Butter Chicken

This recipe is from my friend Rachel, who got it from an Indian Restaurant Cookbook which has long since been out of print. I have made this recipe a great many times for dinner parties, and served over basmati rice it is delicious, and easy to make as well. This pic shows chicken from our farm, all cooked up. It seems like a lot of ingredients, but they are mostly spices. From the book: "Butter chicken is made from freshly cooked tandoori chicken joints reheated in tomato sauce laden with butter and cream." Mmmmm. Serve with some jarred lime pickle, I like Patak's.

Tandoori Chicken

8 pieces of fleshy chicken
1 cup thick plain yoghurt
2 tbsp tandoori spice mix (I use Patak's in a jar)
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic

1. Make deep cuts in the chicken with a sharp knife, arrange in a single layer in a glass dish for marinating and baking

2. Mix yoghurt with all spices, lemon and crushed garlic, salt.

3. Spread mix thickly over chicken, cover with foil, put in fridge to marinate x 8 hours

4. Bring back to room temperature x 1 hour then remove foil, cook in preheated oven at 350F x 45-60 min  or until cooked through.

Now use this to make the butter chicken:

Ingredients:

1 large onion, finely chopped
1 clove finely chopped garlic
1 cm ginger peeled and finely chopped
1/3 cup butter
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp EACH ground ginger, paprika, chili powder
2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp ground fenugreek
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp ssugar
1 tsp salt
1 can of chopped tomatoes drained
juice of 1/2 lime or lemon
2/3 cup whipping cream
4 tbsp fresh chopped coriander


1. Fry the onion, garlic and ginger in butter until light gold, about 5 minutes on med heat

2. Stir in all the spices followed by the tomato paste, sugar and salt. Add the tomatoes and lemon juice. Leave on low heat

3. When cooked chicken is cool enough to handle, cut into small neat pieces and add to the tomato mixture, simmer half covered 20 minutes  until chicken is well heated through. (Note: I put in all juices and sauce from tandoori chicken).

4. Gradually blend in the cream, stir and reheat briefly. Serve sprinkled with fresh chopped coriander. And the jarred lime pickle on the side.