What's for dinner? # 2

barney · May 4th, 2009, 12:25 PM

plain old pork chops and veg tonight .

**Olive** · May 4th, 2009, 12:46 PM

MG i do a good butter chicken too it you want the recipe!!

where having butter chicken too but a packet sauce

which will probably taste foul but i dont have all the ingrediants for the real stuff!

**Rouge** · May 4th, 2009, 12:56 PM

Butter Chicken:

1 kg boneless chicken skin removed
Juice of 1 lime (or 2 tbsp of lime juice)
Salt to taste
1 tsp red chilli powder (adjust to suit your taste)
1 cup fresh yoghurt (must not be sour)
2 tsps garam masala
2 tsps coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
8-10 peppercorns
6 cloves
1" stick of cinnamon
Seeds from 3-4 pods of cardamom
2 bay leaves
8-10 almonds
2 onions chopped
2 tsps garlic paste
1 tsp ginger paste
1/2 litre chicken stock
3 tbsps vegetable/canola/snflower cooking oil
3 tbsps butter
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves to garnish
1 tin tomato puree (to add to yoghurt marinade)
2 Tbs Brown sugar (to add to dish when simmering)

Preparation:

Mix the chicken, lime juice, salt and red chilli powder in a bowl and allow to marinate for 1 hour.
Roast the cloves, peppercorns, cinnamon, cardamom, bay leaves and almonds till they darken slightly and then grind into a coarse powder.
Mix the yoghurt, whole spice powder and all the other spices together and add them to the chicken. Allow to marinate for another hour.
Heat the oil in a pan and add the onions. Fry till golden brown and then add the ginger and garlic pastes. Fry for a minute.
Add only the chicken from the chicken-spice mix and fry till sealed (chicken will turn opaque).
Now add the chicken stock and remaining part of the mix to the chicken.
Cook till the chicken is done and the gravy is reduced to half its original volume.
Melt the butter and pour it over the chicken.
Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with naans and Kaali Daal.
For an authentic and traditional cooked-over-the-coals flavour: Heat a briquette of coal till red hot and when the dish is done, put the coal in the pan and cover immediately. Remove just before serving.

My notes I add 1 tin of thick pureed tomatoes to the yoghurt marinade, and when cooking the sauce add 2 tbs of brown sugar. It is SOOOO important to toast the whole spice and grind it yourself, it tastes soooo much better. And make sure you only roast and grind the cardammon seeds not the pods as I've done this before by accident and its a bit too strong IMO. AND another trick is to BBQ the chicken and at the end add a hot coal brickette (one without petrol on it) to give the smokey flavour that a tandoor normally gives to the dish.