Butter Chicken
- 8 chicken breasts (boneless skinless)
- 4 medium yellow onions
- 3 Tablespoons chopped garlic
- 1 inch ginger (peeled and grated)
- 1 large can chopped tomatoes (I can't remember what size I used. It costs in between $1.50 and $2.00 though.)
- 1 Tablespoon Chili Powder
- 3 Tablespoons Garam Marsala
- 1 stick butter
- 1/2 pint heavy whipping cream
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/3 cup canola oil
I know, I know. This is NOT one of my healthier recipes!
The key to this recipe was patience. I started out by grabbing my largest frying pan and dumping approximately 1/3 cup of canola oil into the bottom of it. I turned the fire up to a low/medium heat, and started chopping onions. You are going to puree the sauce in a food processor, so just a loose chop is fine. I threw the onions in, and because onions cook faster than garlic, I waited until they were translucent to put my garlic and grated ginger in. I let they go a little longer, and then put half a stick of the butter into the pan with me. I kept on just cooking it on a nice low heat until it was nice and caramelly looking, and then I added the spices. I opened my tomatoes, drained all the juice off, and put them in the frying pan with the onions. I cooked it for maybe ten to fifteen minutes longer, and then took the frying pan off the heat. While that was cooling, I chopped my chicken into about one inch cubes, and threw those into a crock pot. Once the onion and tomato mixture was cool enough to handle it, I put it in a food processor and whirred it until it was pureed, but not liquefied. I put the puree in the crock pot with the chicken, stirred it all up, and set it on high. I waited about half an hour, and then put the other half of the butter into the crock pot. I stirred every once and a while, and when the chicken started to look kind of done, I put on rice. (NOTE: the chicken only took about an hour and a half to cook, so keep a pretty close eye on it.) About ten minutes before I took the chicken off the heat, I added the cream, tasted the mixture, and added a bit more garam marsala and chili powder. When the rice was done, I set the rice maker and the crock pot on the table along with some Nan and let people go to town.
The Rice
Some people are rice challenged. I am definitely one of those people. I have a small rice maker with a 5 cup capacity. I had never made all 5 cups of rice, and I learned that I need to put in a bit less liquid when I do that. My rice was a bit um. Mushy. So my advice is, make sure you completely know your appliances before using them to prepare food for guests.
The Nan
Not all of you may know what this is. It is an Indian flat bread that you get in pretty much any Indian restaurant. You can buy them at most any international grocery store. However, my friend managed to find it at Trader Joe's, and I must say, it was fantastic. He got regular Nan, and then a garlic Nan. I put them in a very low oven (175 degrees F) for about fifteen minutes, and pulled them out when I was ready to serve everything else.
Dessert
I made Italian Cream Cake. It is wonderful enough to deserve its own post.
The Final Conclusion
It was basically an awesome little party. And I was gratified to see people come back for seconds, and in one case, thirds. I'm betting I could have done better, and certainly next time, I may make some changes, but I think this was pretty terrific for a first try. Not to mention, I love my friends, and everyone really had fun.
NOTE: I didn't take the pictures until the next day. The sauce had soaked into the rice, and it looked more like porridge, than beautiful chicken pieces and orange sauce over rice.
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