Saturday, September 10, 2011

Butter Chicken and Naan... YUM!!! :)





 I've been having the desire for some good Indian food for a while, but I wanted something different than I have made before, so I decided to attack the butter chicken project.  I combined a couple recipes, to sort of create what I wanted.  So I'll give you Butter Chicken #1 and Butter Chicken #2 so you can have an idea of both.  I will give you the recipe that I created below, so you will know what to do if you choose to make it just like mine.  Just so you know I really like it spicy, so if you want it mild don't put as much cayenne and hot smoked paprika as me.  If you are vegan, I suppose you could do this with tofu and vegetables or something, and it would totally be delicious as well, I would still marinate everything though. 

Combine the following:

1 tea salt
1/2 tea black pepper
1/2 tea cinnamon
1/2 tea cloves
1 1/2 tea cumin
1 1/2 tea coriander
1 tea cayenne pepper
1 Tbls garam masala
1/2 tea cardamom
1 1/2 Tbls hot smoked paprika
1 Tbls grated ginger (or ginger in a tube)
5 cloves minced garlic or 5 tea ^
1/4-1/2 onion diced or grated
1 whole lime or lemon juiced
2 heaping Tbls plain yogurt

~Combine ingredients in little bowl... smell the delicious aroma  :)

Cut up 4 chicken breasts into bite size pieces, and combine with above ingredients in large ziplock bag.  Marinate over night or all day, the longer the better.

Now it is evening, and we are ready to cook our dish

fry together until soft:
1/4 cup butter
1 medium sized onion

~add Chicken and all it's delicious spices.  Cook for about 10 minutes.
~add 1 14 oz can tomato sauce, and a 14 oz can petite cut tomatoes.  Cook for 20 min on medium low heat
                                  (Now is a good time to put some white rice on)
~add 1 cup cream, 2 Tbls almond butter, and 1 Tbls honey.  Simmer for about 10 more min
... I think that's it for the butter chicken  :)

Now... if you can find some time to cook the Naan while you are doing the butter chicken, it is delicious and seemingly necessary to have the naan along with your meal. 
For the Naan, I just used regular butter, but after adding all the ingredients, it seemed too wet, so I had to add quite a bit of flour, so you might have to do that as well other wise, I followed the recipe pretty closely.
To keep them warm, I put my oven to 200 degrees, and put a plate and towel in there to hold my delicious pan bread... Enjoy!