RECIPE / ONE REALIZATION
The following is the authentic butter chicken recipe, the same one they stick to in the kitchen of the Moti Mahala restaurant where the dish was invented.
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RECIPE INGREDIENTS
METHOD
The first step is to prepare the chicken. In a mixture of red chili powder, ginger, garlic paste, salt, and curd, leave the chicken to marinate in the refrigerator for a minimum of six hours, but best overnight.
The following day, roast the marinated chicken in the oven preheated at 200 °C for 10-12 minutes. The meat should not be fully cooked, but only about 3/4 done.
Next, start making the gravy. Melt one-half of the butter in a pan and then add the tomato puree and cook for 2-3 minutes before you start adding cumin seed,s sugar, red chili powder, and salt.
At this stage, add the chicken, the remaining butter, fresh cream, sliced green chilies, and fenugreek leaves. Sauté for 3-4 minutes, then continue cooking until the chicken is done.
Serve ladled over a bowl of rice or with a side of naan bread.
OTHER REALIZATIONS
The following recipe gives instructions on preparing a much-simplified version of butter chicken. The meat is boneless chicken meat cut up into cubes that need not be marinated, considerably shortening the length of preparation.
USEFUL NOTES
Perhaps surprisingly, your best choice is maple syrup. It contains a compound stolone, responsible for both the flavor and the aroma, also found in the fenugreek leaves. You should use if sparingly because you do not want your dish overly sweet and it's best to add it near the end of cooking as its flavor may fade during cooking. Other alternatives include mustard seeds and greens or a pinch of curry (because most curry blends include fenugreek).
There are only two ways you can serve butter chicken. A more traditional way would be to serve it with naan flatbread, but serving it ladled over a bowl of white rice is also common.