Butter chicken (or) Murgh Makhani

Butter chicken (or murgh makhani ) is part of the Indian cuisine, popular in countries all over the world. It is also believed that butter chicken has been eaten in India for more than a thousand years.

Legend has it that Butter chicken was hastily prepared by a chef, post dinner time for a VIP customer who wanted some chicken dish. The chef had only half of a tandoori chicken which he tossed with liberal amounts of butter, tomato and garam masala to come up with the earliest version of ' Butter chicken'. He later improvised to make this a regular feature of the menu.

Preparation time : 45 mins + 1 hour
Serves : 4

Ingredients :

Baby chicken : 1 (or) 700 grms
Cumin seeds : 1/4 tsp
Onion : 2
Ginger garlic paste : 1 tsp
Coriander powder : 1tsp
Red chili powder : 1tsp
Cashew nuts : 8
Kasoori methi : 1tsp
Green chili : 2
Tomato : 2
Salt : to taste
Butter : 2 tbsp
Red food color : few drops (optional)
Sugar : 2 pinches
Tomato ketchup : 2 tsp (optional)
Cream : 1/2 cup
Garam masala : pinch

For marination :
Chili powder : 1tsp
Salt : 1tsp
Coriander powder : 1tsp
Cumin powder : 1/2 tsp
Ginger garlic paste : 1tsp

Method :

Marinate chicken with chili powder, salt, coriander powder, cumin powder and ginger garlic paste.
Shallow fry chicken in some oil, with out covering.
Take the chicken pieces out, keep them aside.
In the same pan, add cumin seeds, finely chopped onions, ginger garlic paste.
Saute for few minutes.
Add little water (1/4 cup t 1/2 cup approx).
Add coriander powder, red chili powder, kasoori methi powder, green chili, and cashew nuts.
Add finely chopped tomatoes, cover and cook on medium flame for 10 mins (or tomatoes and onions are very well cooked).
Let this cool down completely and grind it to a fine paste.
Take a pan, add some butter. add the paste that we prepared.
Add some salt, and if any water that comes from chicken.
Add food color, sugar and tomato ketch up.
Add cream and then add chicken.
Sprinkle garam masala.
Serve it hot with rice or roti .
Enjoy you dish :)

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