Easy butter chicken
- Prepare
- less than 30 mins
- Cook
- 10 to 30 mins
- Serve
- Serves 2
Romy Gill's easy butter chicken recipe is nut-free, perfect for two and quick to make. It's topped with fragrant cardamom and fenugreek. Serve with steamed rice or naan bread.
Each serving provides 858 kcal, 66.4g protein, 10.5g carbohydrate (of which 8.8g sugars), 60.7g fat (of which 28.9g saturates), 1.8g fibre and 1.75g salt.
By Romy Gill
From Ready Steady Cook
Ingredients
- 3–4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, trimmed and cut into 2cm/¾in chunks
- 6 green cardamom pods
- pinch dried fenugreek leaves
For the marinade
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp sunflower oil
- 1 tsp garam masala
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp ground coriander
- ½ tsp paprika (not smoked)
- ½ tsp flaked sea salt
- ¼ dried flaked chillies
For the sauce
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 garlic cloves, finely grated
- 15g/½oz fresh root ginger, finely grated
- ½ tsp garam masala
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp ground coriander
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves
- pinch dried chilli flakes
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
- 1½ tbsp tomato purée
- 100ml/3½fl oz double cream
- pinch flaked sea salt
Method
Preheat the oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7.
Mix all the marinade ingredients in a small ovenproof dish (ideally cast iron) or a small roasting tin. Add the chicken and coat thoroughly in the marinade. Roast for 10 minutes. (See the Recipe Tips, below, for air fryer instructions.)
While the chicken is cooking, make the sauce. Heat the butter in a medium non-stick frying pan. Cook the garlic and ginger over a low heat for 1–2 minutes, or until softened but not coloured, stirring constantly. Add the garam masala, cumin, coriander and turmeric and cook for 30 seconds, stirring.
Sprinkle over the fenugreek and chilli flakes and cook for a few seconds more, then add the caster sugar and tomato purée. Cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly.
Add 6 tablespoons cold water and the cream and bring to a simmer. Season with salt, to taste.
Stir the chicken into the creamy sauce. Return to the oven for a further 10 minutes, or until the chicken is tender and the sauce is bubbling.
Just before the chicken is done, roughly bash the cardamom pods in a pestle and mortar and remove the husks. Grind the seeds to a powder. Sprinkle the ground cardamom and remaining fenugreek over the butter chicken just before serving.
Recipe tips
You can air fry the chicken for 10 minutes at 180C instead of putting the oven on. In step 6, rather than finishing off the curry in the oven, just simmer it gently on the hob.
The chicken might not be completely cooked through after the initial 10 minutes cook time, but don't worry as it will be cooked more when it's added to the sauce. The aim is to char the chicken slightly in a tandoori-style.
It's important to add the cream near the end of the cooking process as it can split if you heat it too vigorously.
