Butter Chicken or Murg Makhani -- sans the Butter ?

What is it with people and potluck ? What is it with "great cooks-can effortlessly cook-6 course meal-for 30 people" and potluck? Why oh why do they have to always opt for the Rice? Is it because they won't get all the applause and accolade as a team member or is it because they don't trust others doing plain White Rice right ? Does this happen with your gang of friends too or do I just gravitate toward weird bunch of people ?

So anyway we had this potluck for a friend's baby shower. We rarely have potlucks, somehow people are more happy to invite you over and cook the entire meal on their own, which is a very good state of mind unless I am at the giving end. As mails were flying over this potluck and perfectly gullible and extra nice people were offering to cook their dish and more and the potluck averse ones were trying to opt out with excuses or just cook rice, I picked up the chicken by its wings.

And then I wanted to do something special with it. This friend was an old batchmate's wife and their daughter was very good friend of Big Sis S. This made me feel more responsible towards the dish and if in any other scenario I would have just tossed the bird in myriad spices and served it up, this time I wanted to do a Murgh Makhani better known as Butter Chicken, or maybe I just thought it would sound extra nice if I said "I am getting Murgh Makhani".

Whatever the reason, that is what I wanted to make but no way was I going to add all that butter or cream to anything I cooked. I usually abhor orange creamy dishes at Indian restaurants (around here) and so had no awe inspiring memory of eating Butter Chicken either. Since I had no benchmark to compare against I thought I could as well skip the butter and cream and to me it would taste as good, the others I could fool by saying "I got Low Fat Murgh Makhani".

If you are a puritan add all the butter you want but believe me this tastes pretty good even without. The gravy is delightful and sits light without the gooey-ness and the guilt that would engulf you at Kake da Hotel.
The spices are enough to uplift your senses and as you roast them, you will be transported to the rich past of Delhi, strain your ears and you could even the hear the tinkling bells from the moghul harem.


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Murgh Makhani or Butter Chicken -- without all the butter

Don't get intimidated by the long steps, if you follow them in order it is actually pretty simple

Prep:


Dry roast 10 green cardamom, 15 cloves, 2" stick of cinnamon, 4-5 Dry Red Chillies, 1" bark of javetri and grind to a fine powder. You can dry roast in a skillet on the stove top or just pop them in the oven. I used my toaster oven and it was done super quick, careful else it might burn. This we shall refer to as the Dry Masala

Marinade 4 lbs of chicken cut in small pieces in 2 tsp of ginger paste, 2 tsp of garlic paste, 1 tsp of above Dry Masala, turmeric, salt and 1 tbsp of fresh lime juice for about 2-3 hours. Note: I usually buy whole chicken skinned. So when I say 4lb chicken I mean the weight of the chicken with bones et al


Soak 2 tbsp of Cashew and 1 tbsp of Poppy Seeds in water and then wet grind to a fine paste

Start Cooking:

Step 1

Heat Oil in a deep, heavy bottomed pan

Add 3 green chillies chopped, 5 fat cloves of garlic chopped fine, 3 cups of chopped red onion and 2" of ginger peeled and chopped

Saute till onion is pink and translucent

Add 1 biggie red tomato chopped in chunks

Fry till the tomato is mushed up

Cool the above mixture and grind to a smooth paste

Step 2

Add a little more oil and lightly fry the chicken pieces that had been marinaded. You should just lightly fry so that they are just cooked. The color of the chicken pieces will be a pale yellowish white when done.Remove and keep aside.
I was using pieces of cornish hen and so fried them. If you are using boneless breast or thigh pieces you can just grill them instead of frying.

Final Step

In the same pan, heat a little more oil or if you wish butter. You don't need too much as both the masala and the chicken has been fried. I add about 1/2 tsp of Ghee + Oil. The ghee lends a nice flavor

Add the onion+garlic+ginger+tomato masala from Step 1

Fry for a minute with about 1/4 tsp of sugar

Add the Dry Masala Powder you made, 1 tsp of Kasoori Methi, 1 tbsp of Corriander Powder, 2 tsp of Red Chilli Powder and fry till oil separates from masala. This should be quick because the onion et al is already fried.

Add the Cashew + Poppy seed paste and fry for a couple of minutes

Lower the heat and and add 1 cup of nicely beaten whole milk yogurt.Mix well. While adding yogurt keep the heat really low else the yogurt dis-integrates. Note: I added yogurt instead of milk because I am a little queasy with adding milk to chicken, you can substitute yogurt with 2% milk + cream

Add about approx. 1-2 cups of water, add salt and let the gravy come to a boil at slow heat. Do not add too much water at once, add gradually as needed.

Add the fried chicken pieces( from Step 2) along with any liquid that it retained to the simmering gravy

The chicken is almost cooked and so will not take much time to get fully cooked.

Adjust the consistency of your gravy and if you want to enhance the taste add a smallish pat of butter to it. I just added 1/2 tbsp of butter.

Serve with Roti or Naan or even a Rice Dish. We had ours with a Peas Pulao and later with store bought Flax Seed wraps

Trivia:Butter Chicken originated in the 1950s at the Moti Mahal restaurant in Old Delhi. Famed for its Tandoori Chicken, the cooks there used to recycle the leftover chicken juices in the marinade trays by adding butter and tomato. This sauce was then tossed around with the tandoor-cooked chicken pieces and presto - Butter Chicken was ready! The leftover dish appealed to Delhites and was quickly lapped up by the rest of the world.