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I like to go to an Indian restaurant every once in a while. It is a very different cuisine from the Italian one but some dishes are really good. Plus, my brother likes to go there, so I wanted to learn how to cook one of my favorite Indian dishes: Butter Chicken. It is made of pieces of chicken mixed with a light orange cream/soup (I do not know why it is called so, but there is not a lot of butter in it. May be because the texture is very creamy. Or… who knows?).

Butter Chicken recipe

Ingredients for 4:

• 1/2 red onion (finely chopped)
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 and an half of boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 2 teaspoons of lemon juice
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon of ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon and 1/2 of garam masala
• 1 teaspoon of paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon of ginger-garlic paste
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 1 cup and 1/2 of chopped tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons of ground fenegreek leaves
• 1 pinch of black pepper
• 1 pinch of cayenne pepper
• 1 pinch of salt
• 3 tablespoons of plain yogurt
• 3/4 cup of heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil (to sautee the chicken)

Directions:

1. Rub the chicken with lemon juice and salt and cut it in small cubes.
2. Warm the chopped tomatoes.
3. Mix the heavy cream and yogurt with a little bit of chopped tomatoes and while mixing slowly add the rest of the chopped tomatoes (so that the yogurt and the cream do not curdle). Remove from the stove.
4. Mix these spices in a small bowl: ground cumin, garam masala, paprika, cinnamon, ground fenegreek leaves, black pepper, cayenne pepper. Plus add the bay leaf and the ginger-garlic paste.
5. Sautee the chopped onion with butter for about 10 - 15 minutes (if you need you can add 1/4 of hot water).
6. Add the chicken to the onion and stir fry it for a few minutes.
7. Add the spices mix and the honey to the chicken.
8. Add the mixture of tomatoes, yogurt and heavy cream.
9. Remove the bay leaf.
10. Cook on medium for 10 - 20 minutes (if it is too liquid, boil it for a few minutes) till the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 170F.

Suggestions:

Serve this dish with Indian bread or basmati rice.