India's Invention... Butter Chicken

If you ask me, Butter Chicken is one of the greatest inventions ever made by Indian chefs :-). You will not find any non-vegetarian who does not love a perfectly cooked butter chicken. Why shouldn't they, it is really one of the delicious main courses of all time. Its rich tomato gravy is famous all across the globe. 

I always feel proud to tell anyone that Butter chicken was invented in India. The dish was invented by accident at Moti Mahal Restaurant in Daryaganj in Delhi, but it does not matter whether it was a mistake or not :-). Even the great Chef Gordon Ramsay visited Moti Mahal to taste the authentic Butter Chicken. 

There are various versions of Butter Chicken out there with different styles, techniques and ingredients. Some of the them are so technical that you may need special equipment for the preparations i.e. a Tandoor. I would like to show my version today, which can be cooked easily at home. I would just use a deep pan, a hand blender and my newly ordered chef's knife to cook it :).

Usually the authentic butter chicken is cooked in tomato sauce, however I prefer to add a bit of onion as well. Onion gives quantity to a dish. You can omit them if you want.

Usually the butter chicken is cooked in butter. However if you are one of those health cautious people like me, then I advise to use olive oil to saute the onion and tomatoes. At a later stage add some butter to elevate its taste.

The ingredients and method may sound little over whelming, however trust me it is not that complex. Please feel free to experiment with the spice level as per your taste.

Let's get to it.

Ingredients 

• 600 gms boneless chicken. 
• 300 gms curd. 
• 1 tsp red chili powder. 
• 1 mace. Optional.
• 4 green chilies.
• 5 cardamoms. 
• Salt to taste. 
• 2 tsp Chicken masala
• 2 tsp coriander powder. 
• 2 tsp cumin powder. 
• 4 to 5 tsp butter.  
• 2 cloves. 
• 1 tsp sugar. 
• Cream. 
• 1 tsp Fenugreek leaves. Hand crushed.
• 5 big tomatoes. 
• 2 onions. 
• Tomato ketchup. 
• Lemon juice. 
• Cilantro leaves to garnish. 

I used a new ingredient today i.e. Mace. I learned about this ingredient from chef Sanjeev Kapoor and Chef Harpal singh.

This picture is taken from http://www.justingredients.co.uk/

Method 

Chicken Marination 

• Cut chicken into manageable pieces in a bowl. 
• Add curd. 
• Add a spoon n half of ginger paste. 
• Add 1 tsp garlic paste. 
• Add 2 tsp chicken masala. 
• Add salt to taste. 
• Add lemon juice. 
• Add a tsp of red chili powder. 
• Refrigerate it for at least 2 hours. More is better. I prefer at lease 4 hours.

The Gravy

• In a hot pan. Add generous quantity of olive oil.
• Add finely chopped onions. Saute them till they turn golden brown. Keep the heat on max. 
• Add a little bit salt. Salt helps to bring out onion's moisture. 
• Add chopped chilies. 
• Add ginger n garlic paste. 
• Add diced tomatoes. 
• Add cumin powder and coriander powder. 
• Add red chili powder.
• Add salt to taste. Mix them well. 
• Cook them well till oil separates from tempering. 
• Take the tempering out and blend the tempering in a mixer or hand blend it. 
• Heat the pan up and add butter. If you wish you can do entire dish in butter with a touch of olive oil, so that butter does not burn.
• On top of melting butter add back the tempering. Mix them well. 
• Add the marinated chicken. Mix well. 
• Simmer the heat. Put the lid on. And let the chicken cook. 
• Cook it for another 15 to 20 mins or until chicken becomes tender. 
• Add fenugreek leaves, 1 tsp tomato ketchup and cream when gravy is almost ready. Mix them well. 
• And that's it. 

Let's plate up

Serve hot with Indian bread, naan or basmati rice. I am not an expert, but I do hope you will like it.

