Butter Chicken - Adding the Tandoori Style Chicken to the Sauce
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Butter Chicken Recipe
Butter Chicken - Preparing Tandoori Style Chicken
Butter Chicken - Cooking Tandoori Style Chicken
Butter Chicken - Prepping the ingredients for the Butter Sauce
Butter Chicken - Adding the Tandoori Style Chicken to the Sauce
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Edward Hamann grew up in California and credits his grandmother for his early love of cooking as well as the abundance of fresh local produce found in the region. Inspired by the regional cuisines of India during his teenage years, Hamann later found himself traveling extensively throughout India collecting local recipes wherever he could and learning tips and techniques from street vendors, housewives and restaurant chefs.
He studied beside Julie Sahni at The Julie Sahni School of Indian Cooking in NYC and worked closely with Chef Sahni on a variety of events, including some for National Geographic Traveler, and has been teaching others to cook for over ten years.
Hamann’s international travels have greatly influenced him in his culinary pursuits and have given him deep appreciation for the plethora of spices that are available to the home cook but not widely understood or utilized. Through his instruction Hamann hopes to demystify cooking with spices and open up the cuisines of other cultures, such as Mexican, Persian and Afghan, to his students. As Hamann states “Cooking can be a different kind of journey, by preparing the foods of other countries in our own homes we can taste the memories of trips we may have taken or perhaps taste the dreams of trips we hope to take someday.”
Edward Hamann spent the last 4 years as Culinary Manager for Sur La Table Cooking School and was responsible for managing the cooking class program, recipe development, setting curriculum and teaching classes at Sur La Table in Arlington, Virginia.
Butter Chicken - Adding the Tandoori Style Chicken to the Sauce
This video will show how to add the tandoori style chicken to the sauce to make butter chicken.
Butter Chicken - Adding the Tandoori Style Chicken to the Sauce
Ingredients
Marinade½ cup plain yogurt
4 tablespoons sunflower or other light oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
4 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tablespoons peeled, coarsely chopped fresh ginger
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon garam masala (recipe below)
1 teaspoon bright red paprika or red chili powder (or a combination)
1 teaspoon salt, or as desired
2 tablespoon melted ghee or butter, for brushing
Slices of tomato, onion and lemon for garnish
Garam Masala
North-Indian Warm Spice Blend
Makes about ¼ cup
1 heaping tablespoon whole green cardamom pods
1 (2-inch) cinnamon stick, broken into small pieces
½ teaspoon black cumin seeds
½ teaspoon whole cloves
½ teaspoon whole black peppercorns
¼ teaspoon mace flakes
Large pinch freshly ground nutmeg
For the Butter Sauce
1 ½ cups canned diced tomatoes in puree (I prefer Pomi brand)
1 to 2 fresh hot green chilies, stemmed and cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped peeled fresh ginger
1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin
1 ½ teaspoons bright red paprika
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
½ cup heavy cream
Heavy cream, light cream, or half and half as needed (about ¼ to ½ cup)
½ teaspoon roasted cumin seeds, coarsely crushed (see note)
4 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
Note: To roast cumin seeds, put 3 or 4 tablespoons of cumin seeds in a small heavy skillet over medium-high heat and cook, stirring and shaking the pan, until darkened several shades and fragrant , 3 to 4 minutes.
Instructions
1. With a sharp knife, trim off any visible pieces of excess fat from the chicken. Cut diagonal slashes (along the grain) ½ inch deep and l-inch apart, on the meat, along the grain. Place chicken in a large shallow bowl.
2. Place all of the ingredients for the marinade in a blender jar and blend until smooth. Pour marinade over chicken and mix thoroughly, turning several times, and pushing marinade into slashes, to coat pieces evenly. Cover and refrigerate overnight (maximum 2 days) or marinate at room temperature for at least 1 hour (preferably 4 hours). Take poultry from the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before cooking.
3. Preheat an oven to 550°F. Place chicken bone side down, over a rack, on a shallow baking sheet. Roast without turning for 25 minutes. When done the juices will run clear when a knife is pierced into the thickest part of the meat. The marinade will have dried up and the chicken will have charred in spots. Serve lightly brushed with ghee and garnished with slices of tomato, onion and lemon.
