Butter Chicken or Murgh Makhani

The week that this whole pandemic shutdown started, we went to dinner with my cousin. We chose the Bombay House, which has some of the best Indian food I've had. We ordered our usual favorites, and, wanting one more option, asked the server what he recommended. He suggested the Murgh Makhani, or Butter Chicken. Although I love Indian food, I don't get to eat out at a good Indian restaurant very often, and I had never had Butter Chicken before. (You may feel sorry for poor deprived me if you've grown up eating great Butter Chicken).

Feeling adventurous, we took the server's recommendation and ordered the Murgh Makhani. It was definitely our favorite dish of the evening, and I realized that I had been missing out for years! Eating food like Tikka Masala and Lentil Curry. (Ok, I was not really missing really out, because those are really good, too.)

By the end of the week, everything had shut down and gone a little frantic. Several months later, after pandemic things settled down a bit, I decided to find a Butter Chicken recipe. After looking up several recipes online, I found that there is one essential spice in Butter Chicken, and that is Fenugreek. I didn't have any, and I couldn't just run around to random stores looking for Fenugreek. I found some on Amazon, and it took forever to show up! Anyway, when it finally showed up, we decided to try the recipe from Chef Varun. You can find his original recipe here. You should also watch his video, which is at the bottom of the page. I chose it because it had less butter in it than many other recipes. Some recipes had two or three sticks of butter! I know it's called Butter Chicken, but really!

And then I also had to find Garlic Paste and Ginger Paste. Maybe you are all laughing at me, but I hadn't used those ingredients before. It turns out that one of my local grocery stores sells them next to the fresh herbs in the refrigerated produce section, in little tubes like toothpaste. Who knew?

After eventually obtaining all the ingredients, we finally got to make Butter Chicken. It didn't taste like the Butter Chicken from the restaurant, but it was really delicious.

If you want, you can use the link above to follow the chef's original recipe and instructions. I followed his instructions the first time, and then made some modifications to fit my cooking style.

And then I found this spice called Marrakesh Market Blend from The Spice House. The next time I made Butter Chicken, I added some, and it just elevated the dish. You can make the Butter Chicken without it, but I recommend the spice if you make Indian Curry. It's also good in Butternut Squash Soup and Carrot Soup and even Sloppy Joes. Ok, enough of my unpaid ad — but you should consider buying that spice mix.

Butter Chicken or Murgh Makhani

For the chicken

300 grams (about 10-1/2 ounces) boneless chicken breast, chopped
1 Tb. ginger paste
1 Tb. garlic paste
1 tsp. Marrakesh Market Blend spice or kashmiri chili powder
Salt to taste

For the sauce

100 grams (about 3.5 ounces) cut onions

500 grams (about 10.5 ounces) tomatoes, deseeded and chopped
50 grams (about 1.75 ounces) unsalted cashews

1 Tbs. garlic paste
1-1/2 tsp. garam masala
4 Tbs. sugar
1 Tb. Marrakesh Market Blend spice or kashmiri chili powder

1 Tb. Rogan Josh, optional

2 Tbs. balsamic vinegar or 1-1/2 Tbs. white vinegar
5 Tbs. butter, divided
3 Tbs. cream
Salt to taste
1 tsp. fenugreek (kasoori methi)

Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces. Mix the ginger and garlic pastes with the chili powder and a little salt. Stir everything together with the chicken, and marinate in the refrigerator for 15 to 20 minutes, (or longer if you want).

Heat some oil or ghee in a pan, and cook the chicken until done. Add extra salt while it cooks, if needed. Once the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pan into a clean bowl.

To make the sauce, add more oil or ghee to the pan if needed. You can chop the tomatoes and onions roughly, since they get blended up after cooking. Add the onion to the heated oil, and add about 2 Tbs of the butter. Once the onions are soft, add the tomatoes and cashews.

Add some water, then the garlic paste, garam masala, sugar, chili powder, and vinegar. Stir the mixture, and then simmer to 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Everything should be softened.

Use an immersion blender to mix the sauce into a smooth puree. Or pour the mixture into a blender to get a smoother texture. An immersion blender is quicker, and generates fewer dishes to wash up, but —compared to using a blender — the sauce has a little bit of gritty texture, which may or may not be an issue for you.

You can strain the mixture if you want it completely silky smooth (I don't ever do this, but the original recipe had this step).

Pour the sauce back into the pan. Add the remaining butter, cream, chicken, and crushed fenugreek. Stir and let it simmer for about 5 more minutes. Adjust to taste as needed, by salting or adding more spices.

Garnish with a little extra cream and some crushed fenugreek, if desired. Serve with rice and naan. May serve 3.

Melinda's notes: I use the Costco Rotisserie chicken package most of the time instead of cooking my own chicken. One recipe would use about 1/4 of their normal package. Since it's not marinated in spices, the chicken is not quite as tasty, but it sure saves a lot of prep & cooking time. I just add the chicken spices in with the sauce, and chop the chicken up while the sauce is simmering. I also frequently substitute a can of fire roasted tomatoes for the fresh tomatoes.

The Butter Chicken freezes really well, and I like cooking a big batch so I can have a ton of leftovers to freeze for more meals. I usually make a quadruple batch. Sometimes the spices fade a bit in the freezer, and I add a little more spice to the reheated Butter Chicken.