Butter Chicken

Ingredients

Tandoori chicken

• 800 gboneless chicken thigh, in 4 cm pieces, or 1 kg bone-in pieces
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 tspsalt
• 1 tspKashmiri chilli powder
• 200 gthick full-fat yoghurt, hung 30 minutes
• 2 tbspginger-garlic paste
• 1 tspgaram masala
• 1 tspground cumin
• ½ tspground turmeric
• 1 tbspmustard oil, heated to smoking and cooled
• 1 tspkasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaf), crushed

Makhani gravy

• 1 kgripe tomatoes, quartered (or 800 g tinned plum tomatoes)
• 80 gunsalted butter, plus 30 g to finish
• 1onion, roughly chopped
• 4garlic cloves
• 20 gginger, sliced
• 8cashews, soaked in hot water 20 minutes
• 4green cardamom pods, 1 small cinnamon stick, 2 cloves
• 2green chillies, slit
• 1 tspKashmiri chilli powder, for colour
• 1 tspsugar or 1 tbsp honey
• 150 mlsingle cream
• 1 tbspkasuri methi
• 1 tspgaram masala
• salt

Directions

1. Rub the chicken with lime juice, salt and chilli powder and leave 20 minutes. This first, thinner marinade opens the meat and is why tandoori chicken is marinated twice.
2. Mix the hung yoghurt with ginger-garlic paste, spices, cooled mustard oil and kasuri methi, coat the chicken thickly and refrigerate 6 hours or overnight.
3. Thread onto skewers and cook in an oven at its maximum, 250°C (475°F), or under a fierce grill for 12–15 minutes, turning once, until the edges char black in places and the juices run clear. A little burnt edge is the point.
4. For the gravy, simmer the tomatoes, onion, garlic, ginger, cashews, whole spices and green chillies with 200 ml water for 20 minutes until everything collapses.
5. Fish out the cinnamon, cloves and cardamom husks, blend the rest to a very smooth puree and push it through a sieve. The silkiness of makhani comes from sieving, not from cream.
6. Melt 80 g butter in a wide pan, pour in the sieved puree and cook on medium-low for 12–15 minutes, stirring, until it darkens, thickens and butter beads at the edges.
7. Season with salt, sugar, Kashmiri chilli and the crushed kasuri methi rubbed between the palms.
8. Slide in the grilled chicken with any charred juices, simmer 5 minutes, then stir in the cream and the last knob of butter off the boil.
9. Rest 5 minutes, finish with garam masala and a swirl of cream, and serve with naan or plain basmati.

Technique

• Murgh makhani was created around 1947 at Moti Mahal in Delhi as a way of using leftover tandoori chicken; the grill char is a defining flavour and not skippable.
• Real makhani is soured and reddened by tomatoes and Kashmiri chilli, not by tomato puree or food colouring, and it is a butter sauce first and a cream sauce second.
• Kasuri methi goes in twice, crushed at the last minute. Its bitter-maple scent is what makes the dish smell like a Delhi restaurant.
• Cashews replace some of the cream and give body; blend them very smooth or the sauce turns grainy.

Substitutions

• No tandoor or grill: sear the marinated pieces hard in a cast-iron pan until blackened in patches, then finish in the oven.
• Mustard oil can be replaced by ghee, losing a little of the pungency.
• Cream can be reduced or replaced by more soaked cashew paste for a heavier, sweeter gravy.

Variations

• Paneer makhani uses the same gravy with cubes of grilled paneer.
• Some Delhi kitchens finish with a tempering of whole red chillies in butter poured over at the table.

History

Invented in Delhi in the years after 1947, at Moti Mahal, a restaurant opened by Kundan Lal Gujral and Kundan Lal Jaggi, refugees from Peshawar who had run a tandoor restaurant there before Partition split British India into India and Pakistan. To keep leftover tandoori chicken from drying out, the restaurant’s cooks began simmering it in a sauce of tomato, butter and cream, and the dish that resulted, murgh makhani, became one of the restaurant’s signatures and then one of the most internationally recognized Indian dishes of the 20th century. Both Gujral’s and Jaggi’s descendants have separately claimed sole credit for the invention, and the dispute over who exactly created it has continued for decades since.

Frequently asked questions

What is Butter Chicken?

Butter Chicken is a main from India: tandoori chicken in silky tomato-butter-cream gravy, Delhi classic. Invented in Delhi in the years after 1947, at Moti Mahal, a restaurant opened by Kundan Lal Gujral and Kundan Lal Jaggi, refugees from Peshawar who had run a tandoor restaurant there before Partition split British India into India and Pakistan. To keep leftover tandoori chicken from drying out, the restaurant’s cooks began simmering it in a sauce of tomato, butter and cream, and the dish that resulted, murgh makhani, became one of the restaurant’s signatures and then one of the most internationally recognized Indian dishes of the 20th century. Both Gujral’s and Jaggi’s descendants have separately claimed sole credit for the invention, and the dispute over who exactly created it has continued for decades since.

How long does Butter Chicken take to make?

Butter Chicken takes 30 min of preparation and 6 hr marinating + 45 min of cooking. The recipe makes 4 servings. It is rated medium to make.

What can I substitute in Butter Chicken?

Yes, within limits. No tandoor or grill: sear the marinated pieces hard in a cast-iron pan until blackened in patches, then finish in the oven. Mustard oil can be replaced by ghee, losing a little of the pungency. Cream can be reduced or replaced by more soaked cashew paste for a heavier, sweeter gravy.

What is the most important thing to get right in Butter Chicken?

Thread onto skewers and cook in an oven at its maximum, 250°C (475°F), or under a fierce grill for 12–15 minutes, turning once, until the edges char black in places and the juices run clear. A little burnt edge is the point.