So, what's up on the dinner menu

Hello folks... The weather here in Vienna is kinda making me lazy and stuck up in bed. So last night I planned to call over some friends for dinner at my place to get rid of "weekend boredom". The chef for the dinner was my wife who recently joined me from India. The menu that we served up was curd chicken and an italian American pasta salad for appetizers. For the main course we had delicious Indian food chole masala and aloo gobhi, the recipes for which shall be uploaded soon.

It just struck my mind to take a look at my previous recipes and see if they could fit anywhere in a dinner menu...?

I was delighted to finally categorize Curd Chicken and Italian American Pasta Salad as appetizers. And Chicken Haleem, Tempering Rice and Palak Paneer for the main course. I'm still working on a doable dessert. 

So if you find yourself in a state of confusion about setting up a dinner menu, this idea may be of little help there. 

Spinach Chicken

After four months my wife and my little kid are back in Vienna to stay with me. We are once again a happy little family together. We had a great family union over the weekend. Although it did not go entirely as I planned as I kept sleeping and did not go to pick them up from airport! Ouchhh... I know... :-)

So to cover up I decided to make an awesome dish together as a family. We are a family of three and its my third month of blogging. So our next dish will be a combination of three differently style cooked items. 

This dish is popularly called Palak Chicken or Spinach Chicken. Let me remind you that even I will cook this dish for the first time. 

I already stressed enough in one of earlier spinach (Palak Panner) recipes that how healthy spinach really is!

To put it simply this dish is a combination of boiled spinach, deliciously cooked chicken and a mouth watering tomatoes and onions tempering. 

So let's get to it...

Here's what you will need:

Ingredients 

• 350 gms Spinach 
• 400 gms Boneless chicken 
• 3 spoon ginger garlic paste
• 2 green chilies 
• 2 tomatoes chopped 
• 2 onions chopped
• Salt to taste 
• 2 tsp coriander powder
• 2 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp Black pepper
• 1 tsp Chicken masala
• 1 tsp Lemon juice 
• 1.5 rsp Red chili powder 
• Butter
• 1 tsp Garam masala
• 1 tsp Fenugreek leaves
• Fresh cream

Method

• Let's first marinate the chicken and keep it aside. 
• Take chicken pieces in a bowl. 
• Add 1 tsp ginger garlic paste. 
• Add 2 tsp olive oil. 
• Add salt to taste. 
• Add lemon juice. 
• Add 1 tsp Chicken masala
• Add 1 tsp red chili powder. 
• Mix it well. And keep it aside while you cook rest of the dish. 

Let's make the tempering

• Take a pan. Add olive oil 4 to 5 tsp olive oil. 
• Add chopped onions. Saute it till they change their color. Add salt. 
• Add 2 tsp ginger garlic paste. 
• Add 2 green chilies finely chopped. 
• When onion are golden brown add dry spices. 
• Add coriander powder.
• Add cumin powder. 
• Add tomatoes. 
• Mix them well. Keep saute them till oil separates out from masala. 

Let's saute the chicken 

• Take a pan. Add olive oil. 
• Lay the marinated chicken pieces on the pan. Lay each piece away from you in clockwise direction. So that you know how to turn them up for an even cook. 
• Add some butter. 
• Keep flipping the chicken pieces every 5 to 7 minutes for an even cook. 
• Once chicken is cooked add it to tempering with all the olive oil and butter mix. 
• Please make sure that the chicken cooked well. Mine was left a little undone. 

Spinach

• Bring the water to a boil in a deep pan or pressure cooker.
• Add spinach to the water and let it boil, without the lid.
• After 5 to 7 minutes take out the spinach and make a puree out if it. 
• I used a hand blender which my wife brought from India. 
• Add the spinach puree to the chicken mix. 
• Let it all cook up with the mix. 
• Add garam masala and fenugreek leaves in the end. 
• Give them a nice mix. And let them cook for another 10 minutes. Add fresh cream. 
• And that's it. 

Let's plate up

Serve it hot with Indian bread, naan or rice. It came out really delicious. Hey I'm no expert but I hope you will like the dish.