If it wasn’t for the move from Delhi to Bombay in 2006, this recipe would never have become part of my repertoire. In fact, and some may argue this, just the sheer lack of width of dining choices in Bombay (at least the parts we lived and roamed in), meant that one had to improvise in one’s own kitchen.
For the record, in Bombay, the only butter chicken that’s passed our taste-test was at the Copper Chimney. And amongst the best butter chicken you will ever have is at the Taj Holiday Village coffee shop (in goa). Discovered that a few weeks ago, and rue the fact that I did not go talk to the chef to find out more.
There are as many BC recipes as there are Indian cookbooks. The book I used many years ago is no longer in print (The Complete Indian Cookbook – Vimla Patil). Broadly though, some books prep this as a single dish and others as a two-stage dish… needing one to roast the chicken (good old tandoori chicken), and then amalgamate this with the curry.
This is a slightly complicated dish – at least compared to other food that I work on in my kitchen. It has a couple of stages, need marination time, and needs a blender and oven.
If you get tandoori chicken around you that you really like, that’s one way to sidestep one part. Just ignore the ‘roasting’ bit and go straight to the curry and onwards.
Get together the ingredients and let’s get started.
One chicken, cut into curry size pieces. Make some deep cuts in the chicken with a sharp knife
1 tbsp oil for the marinade
Curd – half a cup for marinade, half a cup for the curry
Garlic – 6 pods for the marinade (minced), 4 pods chopped fine for the curry
Ginger – 1″ piece for the marinade(minced), 1″ chopped for the curry
Salt – 1/2 a tsp for each but pls adjust as per your taste
Zeera (Cumin) powder – 1tsp for the marinade
Chilly powder – 1 tsp each for the marinade and curry
Turmeric – less than 1/s a tsp, only in the marinade
Dhania (Coriander)powder – 1 tsp each for the marinade and 1.5 for the curry
Garam masala – 1tsp
3 tbsp oil (I use olive)
3 onions – diced small
3 tomatoes – blanched, peeled and roughly diced
Tomato puree – 2 tbsp
Sugar – 1tsp
Vinegar – 1tsp
Kasuri Methi (Febugreek) – a fistful
2 Green Chillies, whole; slit through the middle.
Oh, oops. Here’s the wonderful thing, I actually don’t use butter. But if you want this richer, then about 50gms of butter can be added to the oil in the curry and about 3tbsp of cream (easy now, Amul has 200gm tetra packs)
STEP 1 :: Marinade and Roast the chicken!
So, get your oil and cup of curd, beat it lightly and blend in all the spices as well as the minced garlic and ginger. Rub this marinade all over your chicken, cover the dish and leave inside your refrigerator for 2 to 3 hours. (Get your chicken out from the fridge at least 30 minutes before you’re going to roast it).
Heat your oven to the max (mine goes to 240ºC), pile your marinaded chicken onto the slotted tray and get this into your oven. Remember, the marinade will drip down to the oven floor…. so if you want to avoid a mess later, do put a large piece of foil on the oven floor.
This needs 12-15 minutes. Do keep an eye on the chicken, since each oven has variable cook times to my mind. But your olfactories and a visual check will surely tell you when it’s done. I tend to do this about 15 mins, which cooks the chicken fully, but I still turn the chicken around and put back in the oven for 3 minutes to brown the undersides.
That’s it. The Tandoori Chicken is ready!
(yes, that’s a copy of Bombay Times to make mopping up easier!)
STEP 2 :: Getting the curry right!
Get hold of the thickest karai (or wok), and heat the 3tbsp oil. If you’re using butter, add at this stage. Once the oil is hot, add the onions, chopped garlic and ginger. After about a couple of minutes add all your dry masalas (chilly powder, dhania powder, garam masala, salt). Once the onions have softened, add the blanched/diced tomatoes as well as the tomato puree.
Let this onion/tomato mix cook on a medium flame and stir once in a while to keep things centered in your kadai.
You will find the oil will separate in about 10 minutes. At this stage move your onion tomato mix to a food blender (get this into a big jar). Add the rest of the curd and for good measure if you’ve saved up the leftover marinade add that to the jar as well. Pulse your blender a few times and you will get an orange color, thick and consistent paste in your blender jar.
Move all this back to your kadai now and let the blended curry cook on a medium heat for another 10 minutes. This takes care of the rawness of the curd and marinade. Add the slit green chillies, sugar, vinegar and cream (if you’re using) as well. Depending on how I want to adjust the taste, sometime I add a couple of spoons of ketchup too.
Here’s what your dish should be looking like at this time.
To this, depending on the consistency you want, please add water (in small quantities each time so you don’t cause the dish to flood).
Once you’re happy with the taste of this curry, simply take all your tandoori chicken and put into the kadai and gently envelope the chicken with the curry. Remember – the chicken is already cooked – so you’re only finishing off now. You can let this blended chicken cook for another 4-5 minutes.
Here’s your butter chicken at this stage –
Now, the final flourish – and again actually this is optional. We love kasuri methi in our chicken – so here it is after you throw in the handful! Gorgeous, no?
Blend the fenugreek in gently and let this cook for another 5 minutes after.
That’s it, you’re done!
Add some sliced chilly and/or ginger strips to garnish if you like. A dollop of butter, or some cream atop this dish always adds a bit of glam!
Big Tip! Eat the next day!! My experience, and that of many around me, is that many many meat dishes improve dramatically if eaten the next day!
Cooks & Runs 