Easy Butter Chicken

Ingredients 

 Method:

• Marinate chicken with lemon juice, ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, curd and salt as per taste.
• Mix well and coat all the ingredients well with chicken. Keep it aside for at least half an hour.
• Until chicken gets marinated let’s prepare the masala. In a pan add little oil and heat it in medium flame.
• Once oil is hot, sauté ginger garlic paste and onions.
• Once onions turn translucent, add cashew nuts, tomato, salt and sugar.
• Turn off the flame once tomatoes turn mushy. Keep it aside to cool down.
• Once the masala is cooled grind them into a smooth paste.
• With the help of strainer, strain these masala so as to get a super smooth texture. You will see only skin of tomatoes left behind. This masala will help our butter chicken to get that super creamy texture (watch the video at 3.12 seconds to get a better idea)
• Now in the same pan heat little oil and generous amount of butter. Keep the flame medium 
• Add marinated chicken and sauté them until they turn brown and nicely cooked. For me it took around 15 mins to cook the chicken 
• Keep these chicken pieces aside and in the same pan add little butter, Kashmiri red chilli powder and turmeric powder. Sauté them for about a minute. Adding red chilli powder to butter / oil enhances the colour of the gravy.
• Next add the grounded masala and cook them only for 2 minutes since we have already cooked our masala. 
• To this add Coriander powder, cumin powder and Garam Masala powder; sauté for about 2 mins
• Finally add chicken pieces, fresh cream and dried fenugreek leaves (Kasuri methi). 
• Cover the lid and cook for about 2-3 minutes.
• Creamy rich Butter chicken is ready to be relished.  

• I have not used salt while cooking since we had already added salt during marination and in our grounded masala. I would suggest you’ll to check the salt content in the last stage and adjust accordingly
• You can also grill the chicken pieces instead of shallow frying.
• You can skip the straining process if you are falling short of time. But would definitely suggest to  do it since this process removes all the unwanted seeds and skin leaving behind a smooth texture
• You can use boneless chicken instead of chicken with bones
• I have roasted Kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves) so that it gets powdered easily.

• Marinate chicken with lemon juice, ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, curd and salt as per taste.
  
• Mix well and coat all the ingredients well with chicken. Keep it aside for at least half an hour.
  
• In a pan add little oil and heat it in medium flame.
  
• Once oil is hot, sauté ginger garlic paste and onions.
  
• Once onions turn translucent, add cashew nuts, tomato, salt and sugar.
  
• Turn off the flame once tomatoes turn mushy. Keep it aside to cool down.
  
• Once the masala is cooled grind them into a smooth paste.
  
• With the help of strainer, strain these masala so as to get a super smooth texture.
  
  
• Heat little oil and generous amount of butter.
  
• Add marinated chicken and sauté them until they turn brown and nicely cooked.
  
• In the same pan add little butter, Kashmiri red chilli powder and turmeric powder. Sauté them for about a minute.
  
• Next add the grounded masala and cook them only for 2 minutes
  
• To this add Coriander powder, cumin powder and Garam Masala powder; sauté for about 2 mins
  
• Finally add chicken pieces, fresh cream and dried fenugreek leaves (Kasuri methi).
  
  
  
• Cover the lid and cook for about 2-3 minutes.
  
• Creamy rich Butter chicken is ready to be relished.
  

Methi Malai Mutter

Ingredients:

Method : 

• Wash thoroughly and cut fenugreek leaves soaking them in salt water
• Then blanch them in boiling water with salt for about 2 mins
• Immediately drain out methi leaves from boiling water and soak in cold water
• Now in a pan or Kadhai take some oil sauté ginger, garlic, green chilli, cashew nuts and roughly chopped onions until onions become translucent 
• Cool the masala and grind them into a paste without adding water
• Now in the same pan take some ghee and sauté 1 Bay leaf and cumin seeds.
• Add the white paste masala and sauté them on medium flame for about 2 mins only .Masala is already cooked so we need not cook them for longer time 
• To this add 1/2 tsp Garam Masala powder and 1/2 tsp red chilli powder(optional). Sauté for about 2 mins
• Next add little water as per the consistency or the thickness of the gravy you require. I have added only 1 cup water , I personally like little thick texture 
• Now add boiled peas/ frozen peas and blanched fenugreek leaves. Mix them well with all the masalas 
• Finally add cream /malai and mix them well with the gravy.
• Top with crushed Kasuri methi (optional), it will add nice flavour to our gravy
• And your super rich creamy thick Methi Malai Mutter is ready to be relished 

Note/Tips

• Blanching will mellow down the bitterness of fenugreek leaves 
• Immersing the leaves in cold water will ensure the bright green colour doesn’t fades out
• I have used ready made cream , you can also use Home made malai with little milk
• If you don’t like the taste of cream much you can always reduce the quantity of the cream used and can add water instead 
• I personally like little spice so have used green and red chilli , you can adjust and increase or decrease the proportion as per the taste you desire