Chef @ Home ~ Butter Chicken (मखनी मुर्ग)

500 gms chicken (I used drumsticks for this, but you can use the thigh portions or simply boneless chicken)
1 medium onion made into paste
½ cup poppy seeds/ khus khus/ posto ground to a fine paste (soak the poppy seeds in water before grinding)
½ cashews ground to a fine paste (its best to grind the poppy seeds and cashews together in a blender)
1 large tomato pureed
½ inch ginger julienned for the garnish
4-5 green chilies sliced for the garnish
10-12 cashews chopped broken into pieces
10 raisins
2 tsp Kasturi Methi (I prefer the MDH brand)
2 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
Few drops of red food color
Butter to cook
Sugar
Salt

Sauté the chicken pieces in butter till you get a nice golden color on them. Now in the same pan, melt some more butter, do not let it heat up and smoke, butter burns easily. Add the onion paste and fry till golden brown. Add the ginger-garlic paste and keep stirring. Add the cashew-poppy seed paste and fry again. At this point in time, we can add some moisture into the mixture by adding the fresh tomato puree. Cover and cook this for 5 minutes, add all the dry spices like red chili powder, cumin, and coriander. Add some butter if you need along with the chopped cashews and raisins.

Add the chicken and fold all the spices nicely into it. Keep covered and on low heat to cook the chicken. Add the red food color and mix again. You will see the juices coming out of the chicken and spices. Add salt and sugar. Adjust the taste while adding the kasturi methi. Slowly crush the kasturi methi between the palms of your hand and add them to the simmering chicken.

Garnish the Butter Chicken with julienned ginger and sliced green chilies, and a little blob of butter. Serve hot with rotis or naan!

P.S. Instead of sautéing the chicken, you can also “tandoor” the chicken pieces. The Butter Chicken tastes the best when you use Amul Butter for cooking. I don’t usually add cream to my Butter Chicken, but what’s stopping you!

P.P.S. This is my Mum’s recipe, and maybe a little different from all the Butter Chicken recipes you know, especially because I am adding poppy seeds here. But try it, it tastes amazing. The key is to fry the wet ingredients really well; else the rawness of it all hits you when you eat.