Butter Chicken – An International Dish

Butter chicken or Murgh Makhani is an Indian dish, popular all over the world. Originated in 1950s, Butter Chicken was invented by a person working in the kitchen of a famous restaurant called Moti Mahal located in Daryaganj, the central region of Delhi. Famed for its Tandoori Chicken, the cook used to recycle the leftover chicken juices in the marinade trays by adding butter and tomato. This sauce was then tossed around with the tandoor-cooked chicken pieces – Butter Chicken was ready!

Since then, this recipe has been tweaked by people as per their taste and preference. In the northern region of India, Butter Chicken is served with bone. Whereas, at some cities, such as Mumbai, it is served boneless. The best thing about this gravy is that it pairs fabulously well with naan, roti, bread, or even pulao.

We have tried Butter Chicken at different restaurants and in various cities, and everywhere the taste was different. So, to come up with our recipe, we modified it “as per our taste”. Feel free to try it out and tweak it as per your liking. Do share your thoughts on it.

Traditionally, the chicken is marinated and kept overnight before cooking it in a tandoor. However, in our recipe, we are being cost effective (blame it to the space crunch in Mumbai or high prices of the equipment), so we are making our Butter Chicken without a tandoor, or even, without a tandoori chicken. J

CAUTION

I am quite new to listing down the ingredients and writing a recipe. Please bear with the flow, structure, and even the image. I may improve as and when I write more recipes.  

Ingredients

Boneless Chicken – 250 grams

Butter – 50 grams

Dahi (Yoghurt) – 2 big tablespoon

Red Chilli Powder – ½ tablespoon

Coriander Power (Dhania Powder) – ½ tablespoon

Red Chilli Sauce – 1 teaspoon

Tomoto Sauce – 1 teaspoon

Salt – as per taste

Cashew – 50 grams

Kasuri Methi

Cumin Seeds Powder – 1 teaspoon

Ginger and Garlic Paste – 1 tablespoon

Green Chutney (Coriander, Pudina, Green Chilli Paste) – 1 tablespoon

Tomoto – 2 pieces

Onion – 2 pieces  

Method

Butter Chicken Is Ready

Phase 1 – Cooking the chicken:

1. In a vessel, take chicken, ginger garlic paste, green chutney paste and salt.
2. Pour a cup of water into the vessel and let it cook.
3. When the water is evaporated and the chicken is tender, turn off the gas and let it cool.
4. Cut or shred the chicken in proper size, as per your requirement.

Phase 2 – Marination

1. Mix dahi, tomoto sauce, red chilli sauce, red chilli powder, coriander (dhania) powder, cumin seeds (jeera) powder, and salt in the cut/shredded chicken.
2. Refrigerate the marination for about 2 hours.

Phase 3 –The Gravy

1. Boil tomatoes, onions and cashew in a vessel, and then keep it aside to cool.
2. Grind them together to make a paste.
3. In a vessel, put butter, (tomatoes, onion and cashew) paste, and the marination.
4. Let everything cook for some time.
5. Roast the Kasuri Methi and crush it into the vessel.
6. Mix it well for and let it cook for at least 15-20 minutes.
7. If you want to give a smoky feel to it, take a coal and heat it until it is red. Then take a small vessel, place it inside the butter chicken vessel, keep the coal in the small vessel, pour some butter on the coal, and close the lid. Remove it after some time, and it is ready to eat.
8. Serve hot with either a tandoori roti, naan, or jeera rice.

Do try it at home, and let us know if there are any good modifications that we can do to make it better.