Butter Chicken

Butter chicken is the dish that eventually would be transformed by the British into Chicken Tikka Masala, so if you want to find the roots of this classic dish, then check this out!

The concept is to use the remains of tandoori chicken along with a sauce to create an excellent left-overs dish.

So, we'll be as authentic as we possibly can by using around half of the tandoori chicken from the previous post. We'll be swilling out the baking tray to retain those nicely cooked onions and spices - this will be our stock to which we will add tomatoes, blend and strain. Some more spice and a dash of cream will finish off this superb creation.

Ready?

Serves: 4
Cost per person: 2.50 zl (50p!)

You'll need:

- around 300g of tandoori chicken (see previous post)
- stock made from the remains of the tandoori chicken cooking process
- 2 tomatoes
- 2 tsp ginger/ garlic paste
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp kashmiri chili powder (deggi mirch)
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp kasouri methi (fenugreek) leaves
- 2-3 tsp of cream
- a little butter or vegetable oil
- salt to taste

Let's groove!

1. Swill out the baking tray you used for the tandoori chicken into a pan.

2. Add the chopped tomatoes

3. Cook for around 10 minutes until the tomatoes soften. Blend.

4. Strain.

5. Prep the spices and other ingredients for the next stage

6. Heat up some oil or butter (it is "butter chicken" after all...) in a pan. Fennel seeds in. Fry off the ginger/ garlic paste for around 1 minute.

7. Add the sauce you whizzed up and strained a few minutes ago.

8. Spices in (hold back the garam masala and the fenugreek leaves). Cook for a few minutes.

9. Chicken in. Check the seasoning.

10. Garam masala in

11. Fenugreek leaves in

12. Stir in the cream and turn off the heat. Enjoy with rice!

Cost:

- Chicken: 4 zl
- Tomatoes: 2 zl
- Rice to serve: 2.40 zl
- Rest: 1.60 zl

Total: 10 zl
Per person: 2.50 zl