Butter Chicken

A friend of mine once said to me that every dish has a story, and butter chicken certainly has a story in my life. One of my best friends is Indian (actually I have a few Indian friends – I’m including Sri Lankan in that category!!!), and we’ve been friends since the first year of highschool. I think it’s generally agreed that everyone believes that their mother’s cooking is the best, and that’s certainly the case with my mother. However, the first time I ate my friend’s mum’s butter chicken, I fell in love with it straight away. It was definitely one of the most delicious meals I had ever eaten in my life, so wonderfully fragrant and authentic. It became a standing arrangement that whenever I went to my friend’s house, his mother would cook butter chicken – I just NEEDED it! So, while I’m obviously biased towards my mother’s cooking and the dishes I grew up with, my friend’s mum came to have a special place in my heart through her beautiful Indian food.

At lunch time at highschool, I would often see my friend’s lunch and want to smack him down with pangs of jealousy. Most of the time he would have delicious-looking Indian food that I presumed were leftovers from dinner the previous evening. Although I must admit that by the last two years of highschool, he seemed to have an inordinate amount of leftover pizza. I suppose I was still envious then, though. Whenever I was at my friend’s house in highschool, I was always waiting for his mum’s food. One of my favourite memories involves when I stayed at my friend’s place overnight as we both undertook the 40 Hour Famine. We were absolutely pathetic! After only a few hours or so, we were already thinking of ways around the ban on eating, and even came up with some alternatives. The two favourite alternatives, to the best of my recollection, were not talking for 40 hours, or not writing for 40 hours. We were particularly excited about the latter, as what would we bloody write on the weekend? Not to mention the fact that it wouldn’t have stopped us from typing something on the computer, not that we were going to do that either. We vacillated and our stomachs grumbled, but we decided to stick it out and we made it through the 40 hours. I remember looking at my watch and waiting for his mum’s food. In a way, I was glad that it wasn’t butter chicken, because I think the sudden switch from no food to the addictive butter chicken would have put me into shock and maybe have even shut down my nervous system. His mum made us a beautiful Chicken Spaghetti Bolognese, and I thought that I would wolf it down within five minutes. As it turned out, I didn’t actually eat that much of it because my stomach had obviously shrunk even within that small period of time. It was still one of the most satisfying meals I have ever eaten, though.

So butter chicken was one of the first recipes that I cooked in this cooking journey. In a way, it’s similar to my Thai red curry with chicken. Red curry is my favourite dish of all time, and trying to cook it to the standard that I was used to in Thailand was virtually impossible. I knew that I would never be able to achieve the same degree of perfection as my friend’s mum, but I now have a lifelong love affair with butter chicken because of her and I was determined to cook it for myself from scratch. I love now making all my pastes and spice mixtures from scratch rather than purchasing pre-packaged jars. I’m sure that there will be times in my life again when I will used jarred sauces, obviously when I’m busy and stressed, but I have enough flexibility in my life at the moment to put a lot of effort into my cooking. This recipe for butter chicken attracted me just by the picture – I had looked for quite a few recipes, and this seemed to look like a very rich and traditional recipe. It was very delicious, and, although Lamb Rogan Josh is also one of my favourite dishes, butter chicken will always be my favourite Indian recipes. I wonder if my friend’s mum will give me her recipe? I suspect he won’t let her. I’m just fortunate to have experienced it, and hope to experience it again soon!

Recipe (serves 2-3):

500g chicken, cubed

1½ tsp garam masala

1 pinch cayenne pepper

1½ tbs cornflour

1/3 cup water

Peanut oil

Sauce

Peanut oil

1 shallot, chopped

½ onion, chopped

3 tbs butter

3 tsp lemon juice

4 garlic cloves

½ tbs ginger

1½ tsp garam masala

1½ tsp chilli powder

1½ tsp ground cumin

1 bay leaf

1/3 cup plain yoghurt

1 1/3 cups cream

1 1/3 cups tomato paste

1 pinch salt

1 pinch pepper 

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Sauté the shallot, garlic and onion until soft and translucent.

Add the butter, lemon juice, ginger, garam masala, chilli powder, cumin and bay leaf. Stir for 1 minute.

Add the tomato paste and cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in the cream and yoghurt. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Season with salt & pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.

Heat oil in a large, heavy skillet over a medium heat. Cook the chicken for about 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Reduce the heat and season with garam masala and cayenne pepper. Stir in a few spoonfuls of sauce and simmer until the liquid has reduced.

Add the chicken to the sauce. Add the cornflour and water (pre-mixed) and cook for 5-10 minutes, or until sauce has thickened.

Serve with Jasmine rice and garnish with coriander leaves.

Cuisine: Indian

Source: www.bigoven.com

Rating: Four stars