Cassie’s Kid Friendly Butter Chicken

A neighbour made this for us the other night. When she suggested it I readily agreed – because I LOVE butter chicken – but made another dinner for our kids because I couldn’t imagine them eating something so spicy.

I was wrong.

“I can’t believe they’re eating it,” I murmured.

“I’ve adjusted the spices so the kids will eat it but it’s still yummy enough for us adults,” she told me.

It probably won’t surprise you to learn my next sentence was, “I’m gonna need this recipe.”

But even with the recipe, this dish took a lot of soul searching. Not soul, sorry. I mean Google. This dish took a lot of Google searching.

For a start, I had an idea what both salt and kosher mean, but had never heard them placed together to mean something specific. Wouldn’t all salt would be kosher? In any case, I doubt a dish which includes meat and dairy is going to feature at a bar mitzvah (again, thank you Google for smartsing me up).

Ultimately, I couldn’t find anything with kosher salt written on it, but I did take this as an excuse to buy Himalayan Crystal Salt, which I’ve been eyeing off for some time, so already this recipe is coming up trumps for me.

Then there were two words which made no sense to me at all – neither together or pulled apart and looked at singularly: garam masala.

But eventually I managed to round up all the ingredients. By which I mean I showed the shop assistant my list and he raced around and got them for me.

WARNING: You will need a blender. That surprised me 🙂

You will need:

Chicken, 1kg, diced into 2-3cm pieces

Lemon juice, 2 tablespoons

Garlic, minced, 1.5 teaspoon

Galam masala, 1/2 tablespoon

Kosher salt, 1 teaspoon

for sauce

Vegetable oil, 1/4 cup

Onions, 2, roughly chopped

Garlic, minced, 3 tablespoons

Garam masala, 2 tablespoons

Paprika, 3 teaspoons

Cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon

Kosher salt, 2 teaspoons

Canned tomatoes, 2 tins

Cream, 1 cup

Butter, 3 tablespoons

Beer, 2 stubbies, let’s call it garnish

STEP ONE:  Marinate the chicken by putting it in a bag with the non-sauce ingredients above – lemon juice, kosher salt, galam masala and garlic. Place aside on bench while you prepare the sauce and sip the beer. Oh, yeah – you may sip your beer.

STEP TWO:  In a large saucepan, heat the oil and add the onions. You want to slooooowly cook the onions, chasing them around the pan with a wooden spoon occasionally. Fifteen minutes should see them done nicely and, if you’ve timed this correctly, your first stubby is empty.

STEP THREE: Now things get moving.  Add garlic and chase it around the pan for one minute.

STEP FOUR: Add garam masala, paprika, cinnamon and salt and spend another beerless minute keeping them moving in the pan.

STEP FIVE: Add tomatoes and stir in for two minutes. If thirsty, open second stubby of garnish and take a well deserved sip.

STEP SIX: Add cream.

STEP SEVEN: Now you need to get a blender involved so the whole thing will have that wonderful, silky, aromatic awesomeness. Do it in small batches with small sips of garnish between batches.

STEP EIGHT: Return the sauce to the stove (probably in the saucepan rather than the blender) and heat it up until it’s simmering. Add the chicken and cook until cooked – 10 to 15 minutes. Just enough time to polish off the last of the garnish and give some thought to what you might like to drink during dinner.

STEP NINE: Stir in butter.

STEP TEN: Serve. With lots of rice. And more garnish, to taste.

“Raising a family on little more than laughs”

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