Fuss Free Butter Chicken

Uhmmm… butter and chicken…

They are my most used ingredients in my cooking.

When they are paired together, magic happens. Think butter basted roast chicken or butter chicken – a popular Indian restaurant dish in Australia.  I’ve resisted the temptation of making butter chicken at home (for my beloved and I would go through it like no tomorrow) and I was under the impression that butter chicken is not an easy dish to make at home. Furthermore, when it comes to making Indian dishes at home, I wanted to mimic the real home cooked Indian dishes.

Finally, I made an exception when I found a Butter Chicken recipe at the back of Sun Rice Basmati packet.  I love going through recipes on  the food packaging. Do you do the same too?

What I love about this recipe is there is a mixture of yoghurt and cream.  I reckon you can even tweak the ratio between yoghurt and cream to suit your fancy, but I just go with 1 to 1 this time. Another thing is you can get away with a limited variety of spices required in the recipe. This is a major plus if you don’t stock up a million different spices in the kitchen!

Fuss Free Butter Chicken

(As per recipe at the back of Sun Rice Basmati packet, but I tweaked the method)

What you’ll need for 4 servings (with rice):-

• 2 tbsps canola oil
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/4 tsp chilli powder
• 1 kg chicken thigh fillets, cut into 3 cm pieces
• 1/2 cup Greek style yoghurt
• 1 cup tomato passata
• 1/2 cup thickened cream (or normal pure cream will work just fine)
• 3 tsps cornflour
• Salt to taste
• 1 tbsp butter
• A small handful of toasted almond flakes as garnish. You can also garnish with chopped coriander if you have some on hand.

Method:-

Heat 2 tbsps of oil in a large pan (or saucepan) and saute the onion until slightly brown over medium flame. Reduce heat to low, add garlic, ground cumin and chilli and saute until aromatic (add a little water if the mixture is a little dry). Add chicken and toss to mix with the pan mixture. Pan fry the chicken until 70% cooked. Stir in yoghurt and passata and mix to combine. Simmer with a lid on, over low heat until the chicken is cooked through. In the meantime, mix cream and cornflour in a bowl and try to dissolve the lumps as you stir. Pour the cream mixture into the pan and allow to mixture to bubble for an additional 10 minutes until it thickens. Lastly stir in the butter until it fully melted in the curry. Just before serving, scatter some roasted almond flakes and chopped fresh coriander. Enjoy!

For 4 servings, cook 2 cups of basmati rice according to the packet instructions.