If you were not one of the lucky ones who gets to enjoy this dish due to the sell out of curry night 3rd Dec. Then here you go, give it a try yourself. This is the exact recipe and method used to cook this authentic dish here at James Joyce's Pub & Restaurant

Authentic Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)

Serving for 3 - 4 People

Ingredients

100g grams Quality butter

600g grams Raw Chicken Breast cut into bite sized cubes

250g grams Fresh chopped tomato

For Chicken Marinade

1 tsp Fresh ground cumin

half tsp Turmeric

half tsp Garam Masala (Will publish shortly)

half juice Fresh Lime

half cup Natural Yoghurt

half tsp Salt

1 tsp Good red chilli

1 tsp Ginger garlic paste (50/50 ginger/garlic, use your spice grinder for no lumps)

Main Ingredients

15 g cashew-nuts (See Notes on this dish)

1 sprigs Fresh coriander leaves to garnish

1 tbsp Freshly ground coriander powder

1 tbsp Crushed dried fenugreek leaves Kasuri Methi (See Notes on this dish)

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

100 ml Fresh quality cooking cream (See Notes on this dish)

1 tsp Ginger Garlic paste

2 tbsp Olive Oil or Ghee (See Notes on this dish)

1 Small Onion Roughly Chopped

1 Small Shallot Roughly Chopped (See notes)

1 tsp Good red chilli powder

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Sugar

1 tsp Tomato paste

1 tsp Fresh garam masala

Butter chicken originates from Punjab state, in the north west Punjab region of India. This is with out doubt one of the most curries in Indian restaurants around the world. You can spice it how you like and the flavours still work really well.

We suggest you read the ingredient list carefully and the entire instructions before cooking.

First cut your chicken breast in to nice bite sizes and mix all the marinade ingredients well with the chicken, get your clean hands in there and make sure all the chicken pieces are covered in the marinade.

Place your chicken in a bowl and leave covered and refrigerated over night. If you don't have time to leave it marinade, then just mix the chicken in a bowl with 1 heaped tsp of ginger garlic paste, 1 heaped tsp of coriander powder and 1 level teaspoon of a good red chili powder (helps the colour of your dish) Add a pinch of salt also.

You can check later during the cooking to see if your dish needs more salt.

Once you chicken is marinaded then add 2 table spoons of olive oil to a heavy base, deep frying pan. (We prefer NOT use a non stick pan for this, more on that later) Make sure your oil is hot but not smoking!

Now saute your chicken in the frying pan, you don't want to fully cook it now, you just want to brown it good with the spices on the outside. Don't worry if your pan is getting a bit brown and sticky from the spices and tiny chicken pieces. Tip: If necessary and if your pan is not big and hot enough then make sure you cook your chicken in small batches. Cooking this way will ensure your chicken is lovely and tender in the finished dish.

When sauteed and the chicken is nice and brown on the outside from the spices, remove the chicken pieces with a spoon excluding the oil and place it in a clean bowl.

Do not clean or throw away the oil which was used from frying the chicken.

Now add your small chopped shallot and small chopped onion along with your cumin seeds, and another tsp of ginger garlic paste to the frying pan used for cooking the chicken previously.

Fry onions, shallots and cumin seeds for three to five minutes till they are soft and golden. Stir good so as to not burn the spice that were left from sauteing the chicken earlier. Add some water to help get the brown spices at the bottom of the pan mixed in with the liquid.

For the water use enough to cover the onions or enough to bring you 1cm high from the base. Continue cooking and stirring for another 3 - 4 minutes. Now add your coriander powder, (and more chilli if you like it hot),
along with cashew-nut paste, crushed dried fenugreek leaves and all the chopped tomatoes. Stir the mixture, then cover your saucepan and let it cook slowly until the tomatoes and onions are completely cooked through. Not completely cooking this mixture will ruin the texture of your sauce which should be smooth and creamy.

Let the mixture in the pan cool before placing it all in a blender, (dangerous otherwise) blend it really well until its smooth with no lumps. Blend it again just to be sure! Now clean up you deep base frying pan and heat it on the cooker till its hot, add one table spoon of oil, and add your butter till it melts and make sure the oil and butter are good and hot but again not smoking. (The oil helps not to burn the butter)

Now take your bowl of chicken and drain in the juices and oil that has drained to the bottom while cooling. Do Not put the chicken in just yet. The chicken juices when added to the pan with butter and oil should sizzle a little from the water content when they hit the pan so you know your butter and oil is hot enough.

If so then add your blended mixture to the pan, bring it to a quick boil and reduce to a simmer. If the sauce has become too thick (it should be slightly thin and creamy) then add water and let it cook some more, taste it,
add salt if necessary, add your tsp of sugar, tsp of tomato paste, continue cooking for another 10 mins on a medium heat so that its gently bubbling, then add your cream. Stir!.

Finally add your chicken and continue until its fully cooked, this should not take long as it was already sauteed. Don't forget now, just five minutes before your serving to add that last important ingredient, the tsp of garam masala.

Serve with your favourite rice and naan bread and garnish with your freshly chopped coriander.

Delicious!

Any questions just shout!

Admin

1. One of the essential ingredients to this dish is unfortunately dried
   fenugreek leaves. These are very hard to get and not sure if they
   are available in Romania. You just might come across fenugreek
   seeds, these are very hard and would need to be ground in a spice
   grinder first, but are a great substitute. If you don't have
   fenugreek in some form then don't avoid the full marinade process.
   Your Butter Chicken simply wont be the authentically same.

   
   

2. This dish uses cashew-nuts and we suggest you should soak the nuts in
   water for a couple of hours and then grind to make a paste to ensure
   they blend well with the dish.

3. Cooking Cream is now available in Metro.

4. Shallots give that nice garlicy onion taste and you can from time to time
   find them in metro. If not don't worry just add a little more onion.