amount of butter added to it, but also the buttery smoothness of the gravy.Butter chicken's origin is in Punjabi cuisine. In 1920s, after a man made the dish tandoori chicken famous in a small eatery he ran at Gora Bazaar in Peshawar, he faced a problem. There were left over chicken and he started to wonder what he could do with it. An imaginary light bulb went on as the idea to serve the leftover chicken in a smooth curry came to him. Not long after, he came up with the famous butter chicken.
The Indian Punjabi’s name was Kundan
Lal Gujral. He was the founder of Moti Mahal Delux restaurant in Delhi, India (about-us,
n.d.) .
Ingredients
For the chicken
- boneless chicken breasts 400 g
- ginger garlic paste 3 tbsp
- red chilli powder 3 tbsp
- salt to taste
- oil to fry(pan)
For the gravy
- roughly cut tomatoes 500 g
- roughly cut onions 100 g
- garlic paste 1 tbsp
- Cashew nuts 50 g
- garam masala 2 tsp
- sugar 4 tsp
- chilli powder 2 tbsp
- butter 5 tbsp
- cream 3 tbsp
- salt to taste
Method
• Marinate the chicken in a mixture of garlic and ginger past, red chili powder and salt and keep it for 20 minutes.
• Heat some oil in a pan and fry the chicken pieces, once done transfer it into another container.
• In the same pan add onion, oil, spoonful of butter and once the onions are cooked add cashew nuts and tomatoes.
• Add some water and garlic paste, salt, sugar, garam masala powder and chili powder. Evenly mix it and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes
• Churn the mixture into fine puree.
• Strain it back into the same pan.
• Add butter, cream, and chicken and let it simmer for 5-7 minutes.
• Garnish it with cream
