Butter Chicken

An authentic Indian curry recipe from my friend – you can really taste the difference between this and a shop bought curry paste. The recipe essentially gets you to make your own. There’s also a massive emphasis on garlic – when my friend made this, she used an entire bulb, and then by accident tipped in a whole jar of garlic granules. However, this was NOT an issue!

Ingredients:

• Butter
• 6 cardamom pods
• 6 cloves
• half cinnamon stick
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 entire garlic bulb
• 1 inch square ginger
• 1½ tsp garam masala
• 1½ tsp tumeric
• 1½ tsp cumin
• red chilli powder (to taste)
• garlic powder (to taste)
• salt (to taste)
• 2 green chilli peppers
• 4 fresh tomatoes, crushed
• 2 tbsp double cream
• 4 raw chicken breasts (can precook, but needs to soak in flavour)
• alternatively Quorn pieces

Method:

1. Put a good pat on butter in a large-ish saucepan, maybe about 1inch. Add the cardamon pods, cloves, and cinnamon stick. Cook for a little bit until the cardamom pods swell up.
2. Add the onion, the whole garlic bulb (peeled and chopped finely), and 1 inch of ginger (chopped). Cook until the onion is golden. This step provides your basic flavour.
3. Add the garam masala, tumeric, cumin, red chilli powder, garlic powder, and salt. Mix and let cook. It will become a paste, and you will be able to smell the difference when it’s ready.
4. Add the crushed tomatoes and the cream, and stir in.
5. Add in your chopped chicken breast, or Quorn substitute.
6. Let cook for a while, until the chicken in done. Then add 2 green chilli peppers.
7. Serve with rice and naan.

It was really fun to try this recipe, and felt more authentic than the curry recipes in Western cookery books. It is FULL of flavour and does not hold back, even if it’s not particularly hot with spice.

Harriet

Costs: from Tesco, £21.88. This seems super expensive because I included all of the spices in the calculation. However, if you have most of these at home, it works out to be much less, with the primary cost being the chicken. Defo worth a try, as more of a treat meal.