My mum and sister were visiting me last month and my sister wanted to eat butter chicken. She started liking butter chicken on her Turkey trip and since then she has been trying to make it at home.

I made this for her and all the people on table loved it. I combined 2 3 recipes from internet, gave it my own twist and it tasted ahhh mayyy zingggg!

P.S If you are looking for sweet, westernised, british, gora type butter chicken then please scroll down because this is the actual Punjabi – Delhi style butter chicken Burrrrrrrrah! its hot, its tangy, its spicy and its flavourful, so lets dig into the recipe…..

Ingredients

FOR CHICKEN MARINATION

2 tbspns mustard oil

1 tbspn Kashmiri or deghi red chilli powder (this chilli is low on spice, high on colour)

1 tbspn red chilli flakes

A generous pinch of aamchur powder

1 tbspn coriander powder

1 tspn cumin powder

1 tspn chaat masala

A small pinch of kasuri methi

A generous pinch of black pepper

1 tbspn ginger garlic and green chilli paste

Salt to taste

2 tbpns yogurt

500 gms boneless chicken (mix of thigh and breast fillet or if you want more flavour, use thigh piece only) cut into 2 inch cubes

FOR CURRY

100g onions (1 and half onion)

500g tomatoes (4 medium sized )

50g cashew nuts (1/3 cup)

2 tbspns vinegar (trust me on that!)

1 tbspn ginger garlic and green chilli paste

1 tbspn coriander powder

1 tspn cumin powder

A generous pinch of garam masala

1 generous pinch of kasuri methi (crushed between palms)

4 to 6 Kashmiri chillies

1 tspn red chilli powder

Salt to taste

A generous pinch or 1/2 tspn brown sugar to balance the tang of tomatoes

4 tbspns oil

A knob of butter

3 to 4 tbspns cooking cream

2 green cardamom

A generous pinch of cumin seeds

Method

Let marinate the chicken first. In a mixing bowl splash some mustard oil and add all the spices and mix. Now add ginger garlic and green chilli paste along with chicken pieces and mix well. Coat all the chicken in this mixture and allow it to marinate for 30 minutes.

Now mix in yogurt and keep aside for 30 more minutes.

Heat oil in a pan and cook this chicken until the chicken is 95% done and the masala is curdled. Cook for further for 2 minutes on high heat to give that char on the chicken pieces. Remove from flame and keep aside until needed.

Lets prepare the curry….

Heat oil in a deep cooking pan or wok and crackle cumin seeds. Add roughly chopped onions and salt and cook until translucent. Now add roughly chopped tomatoes, cashews, vinegar, kashmiri red chillies and all the other spices except kasuri methi and cook for 5 minutes on medium heat. Add a cup of water and cover the lid.

Cook for 20 minutes on medium heat. Remove from flame and allow it to cool a bit.

Pour the mixture in blender and blend it to a smooth paste.

Now in the same pan, melt some butter and add a splash of oil. Pour in the curry and cook for 3 – 4 minutes on medium heat. Add sugar and stir.

Now add cooked chicken along with all the masala and cook for further 5 to 6 minutes.

Finish off with cream, kasuri methi and coriander leaves.

Serve hot with roti or steamed rice.

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