Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)

Butter chicken is a favourite curry - it is usually reasonably mild, but rich in flavour. This is a straight forward recipe for making butter chicken from scratch for a quick, delicious family meal.  Lummox number two made this for our dinner last night for his Thursday cooking slot - it was fabulous!

Ingredients

For the curry for 4 people

500g chicken thigh

2 cloves garlic

1 inch piece ginger

1 1/2 tsp turmeric 

1/4 tsp nutmeg

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp garam masala

Chili to your taste. We used one medium dried chili - but you could use fresh, chili flakes or chili powder for the amount of heat you like. 

140g pot tomato paste

1 small pot natural unsweetened yoghurt

1 onion finely chopped

50g butter

1 cup fresh cream

Large handful chopped fresh coriander

For raita to serve with the curry

20cm piece cucumber

Large handful fresh mint finely chopped

1 small pot natural unsweetened yoghurt

Salt & pepper to season

Method

Chop the chicken into bite size pieces and place in a non-metal bowl

Place the garlic (peeled), ginger (roughly chopped), chili (roughly chopped) and dried spices into a mortar and pestle with 1 heaped teaspoon of tomato paste and crush into a paste. (This could be done in a small food processor or crush the garlic, grate the ginger and mix with the spices).  We were given some lovely home-grown dried chillies and so used one of these.

Place the spice paste with the remaining tomato paste and the yoghurt in the bowl with the chicken and mix so that the chicken is coated and the ingredients are amalgamated.

The mixture is best left to marinade covered and refrigerated for at least 2 hours or overnight.  If time is short it's ok to use straight away.

Melt the butter in a large pan over a low heat add the chopped onion and sauté over a low-medium heat until soft and translucent (approx 5 minutes).

Turn up the heat, add the marinaded chicken - scrape the bowl to make sure all the fabulous flavours make it into the pan.  Cook for 5 minutes - stirring and checking that it's not bubbling too fast.

Add the cream and leave to simmer for 15 minutes or until chicken is cooked and tender.  Check and stir 2 or 3 times during cooking.

Meanwhile

Cook basmati rice according to packet instructions (I use a rice cooker, the absorption method is also very effective)

Heat naan bread and keep it warm 

Make raita

Split the cucumber length ways and scoop out the seeds.

Grate the cucumber into a paper towel and squeeze out excess liquid

Finely chop the mint

Place mint, yoghurt, cucumber and salt & pepper in a small bowl and stir to combine

(Cheats raita - mix yoghurt with bottled mint sauce in a small bowl)

Finish the curry by stirring through chopped coriander and serve with basmati rice, naan bread and raita.  I like to add a crisp green vegetable like beans or broccoli to complete the meal.  Enjoy!