🍛 Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)

Original recipe

Ingredients

First marinade

  • 800g chicken, cut into bite-sized pieces. Use whatever you want; bone-in, boneless, thighs, breasts. I used boneless chicken thighs.
  • 2 tsp red chili powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice

Second marinade

  • 120g Greek (or other thick) yogurt
  • 5 cloves garlic, turned into a paste
  • 1 inch ginger, turned into a paste
  • 1 tbsp oil
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp garam masala

Sauce

  • 4 tbsp butter
  • 4 green cardamom pods, smashed
  • 1 black cardamom pod, smashed
  • 1 stick of cinnamon
  • 2 cloves
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 2 inches ginger, turned into a paste
  • 6 garlic cloves, turned into a paste
  • 1 kg tomatoes or 2 400g tins of tomatoes, blended into a smooth paste (if using fresh tomatoes pass the puree through a sieve to catch any skins).
  • 2 green chillies, cut lengthwise
  • 1 tbsp red chili powder
  • 1 tsp garam masala
  • 1 tbsp crushed fenugreek leaves
  • 75-100 ml single cream
  • Salt to taste
  • Sugar to taste, optional

Directions

  1. Mix chicken with the chili powder, lemon juice and salt and set aside for 20 min.
  2. Mix all the ingredients for the second marinade. Add the chicken and pop in the fridge overnight.
  3. The next day cook the chicken. The outside is supposed to be nicely browned and charred in places. It’s ok if the inside is still raw. You can cook it on a griddle pan, on a barbecue, or under the broiler (or if you happen to have a tandoor use that).
  4. Heat 2 tbsp of butter in a pan. Add black and green cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaf and cook until fragrant.
  5. Add ginger and garlic pastes and fry for a couple of min. until the raw smell disappears.
  6. Add tomato puree, green chillies and red chili powder and cook until most of the water from the tomatoes has evaporated and the oils start to separate.
  7. Add around a cup of water (add more or less depending on how thick you want the sauce to be), and the chicken and simmer for about 10 min.
  8. Add the garam masala, fenugreek leaves, remaining 2 tbsp of butter and cream. Add salt and optionally sugar to taste. Simmer for another min.