Chicken Makhani or Butter Chicken — is my lazy Sunday kinda meal.
Butter chicken is actually an Indian dish as opposed to tikka masala which is actually British contrary to popular belief. Butter chicken was “accidentally” invented by a chef in India in 1947 who ended up cooking tandoori chicken in some butter and tomato sauce. While originally butter chicken is seared like kababs and then cooked in tomato sauce and cream mine jumps straight to cooking in tomato sauce with a side basmati rice.
This is my one of my go-to comfort dishes.
Ingredients
- 4 chicken thighs (I recommend thighs because I’m not adding yogurt to my mine.)
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 yellow onion
- 1 tablespoon ghee
- 1 tablespoon garlic paste
- 1/2 tablespoon ginger paste
- 1 can tomato sauce or 2 cups
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 handful full cilantro
Directions
- Cut chicken into bite size pieces.
- In a dutch oven or a heavy bottomed pot add ghee and sauté your diced onions. When the onions become translucent add in ginger and garlic paste — after two minutes add in all your spices and bloom them. When the oil/ghee comes to the top add in the chicken and stir to make sure all the chicken pieces are coated in the masala mixture.
- Cook until the chicken pieces are slight brown and add in the tomato paste and cook for 20 minutes.
- After 20 minutes give the chicken a good stir and add in cream and garnish with cilantro and serve with basmati rice.
