As much as I love this dish, and my family loves this dish, I am patiently waiting until my kids are a tad bit older, and have better fork-to-mouth motor skills, because turmeric stains. Enough said. This dish does have a ton of ingredients to prep, and a pretty long cook time, most of which is hands-off, but still. Overall, it’s a pretty smooth and painless recipe, and the end result is totally worth the initial struggle.
Butter Chicken with Rice
Ingredients
- 1 cup full-fat Greek yogurt
- ½ lemon, juiced
- 1 tablespoon ground turmeric
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 2-3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, diced into bite sized pieces
- kosher salt
- 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and grated or finely diced
- 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 roma tomatoes, diced
- jalapeño pepper, seeded (or not) and diced
- ⅔ cup chicken stock
- ½ cup light cream
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- ½ freshly chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Whisk together yogurt, lemon juice, turmeric, garam masala and cumin in a large bowl. Season chicken pieces with kosher salt, and fold chicken into the yogurt mixture, coat entirely with the marinade. Cover, and refrigerate (the longer you can let this marinate, the better).
- In a large pan over medium heat, melt the butter until it starts to foam. Add the onions, and cook, stirring frequently, until translucent. Season with salt. Add the garlic, ginger and cumin seeds, and cook until the onions start to brown.
- Add the cinnamon stick, sugar, tomatoes, and jalapeno, season with salt, and cook until the chiles are soft, about 10 minutes.
- Add the chicken and marinade to the pan, and cook for 5 minutes, then add the chicken stock. Bring the mixture to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for approximately 40 minutes.
- Meanwhile, begin your rice.
- Stir in cream and tomato paste into your chicken, and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Garnish with the cilantro leaves.