Indian Butter Chicken
Creamy, Indian butter chicken, chalked full of Indian spices, chicken and butter in a tomato and cream sauce. Serve with basmati rice.
Servings: 4 people
Ingredients
- 3 regular chicken breasts cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1 stick butter divided
- ½ medium yellow sweet onion minced finely
- 2 cloves garlic minced finely
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated or ground ginger
- 2 teaspoon turmeric
- ½ teaspoon cumin
- ⅛ teaspoon cardamom
- ⅛ teaspoon coriander
- ½ teaspoon ground mustard
- small pinch cayenne pepper use more for desired heat level
- 1 cinnamon stick can substitute ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 4 tablespoon tomato paste
- 3 cups chicken stock or broth
- ¾ cup heavy whipping cream
- salt to taste
- fresh cilantro to garnish
- basmati rice for serving
- naan bread for serving store bought or homemade
Instructions
- In a heavy skillet, on medium high heat, add 2 tablespoon of the butter and the cubed chicken and saute until the edges brown. Remove the chicken from the pan and set on a plate (they won't be all the way cooked through, and that's fine for now.)
- In that skillet, add the rest of the butter and the ½ minced onion and 2 cloves minced garlic; saute until soft.
- Add the spices (all but the cinnamon stick) and tomato paste. Fry in the pan on medium high heat still for 2-3 minutes until spices become fragrant and the tomato paste deepens in color.
- Pour in the 3 cups of chicken stock, and add the cinnamon stick. Stir up everything off the bottom of the pan and simmer for 5-10 minutes on medium high heat.
- Reduce heat to medium low. Add the chicken and ¾ cup heavy whipping cream and stir until evenly combine. Simmer on medium low heat for 5 minutes until chicken is cooked through.
- Serve with basmati rice, and naan bread. Garnish with fresh cilantro leaves.
Notes
- Don't substitute margarine for butter.
- Use freshly grated or ground ginger; both in the amount of 1 tsp.
- If substituting ground cinnamon for a cinnamon stick, use ¼ tsp, and add it to the pan with the other spices and tomato paste to toast.
- When simmering the chicken stock with the rest of the ingredients, let it do so at a fairly high simmer, allowing the spices to further develop their flavors.
- Once you pour in the heavy whipping cream, be sure to do so in the skillet once the high simmer has reduced to a very low one. Heating the cream at too high of heat will cause it to curdle.
- If the cream does get too hot and curdles, you'll see little white dots in the sauce. That's the separated curds. It's completely harmless to eat it that way, it just affects the look and presentation of the dish. There is absolutely nothing unsafe about eating the sauce if the cream got too hot and curdled though, if it happens accidentally. Better luck next time!
- Serve with basmati rice. Basmati is a very long, thin grain rice and the texture is perfect for butter chicken. However, long grain rice can be substituted.
- Serve with naan bread to scoop! See original post notes for how to make homemade naan, or buy store bought naan.
- Store leftovers up to 4 days. Reheat at low heat, or in the microwave on 50% power until heated through.