Chicken butter masala or Butter chicken is one of my favourite restaurant dishes. When I wish to eat “nan” or “paratha”, I usually order this item as side dish. It goes well with “pulao” too. To prepare it at home I started looking for its recipe in youtube and was flooded by various of its kind. After trying a few amongst them, I am sharing the following recipe here since it brought maximum satisfaction for me.

Ingredients to serve 4 :

1. Boneless chicken – 350 gm.
2. Butter – 3 tbspoon
3. Onion (medium) – 1½
4. Tomato (large) – 1½
5. Yogurt – 3 tbspoon
6. Ginger paste – 1 tbspoon
7. Garlic paste – 1 tbspoon
8. Cashew nut – 8 – 10
9. Bay leaf – 1
10. Cloves – 3
11. Turmeric powder – ¼ teaspoon
12. Roasted coriander powder – ½ teaspoon
13. Chilli powder – ½ teaspoon
14. Garam masala powder – ½ teaspoon
15. Tandoori masala powder – 1½ teaspoon
16. Kasuri methi – 1 tbspoon
17. Milk – ½ cup
18. Fresh cream – 2 – 3 tbspoon
19. Salt & sugar to taste
20. Coriander leaves for garnishing

Procedure :

Cut the boneless chicken into 12 – 14 cubes.

Marinate the chicken pieces with salt, yogurt, ½ tbspoon ginger paste, ½ tbspoon garlic paste and 1 tbspoon tandoori masala powder for minimum 1 hour.

In the meanwhile cut the onion into large pieces and boil it in a pan with water. As the raw flavour of the onion goes away put the gas of, let the onion cool and then make a smooth paste with them.

Make another smooth paste with tomato and cashew nuts.

Grill the chicken pieces into your oven at 250ºC until they becomes light brown.

While chicken is cooking let’s prepare the gravy. Melt 2 tbspoon of butter in a fryning pan over medium heat. Add the cloves and the bay leaf into it, saute for a while then add the boiled onion paste. Cook the onion for few minutes, then add the remaining ginger and garlic paste. Again cook for another minute and then add salt, sugar, turmeric powder, coriander powder, chilli powder, garam masala powder and the remaining tandoori masala powder. Mix them very well and cook until raw flavour of the spices goes away.

Now add another tbspoon of butter, tomato & cashew nut paste and kasuri methi into the mixture. Rub the kasuri methi by hand before adding. Now cook the whole mixture till the raw flavour of tomato goes away and oil comes out from the mixture. Then add ½ cup of milk and ½ cup of water.

As the mixture starts boiling add the baked chicken pieces into it. Cover the pan with a lid and let it cook for few minutes.

As the gravy thickens to your desired consistency add fresh cream to it and stir very well.

Put the gas off and garnish with coriander leaves and fresh cream.

Serve with nan, roti, paratha or pulao.

Note :

1. You can use chicken with bone instead of boneless chicken.
2. If you have no option to bake/grill the chicken then add the marinated chicken before adding the tomato paste and cook till the chicken gets cooked. After that add the tomato paste and follow the procedure as given above.
3. To make a rich gravy you can use 1 cup of milk instead of adding ½ cup of water.