Murgh Makhini (Butter Chicken)

Last week I had a hankering for butter chicken. While I go out for Indian regularly, I have not ordered butter chicken for many years as, upon arrival to my palate, it always disappoints. I find it overly rich and often lacking actual flavour. It was time to make the butter chicken I've always dreamed of - only I had no idea how!

After some recipe research, I was disappointed at the amount of what I would call lazy and lousy recipes. They tend to rely heavily on cream, sugar and salt and employ little in the way of spices. Gods forbid they include a vegetable! So I cobbled together a recipe prototype with a little (lot of) creative licence and gave it a whirl only to find the resulting dish 'nice'. 'Nice' just doesn't cut it. In fact, I strongly dislike 'nice'. Tonight I tweaked that prototype and came up with 'freaking delicious'. I enjoy 'freaking delicious'. Here it is:

(Keep in mind my measurements are estimated - I generally measure spices by sight as I store them in dark bottles and just tip them into my hand as I go. My advice when in doubt: go for more!)

INGREDIENTS:

• 5 chicken thighs (diced into medium sized chunks)
  

• 7 cloves garlic
• thumb-sized piece fresh ginger
• pinch salt
• 2 tsp Kashmiri chili powder (or paprika)
  
• 2 tsp tumeric powder
• tbsp rice bran oil

• 2 tsp corriander seed
• 2 tsp cumin seed
• 7 green cardamom pods
• 5 cloves

• tbsp ghee or butter
  
• 3 tsp cumin seed
• 1 tsp fenugreek seed
  
• 1 brown onion (diced)
• 4 large tomatoes (diced)
• 2-3 green chilies (chopped) (or however many of whatever kind you have on hand)
  
• 1 carrot (diced)
• 1/2 cup tamarind water
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1/2 cup hot water
• 1/2 cup plain yoghurt
• 1/2 cup gram flour (chickpea flour)
• long twig of fresh curry leaves
• green vegetables of choice (I used a bunch of brocolini (chopped) and a cup or so of frozen baby peas)

PREPARATION

1. Marinade: Use a mortar and pestle to make a paste of the garlic, ginger and salt. Add the tumeric, Kashmiri chili powder and oil. Rub this into the chicky thighs. mmm yeah. Let the babies rest somewhere for an hour or so.
   
2. Tamarind Water: Put a good tablespoon or so of tamarind pulp in bowl with half a cup of boiling water and let it steep for a while, breaking up the pulp as much as possible. Strain all the watery goodness just before cooking.
   
3. Garum Masala: Dry fry the corriander, cumin, cardamom pods and cloves. Extract the seeds from the cardamom pods and throw away the shell. Pound all this up in a mortar and pestle to make a powder. Smells goooood!
4. Beat the gram flour into the yoghurt to make an incorporated paste and set aside.
   

COOKING

1. Seal pasty chicky thighs in two batches with a little extra oil if necessary in a hot pan. Once sealed, remove to a plate to await their next exciting role.
2. Add butter/ghee to same pan (hopefully with good brown flavour stuck to the bottom of the pan now). Quickly fry the remaining cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds then add the onion and turn down the heat before the flavour coating left over from the chicken starts to burn. If it's getting black fast, skip to the next step asap!
   
3. Deglaze the pot with the tomatos and tamarind water. Add the chili, carrot, garum masala, honey and cinnamon. Place a lid on the pot and simmer for a while (basically until the tomato starts to break down and the carrot is soft).
   
4. Remove your cinnamon quill. Get out your blitz stick (or use a blender) and blitz the shit outta that sauce. Smooooooth!
5. Replace your cinnamon quill. Add the sealed chicken, curry leaves and hot water. Simmer with a lid until the chicken is cooked though.
6. Add the yoghurt and gram flour combo attack and stir in the green veges. Another 5 minutes of simmer and you're THERE!

I don't tend to make Indian breads unless I'm entertaining so I just served mine with plain brown rice. It was fabulous, fabulous, fabulous. You can be fabulous too.