Recipe for Indian Butter Chicken (Murgh Mahkani)

We really love "ethnic" meals at my house. Even my (nearly) 2 year old tears 'em up! Here is our favorite Indian dish. It is a little spicy but you could half the measurements of each spice to "white bread" it up. The recipe might seem intimidating at first, but it really is pretty simple and you can find all the ingredients at a run-of-the-mill grocery store.

 What you'll need:
For Marinade-
1/2 teas. salt
1/4 teas. black pepper
1 teas. cayenne pepper
1 teas. red curry powder
1 teas. hot madras curry powder
1 teas. cumin
1 teas. cardamom
1 teas. coriander
2 tbl. lemon or lime juice
5 garlic cloves - minced (or 1 heaped tbl. of pre-minced garlic)

For Sauce-
1 large onion - chopped
1/2 c. butter (1 stick)
1 can diced tomatoes (14 oz.)
1/2 can crushed tomaotes (you need 14 oz. but I've only found 28 oz. cans)
1 pint heavy cream

1. Cube chicken to 1/2 inch pieces (I find it helpful to put the chicken in the freezer for about 40 minutes before I cut it. It really helps you get more uniform cubes)

2. Add spices, garlic, and lemon/lime juice. Let chicken marinate in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour (the longer the better!)

3. After chicken has marinated, saute onion in half of the butter (1/4 c. or half a stick) on medium until translucent. [Start rinsing/cooking rice while the onion sautes and everything will be finished at the same time] Add chicken and cook for 10 minutes.
4. Add crushed and diced tomatoes cover and cook for 25 minutes.
5. Add cream and cook an additional 5 minutes with the lid off.
6. Serve over bismati or jasmine rice (these types of rice should be fluffy, not sticky. This is the method I use and the rice is perfect every time).

We like to pair this with curried zucchini (in picture above - recipe coming soon!) and homemade naan with raita (yogurt sauce), but sometimes I'm not up for the challenge. When I'm being lazy too busy to make everything from scratch, we have pre-packaged sides from the Indian section of the grocery store like Palak Paneer (creamy spinach with Indian cheese) and Puppodums (think slightly puffed, saltless cracker) with Mango Chutney.

*Note: This recipe is my own, after years of trial and error, so if you are going to re-post it or pass it along please remember to credit me as the source. Thanks!*