From noddy@bigears.com Tue Apr 26 10:56:48 2005 Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005 22:30:15 GMT From: Glen Newsgroups: uk.food+drink.indian Subject: Butter Chicken Recipe Was just typing this out for a friend and thought I would put it up in case any of you guys are interested. If you give it a go, do write back with your opinion on it! Cheers, Glen Comes from the recently released "the food of india" by Murdoch Books, part of their Food of the World series. I recommend the book...all the recipes we've tried from it so far have been *really* nice. Ok, here goes: Butter Chicken Ingredients 2cm piece of ginger, roughly chopped 3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped 80g (1/2 cup) blanched almonds 170ml (2/3 cup) thick plain yoghurt 1/2 teaspoon of chilli powder 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon of garam masala 4 cardamom pods...lightly crushed 400g tin of good quality chopped tomatoes 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt 1kg skinless boneless chicken thigh fillets, cut into fairly large pieces 5 tablespoons ghee or clarified butter 1 large onion 6 tablespoons of finely chopped coriander (cilantro) leaves 4 tablespoons of double (thick/heavy) cream Blend the ginger and garlic together in a foood processor (or similar) to make a paste. Grind the almonds. Put the paste and almonds in a bowl along with the chilli powder, cloves, cinnamon, garam masala, cardamom pods, tomato and salt and blend together with a fork. Add the chicken pieces and stir to coat thoroughly. Cover and marinate for 2 hours, or overnight, in the fridge. Preheat the over to 180%C (350%F/Gas4). Heat the ghee or clarified butter in a big heavy based pan/wok/karahi, add the onion and fry until softened and browned. Add the chicken mixture and fry for 2 minutes. Mix in the fresh coriander. Put the mixture into a *shallow* baking dish, then pour on the cream and mix in with a fork. Bake for 1 hour. If the top is browning too quickly during cooking, cover with a piece of foil. Leave to rest for 10 minutes before serving. The oil will float to the surface. Just before serving put the dish under a hot grill/broiler for about 2 minutes to brown the top. Before serving, tip the bowl and spoon off all the excess oil. Serve with rice, and some roti/naan to mop up the delicious juices!