Butter Chicken

I'm so excited to share my first recipe with you guys, which is my spicy yummy butter chicken. My butter chicken recipe is full of amazing flavors that will leave you wanting more! The best part is that it's fairly easy to make for those of us on the go. Many of our friends who have tried my butter chicken have loved it!

Most of the butter chicken recipes that I've read were a bit too complicated and time consuming. My main goal with recipes is to have them be simple yet full of flavor so I created this recipe to achieve my own version of a perfect butter chicken. Spicy, tangy and creamy! Usually this takes me about an hour or less to make. One of my tricks is that instead of cutting everything up, I just use my Ninja Express Chopper to do all the work for me. I blend the onions first, and after I throw those to sauté I blend the garlic and ginger in it, and after I add those to the onion mixture, I blend the vine tomato in it as well. There's no need to rinse it in between either because it's all for the same gravy. I just let the chopper do all the work and it's easy clean up too.

Try out my recipe below and let me know what you think! Hope you enjoy!

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Chicken Marinade

Ingredients:

1 packet of chicken tenderloins or breast

1 tbsp of yogurt

1 tsp of garlic paste

1 tsp of ginger paste

1 tsp Kashmiri red chili powder or paprika

1 tsp of chicken masala/chicken gravy masala

Butter Chicken Gravy (sauce)

Ingredients:

2-3 tbsp of EVOO or canola oil

2 medium white/yellow onions diced

1 medium vine tomato crushed/blended

2 to 3 cloves

1 medium cinnamon stick

1 to 2 star anise

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp of garlic paste

1 tbsp of ginger paste

1/2 tsp of habanero paste (optional)

1 tbsp of Indian chicken gravy masala/powder

1 tbsp of Kashmiri red chili masala/powder

3-4 chicken bullion cubes

1 tsp of lemon juice

1/2 tsp sugar

3 tbsp butter stick

About 1/4 to 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream or you can also use substitutes like coconut milk, half and half if you'd like

Salt to taste (optional)

1 hand full of minced cilantro and butter cubes on top for garnish

Directions

1 - Marinate the chicken and set it aside while you cook the gravy/sauce. Tip: Never cook chicken that is cold; it needs to be at room temperature or out of the fridge for 20 minutes so that its juicy.

2 - Heat the olive oil between medium and high heat and throw in the cloves, star anise and cinnamon sticks and while they sizzle add the onions and let them cook on medium heat until they are soft and light brown.

3 - Once the onions are cooked, add the ginger paste, garlic paste, red chili powder, chicken gravy masala and chicken bullion cubes and mix it all up and cook for a minute or two.

4 - Add the crushed/blended tomato and cook it for 3-4 minutes, then add the tomato paste and mix it up.

5 - Add the butter, and after it's melted and mixed, turn off the heat and using a hand blender pulse/blend the gravy/sauce. You can also take it out in a blender and blend it that way, but I find it easier using a hand blender that way you don't have to mess with the transferring the sauce back and forth.

6 - Once the sauce is blended, turn the stove back on between low to medium heat and add the marinated chicken and let it cook slowly. Chicken cooks fairly fast and becomes chewy and dry if you cook it too fast, so you want to make sure that you cook it on medium to low heat while stirring it. This should take about 5-7 minutes.

7 - Lastly, add a little cream depending on how creamy you want it and let it chicken cook for a few more minutes. Then add a little sugar and lemon to taste. At this point, I would only add a little salt if needed because the chicken bullion cubes are pretty salty as well.

8 - Garnish with some chopped cilantro and cubed butter and serve with warm naan bread and a side of basmati jeera rice. Enjoy!