🍗 Butter Chicken

4 servings · prep 25 min + 4 h de marinade · cook 45 min

Ingredients

• 800 g boneless chicken thighs
• 200 g Greek yogurt
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp garlic-ginger paste
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 3 tsp garam masala
• 2 tsp Kashmiri chilli (for colour, not heat)
• 80 g butter
• 1 large onion
• 800 g chopped tomatoes
• 60 g cashews
• 200 ml cream
• 1 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)
• 1 tsp sugar
• Salt
• Basmati rice or naan

Method

1. Mix the yogurt, lemon, half the garlic-ginger paste, turmeric, 1 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp chilli and salt. Marinate the chicken in it for at least 4 h, overnight if you can.
2. Sear the chicken over VERY high heat, in batches, or put it under the grill: you want charred spots. That char is what gives the dish its flavour — no sauce, however good, replaces it. Set aside.
3. Melt 50 g butter, soften the sliced onion in it for 10 min, add the rest of the garlic-ginger paste and the spices, cook 1 min.
4. Pour in the tomatoes and cashews, salt, and simmer 20 min covered.
5. Blend that sauce thoroughly, then PUSH IT THROUGH A SIEVE: this step, and only this step, gives the silky restaurant texture.
6. Return to low heat and crumble the fenugreek between your palms over the pan — that is the smell you recognise without being able to name it. Add the sugar.
7. Off the heat, stir in the cream and the remaining 30 g of butter, both cold: the sauce binds without turning greasy.
8. Return the chicken and its juices, warm through 5 min without boiling. Serve with basmati rice or naan.

Adapted from Murgh makhani, Delhi

Open this recipe in Fogar — shopping list, pantry, weekly menu