Making Butter Chicken at home can mean dumping a jar of the sauce to some cooked chicken or you can make the sauce yourself. Making the sauce yourself allows you to adjust the heat level of the dish. My favourite store bought brands for butter chicken sauce in Canada are VH and Pataks. VH is a lot less spicy than Pataks.
No Butter... No Chicken- No Problem
If you're making Butter Chicken from scratch the meat is marinated in spices, but this is 20 minute butter chicken so I will show you the fast track way. You can use beef, lamb or pork in place of chicken if you wish. If subbing out chicken be sure to use a tender cut of meat for this quick recipe. You'll notice that I use canola oil instead of butter in this recipe. Canola oil is healthy and has a higher smoke point so its great for frying.
Naan Bread Recipe:
Making Naan Bread is actually really simple! It is a yeasted dough but it is fried!
1 cup warm water (50°C)
2 tablespoon honey
2 ¼ teaspoon (1 package) dry active yeast
3 ½ cups all purpose flour
¼ cup plain Greek yogurt
2 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg
Add the warm water to your bowl. Followed by the honey. Sprinkle yeast on top then stir to combine. Let this sit for about 10 minutes.
In a measuring cup measure out the yogurt and then add the egg and salt. Stir to combine. Add this mixture to the yeast/water/honey that should now be foamy after sitting its 10 mins.
Add in flour one cup at a time. The mixture will be stickier then a normal bread dough but still come together good and if you’re using a mixer it needs to still pull away from the bowl. If this doesn’t t happen, then add a bit more flour until it does.
Cover and let rise in an oiled bowl for 1 hour or until doubled in size.
Once risen work out the air and divide into 8 equal pieces. Then roll the pieces flat to a ¼” thickness.
In a frying pan (cast iron or non stick) on med-high heat fry these babies up. You put them in the pan then once they start to bubble and are browned nicely on the bottom you flip them over to finish for about 60-90 seconds .
If you’re eating them that day, Place directly from frying pan in to a bowl and cover with a towel until serving.
Bonus: cut up a couple cloves of garlic into melted butter and parsley and brush this mixture on each side of the bread after frying.
20 minute butter chicken
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon Canola Oil
- 3 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts Cubed
- 1 Onion Diced
- 3 Cloves Garlic Minced
- 1 tablespoon Garam Masala
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric
- ½ tablespoon ginger paste or equal amount fresh ginger grated
- 4 tablespoon tomato paste
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- 1 Cup 33% Cream (Whipping Cream) Can sub for same amount plain Greek Yogurt
Instructions
- In a larger skillet add the canola oil and cubed chicken. Brown Chicken on all sides.
- Add Onion and Garlic, cook for 5 minutes.
- Sprinkle spices over chicken, stirring to combine.
- Add Ginger and Tomato Paste followed by cream or yogurt. Simmer for 10 Minutes.
- Serve with Rice or Naan Bread
Nutrition
Butter Chicken History
The dish, which is also called Murgh Makhani in Hindi, is without question the most popular dish to emerge from India; it may even be one of the most popular dishes in the world. If you are just going to an Indian restaurant for the first time, your friends will likely recommend it as a starting place. Its mildly spicy, creamy, savoury flavour makes it more than just delicious, but accessible to almost every palate.
Butter chicken originated in Delhi, the capital territory of India, sometime during the 1950s. During this time, a man named Kundan Lal Gurjal operated a restaurant in the city, called Moti Mahal. Kundan had settled here and started his business after fleeing from political upheaval in another region of India.
