Hey everyone!
It has been quite a while since my last post. That's not to say I haven't been getting up to anything interesting - I've just neglected my blog and left you all hanging.
Last night, I was in a major cooking mood, and wanted to make a big, delicious, savoury, flavourful meal - and that's just what I did. I wanted to take a stab at making butter chicken from scratch, and it actually turned out amazingly, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you all and encourage you all to take a stab at it as well.
First of all, the INGREDIENTS you're going to need are as follows:
1 cup butter
1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp garlic, minced - I used four small cloves (I like a lot of garlic, and this recipe yields a lot of sauce, so it works out!)
1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce
3 cups heavy cream (I used 35% cooking cream)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cayenne pepper (I used a bit more, & you can too, if you want it to be extra spicy!)
1 tsp garam masala (Easier to find at an ethnic foods store - the Metro by my house didn't have it)
1 1/2 lbs skinless boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-size chunks (I used 4 decently sized chicken breasts)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp tandoori masala (Same deal as the garam masala)
1 cup Uncle Ben's 10 minute basmati rice (You can use any kind of basmati rice, I just wanted to cut down on cooking time, & this was a cinch to make!)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
OPTIONAL:
I added green beans so there would be a bit of of veg in it - I used about 2 cups, chopped into thirds.
DIRECTIONS:
1. After all your ingredients are chopped and ready to go, pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Melt a few tbsp of butter in a pan over medium heat. Stir in onion
and garlic, and cook slowly until the onion caramelizes to a dark brown -
about 15 mins.
3. Meanwhile, melt the remaining butter in a
medium-sized saucepan over medium-high heat along with the tomato sauce,
heavy cream, salt, cayenne pepper, and garam masala. Bring to a simmer,
then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring
occasionally. Then stir in caramelized onions.
4. While the
sauce is simmering, toss cubed chicken breast in vegetable oil until
coated, then season with tandoori masala and spread out onto a baking
sheet/pan.
5. Bake chicken in pre-heated oven until no longer pink in the centre,
about 15 mins. Once done, add the chicken and chopped green beans to the
sauce and simmer for about 12-15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
6. Begin cooking rice 5 minutes after the chicken has been added to the sauce.
7. Garnish with fresh cilantro & serve!
But wait! That's not all! I made a delicious raita to go alongside the butter chicken. Sometimes we all need to cut the heat with a tasty side to cleanse the palate! It is so easy to make and you can do it before you make your butter chicken, so that it has time to chill & let the flavours set.
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup seeded English cucumber, chopped
2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped
2 tsp green onion, chopped
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
DIRECTIONS:
Mix ingredients in a medium bowl. Season to taste with salt. Chill raita (about 1-2 hours is best), covered, until ready to serve.
I also bought naan at the grocery store and lightly brushed it with olive oil, & put it in the oven at 400 degrees for 4 minutes before everything was ready. It went really well with everything, especially the raita!
For a truly amateur home cook, this meal was totally easy to put together, and will impress anyone you're serving it to!
Happy cooking! :)