4. To make garam masala, place all ingredients in a clean coffee or spice grinder and grind to a fine powder. Transfer to a small lidded jar and store. Use within 4 to 6 weeks.
5. To make butter sauce, place the tomato, chilies, and ginger in the container of an electric blender and blend to a fine puree. Put the cumin and paprika in a small bowl. Add 3 tablespoons of water and mix well. Set aside.
6. Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large heavy nonstick sauté pan over medium-high heat. Once the butter has melted and begins to froth add the chicken pieces and cook, turning often, until fragrant and beginning to look seared. Remove to a plate or a bowl. Set aside.
7. Stir the cumin and paprika mixture and add to the pan. Cook, stirring, until the liquid evaporates, about 1 minute, then stir in the tomato puree. Raise the heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, partially cover and simmer, stirring often, for 8 to 10 minutes. Stir in ½ cup cream and the salt and mix well. Add the chicken and turn to coat with the sauce. Cover and cook over medium-low heat until the sauce thickens slightly, about 8 to 10 minutes.
8. Stir in enough heavy cream, light cream, or half and half to adjust the consistency of the sauce as desired. It should not be too thick or too thin. Cook until warmed through. Add the remaining butter, roasted cumin, and cilantro. Serve hot with Naan.
Transcripts
Edward Hammon: Hi I am Edward, and we are here at Sur La Table Cooking School in Arlington, Virginia, and today we are making Butter Chicken. Right now, we are going to make the sauce and put the Tandoori-Style Chicken into it.
So we will start out with a very large nonstick saut pan, and we are going to put half of our butter, which is two tablespoons, into that pan, some medium, medium high heat. Now we want to melt the butter, and once it melts and just starts to froth up a little bit, we are going to put the chicken pieces in there, and we are going to lightly stir them, so they can pick up some of that great butter flavor. Use the best butter that you can get for this dish, since it is the Star of the Show. I'm going to put our chicken pieces in, just going to cook in this butter turning them off just for a couple of minutes. So we are turning our chicken around often, and we are just looking forward to stir lightly, get a little bit more brown spots and to have a sort of shiny buttery glaze on the chicken. So this looks great, we can take it out, put it back on our plate; chicken was already fully cooked so we do not need to worry about putting it back on the same plate.
So now we are going to take our wet spice mixture, the ground cumin and the paprika and we are going to reduce our heat a little bit, lower down to medium. We are going to add that to the pan, and we are going to cook this, stirring it, just until the liquid evaporates and you can smell the spices, perfect! So now we will add our tomato mixtures from the blender, the one with the chilies and ginger, and we are going to stir that up really well. So our sauce has cooked for its first period of time, about 5 to 8 minutes, and it is slightly reduced and smelling great.
So now we are going to add half a cup of heavy cream and our salt, one teaspoon of salt, which you would adjust to taste when the dish is finished. We are going to stir that in really good, keep it all nice and mixed up together. Now we are going to add our chicken pieces back into the pan, into the sauce, we are going to bring it up to a simmer and then we will put the lid back on and we will led it gently cook for another 8 to 10 minutes, and I will make sure I turn this around in the sauce, get them all nicely coated. It is all ready to go. So to finish the dish, what we are going to do is, add our roasted crushed cumin seeds and our chopped cilantro, as well as our remaining two tablespoons of butter. If by chance your sauce had thickened up quite a bit during the simmering, you would add more heavy cream or light cream or half-and-half, just to thin to the consistency that you want, but I think this one is perfect.
So, take our roasted crushed cumin seeds and most of our chopped cilantro, I will hold back on some so I can sprinkle it on top as a garnish. I'm going to fold those items to get them mixed up with the sauce. Now we will take our remaining butter and we can break it up into small pieces and just dot it around the dish and let it melt into the sauce.
So, here is our finished Butter Chicken, it looks awesome! You definitely want to serve this with non-bread, either fresh homemade or store-bought, enjoy.
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THANK YOU by ritarod1947 at 08/27/09 05:59PM Flag
i happened to come upon this site, and thank you much for teaching me how to prepare butter chicken. I have recently lost my job after 19 years with the company, and am catering from home to my friends. God bless you
mmm by saleall at 02/17/09 07:57PM Flag
looks delicious.!
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