Chicken Makhanni

 

 

 

 

 

I lately visited the Indian Restaurant MAHAL here and they severd this dish with home made Red chilli chutney.Nice combo coz the chicken is mild in itself.There are many many ways to make butter chicken and every one does its own variations in it too , but basically all use the same ingredients more or less :) We actually don’t use too many spice as the real taste is of the butter n cream in it.I asked the chef if he wud just give me hints how he made his, so here’s round about what he did, actually just 1-2 main difference : )

So for marinating I took:

500grams chicken fillet (in stripes)

1 tsp GG paste (ginger/garlic)

3-4 tsp lemon juice

2 tbs hot sauce

¼ turmeric (haldi)

½ tsp salt (rest in gravy)

½ tsp rd chili powder a dash of hing powder.

Marinate the chick stripes and keep it for around 20-30 minutes

For the gravy:

4 tomatoes (cubed) (first frying is Chef’s tip*)

250gram cream (1 small packet)

3tbs yoghurt

4-5 tbs peanut butter (for the rich taste (Chef’s tip*)

1 medium onion (cubed)

¾ tsp salt (or to taste but be careful butter also has salt!!)

½ tsp turmeric (haldi)½ tsp red paprika powder

2-3 drop of red food color mixed in 1tbs of milk

80gram butter (your choice salted or not, I used salted)Made around 3 ½ tbs.

Heat the peanut butter in a heavy vessel and fry the chicken stripes till half done and a bit brown in color

Take out in a bowl and let aside

Now fry the onion in the same butter till light punk, don’t fry them brown coz the color of the gravy will also turn brown later

Next add the tomatoes to fry in it and keep mashing them(chef’s tip)

(usually many make a purée of the tomatoes and then add but, here I added them as is to fry first and then blend them)

Fry fast so the color of the tomatoes does not fade yet they become soft.

Pour the cream and yoghurt slowly while it is frying and keep mixing

Sprinkle all the dry spices and mix all well

Not take this creamy gravy out and let it cool down

Blend all this at least 3 times into a really fine creamy and silky mixture
Now return this all into the vessel , add the fried chick stripes to it so it cooks with it

Drop the butter in different places so it melts slowly and mix all gently

You will see it getting thick so don’t leave it unattended

Now mix in the food color to give it a fresh orange color coz the gravy turns a bit reddish with so many tomatoes :-)

Let it cook a bit till you see butter showing up slightly

Just drop in a tsp of butter as you dish out to serve, gives a rich look : -)

 

 

I found the taste much better after frying the tomatoes as it was like good fried gravy and in fact the peanut butter does give it another taste sort of like roasted. Till now I used plain butter but this tip was really good, and coz Butter chicken is a typical Indian dish so these are the secrets tips not all know :)

Have fun making it, I had it with khushka( plain white rice) as with simple Roti you cant really taste the cream and its so divine I tell you :)

Enjoy buttering youself :)