Butter Chicken By Varun Khanna

Butter Chicken

Photo Credit: Michelle Mahabat (Insta: @theculinarystories)

Butter Chicken

Ingredients

Tandoori chicken 1st marination
1 kg chicken
1 tbsp garlic ginger green chilli paste (6:3:1)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp lime juice

Tandoori chicken 2nd marination
1/2 cup hung curd
2 tbsp Kashmiri mirch powder
1/2 tsp crushed shahi jeera
1/4 tsp Cardamom powder
1/2 tsp black pepper powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
Pich of cinammon powder
1/2 tsp lime juice
Salt to taste
Butter for basting

Tomato Gravy
4 medium onions sliced
6 tomatoes quartered
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
2 Bay leaves
1 cinammon stick
10 kaju
1 tbsp home made garam masala
2 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp red chilli powder
1 cheese cube
2-3 tbsp butter

Final preparation
Prepared tomato Gravy
Shredded tandoori chicken
1 cube cheese
2 tsp honey
1 cup Milk or 2 tbsp cream
2 pc Coal
1 tbsp ghee
4 cloves
2 Cardamoms
1 tbsp Kasoori methi
1 tbsp cream
1 drop kewda water (optional)
Additional butter as much as you want

Method

Tandoori chicken

1. Dry the chicken pieces and score them with a sharp knife
2. Rub the chicken pieces with 1st marination ingredients well, and set it aside for at least an hour
3. Mix the spices of 2nd marination in hung curd well, and coat the chicken pieces with it and again set it aside preferably for 2 or at least for 1 hour
4. Now we have to grill the chicken pieces. This can be done in different ways, either on a grill pan, or in the oven / grill, or if you have a coal BBQ going nothing like it. In the oven cook it at 170 degrees for 30 odd minutes. Use melted butter to bast chicken pieces frequently. We need to stop cooking just before the outer layer of chicken gets crispy, that texture would not feel good in the gravy.
5. Once ready let it cool down a little, debone tandoori chicken pieces and roughly shred them with hands or using a fork. If there are any juices / liquid residue after grilling keep it aside and don’t discard it
Gravy
6. Take 2 tbsp butter with little ghee in a pan, add bay leaves. In a min add sliced onion to it. Cook till onions are translucent.
7. Add the cashews and cinnamon, toss them for few minutes
8. Add ginger garlic paste and quartered tomatoes to the onions.
9. After 5 mins add half cheese cube and bit of butter to it.
10. After cooking it for 5 mins and seeing to it that cheese cube is mixed well, add the garam masala, coriander powder, red chilli powder and salt, mix and cook the masalas
11. Mix remaining half of cheese cube and cook till tomatoes become soft, usually it takes around 15 minutes overall
12. Take it off the flame and cool it down, remove cinnamon stick and bay leaves
13. Then pour it in a blender with little water and run it few rounds such that no chunks remain
14. Strain the blended gravy, this is optional and depends on if you want a smooth gravy or not

Final preparation

15. Heat butter and ghee in a pan, once it melts pour the tomato gravy and heat it up
16. Add milk or cream and honey to it and the cheese cube, mix well till the cheese cube is mixed completely, add melted butter if you feel it isn’t buttery enough. You can adjust milk quantity as per the desired thickness of final gravy
17. If there are any residue juices from grilled chicken add them in and then add the shredded chicken, lower the flame and let it simmer for about 10 minutes
18. Add kasuri methi n kewda and cook for 2 mins
19. Burn coal piece on direct flame, put a metal bowl having clove and Cardamom, in middle of the gravy and place the coal in it, add ghee to it while the coal is hot and cover the lid of pan and leave it for 3 to 5 minutes, till the smoky flavor is induced in gravy
20. To serve drizzle cream on the dish and you can add fresh coriander, serve with butter naan