Butter Chicken (Indian)
 

I'd been looking for a recipe for butter chicken similar to the one I'd had last year at a local restaurant and finally found one. It took a few weeks but tonight I plugged it into fitday and got the counts on it. Here we go (btw, its fabulous and not as complicated as it sounds)

Butter Chicken :

3lbs chicken thighs (deboned and deskinned)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ginger, ground
1/2 cup of plain yoghurt

4 tbsp butter
1 piece cinnamon (1 inch)
6 cloves
6 cardamon pods
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup sour cream
1/4 tsp saffron (crushed)
1/2 cup heavy cream (whipping is what I used)
2 tbsp Almond flour (ground almonds)


Mix yoghurt, ginger and salt and rub into chicken
let marinate overnight in fridge

Bake in 375 oven for 50 minutes, save liquid (if any)

In saucepan, melt butter and fry cinnamon, cloves, cardamon and bay leaf for 1 minute
Add sour cream and chicken liquid
Add crushed saffron and cream
Cover and simmer gently for 5 - 6 minutes
Add chicken pieces. Add ground almonds

Cover and let simmer for 4 - 5 minutes
Remove from heat and enjoy.

* all counts are for sauce ingredients only, I have not factored in the chicken

Calories = 1223
fat = 124g
carbs = 23g
fiber = 4g
protein = 13g

Nat

I my gosh...yesterday I was thinking about things I love to eat (and could eat before I started atkins...only 3 days ago) and I thought about how much I love butter chicken. I figured I would be able to eat it, but I didn't want to risk it...but now I can make it at home:) The only thing I'll miss will be the Naan, but oh well.

I have one question...the listing for amt. of carbs, proteins, etc. Is that in the total recipe or for each serving? It uses quite a bit of Chicken so I'm figuring it will feed five or six?

Thanks for the recipe :D

Erin

Hi erin :) That recipe (and nutritional count) is for the entire batch, I just made it and we served 4 hungry people with about 3 oz of the sauce left over (it goes nicely on broccoli so I'm saving it for tomorrow's meal). With the chicken added to the skillet there's barely any room left.. it makes quite a lot.

I hear you about the naan.... boyfreind was lamenting over not having rice with it too, but was satisfied when I brought out the cheesecake for desert :)

Nat

The Butter chicken was GREAT...
 

Thanks so much for the recipe...it turned out great.

I used 2 lbs. of chicken with the recipe, and made four servings...it was soooo filling. I also left out the cardamon pods also (first, b/c I couldn't find pods, second b/c grounded cardamon was 12 bucks in a little spice jar). Overall, I loved it...I already gave the recipe to my mom and she making it tonight:)

Garam Masala
 

{Erin: I also left out the cardamon pods also (first, b/c I couldn't find pods, second b/c grounded cardamon was 12 bucks in a little spice jar). }

Garam Masala is a mixture of various spices. Ground cardamon, cloves, cumin, black pepper are included in almost ALL brands of Garam Masala (check the ingredients). I would have added a teaspoon of garam masala to the marinade albeit heating the individual spices in a little butter helps to bring out all the wonderful flavours to the maximum.

I found the pods at a bulk store, about 20 of them were .16 cents :)

Nat

I got cardamon pods at an Indian grocery store also-very affordable compared to regular supermarket. Also, have found just the seeds in bulk at an oriental foods market/store. Good luck-it's great in tea/coffee (decaf of course!).

I made this for dinner this evening and it was fabulous :thup:

I did 'tweak' the recipe slightly - I used chicken breasts instead of thighs (and reduced the cooking time to 40 minutes), I did not add salt, used mixed spice because I didn't have any cinnamon (and it is the main ingredient in mixed spice) and added a teaspoon of Garam Masala.

I made this, and it came out kinna bland. :( I substituted Garam Masala for the cardamon and cinnammon b/c I didn't have the cardamon. I did everything exactly as it said except that I used a Tbsp of the GM, but the sauce didn't have much flavor. I've never had Indian food before, but I love foods from different cultures. What is butter chicken supposed to taste like?

Butter chicken should taste so sumptuous, so decadent you should feel like a mogul emperor reclining on pillows, surrounded by his/her harem :)

Of the 50 or so recipes I've seen for butter chicken, I'd have say that although many had variations in ingredients, not one was missing garlic. Not to say that this isn't a delicious recipe. It's just that if one were trying to match their local restaurant, I'd add some garlic - and some other things as well.

Thanks for that awesome taste visualization!...hehehe...hmm, i wanna feel like I'm surrounded by a harem of men....I'll have to cheat one day to find out what I'm missing, then doctor up a recipe.

Definitely do try it. Butter chicken (murg makhani) and the world famous dish derived from it, Chicken Tikka Masala, could be the best chicken dishes on the planet, imho :)

Oh, and my apologies for saying "his harem". The gender slipup has been edited.

If you need help with recipes, let me know. As I said earlier, my collection of butter chicken recipes is fairly vast. I have been trying to replicate my favorite restaurant for years and although I've made some headway, I still have some fine tuning to do.

Hi! I hope you don't mind me jumping in on this thread... I'd love some butter chicken recipes Scott! I'm a chef and my specialty is in cooking Thai & Indian food - so always looking for some fine-tuned recipes.

It looks awesome and I'm going to try this recipe sometime soon... but I wish I could get my BF to eat it with me.

This might sound totally retarded... but my BF would not even taste it unless it looked authentic. He's ridiculously picky about food. Everything is perfect except for the color. What can I do to it to make it look bright orange, so I can convince him to eat some?

(He's from Bombay, India)

Butter Chicken isn't supposed to be bright orange - the nearest dish that I can think of that's orange would be something like Chicken Tikka Massalla.

BTW, here's a pic of Nat's Butter Chicken, so that you can see how it turns out:
http://forum.lowcarber.org/gallery/...&cat=504&page=4

You could use a small amount of turmeric powder to make it yellow. A little bit of the stuff goes a long way though so start with 1/4 - 1/2 tsp of it.

Jenn

My boyfriend is Indian.... and he has tons of Indian friends. Every recipe of butter chicken we have ever eaten is bright orange.... not creamy yellow-ish, like the picture. Sometimes, the color is closer to a dark yellow, but it's usually more of an orange. I am 100% sure I'm talking about butter chicken, merg makhani (sp).

Chicken Tikka Masala should be dark-orange/red in color.... different dish.

I'm not the picky one. I don't care what color it turns out, as long as it tastes good. It's my BF who's a huge pain in the butt about food. I normally cook for myself and he does his own thing anyways... but it would be nice to make something that we can eat together one day.

I swear... if I have to add food coloring, I'll do it. :lol:

SkinnySoon, I totally know what you're talking about - and no, you're not crazy. Often, what is sold in Indian restaurants as 'butter chicken' has a good amount of tomato paste added to it...hence the orange hue (turmeric+tomato=orange) i would think that this recipie would be excellent with a few spoons of good tomato paste added...and then maybe your bf would eat it? what do you guys think? hope that helps!

The chicken for butter chicken that is served in restaurants is usually cooked tandoori style and added to the sauce. That's what makes the sauce reddish. There is usually some sort of tomato product in the sauce too.

Patak's makes a good paste if you don't mind food colouring, but you can make it yourself.

I love butter chicken. :yum:

Karen

The cardamon is no problem, the saffron though, that's almost gold :)

Patak's is awesome.... but it has too much sugar in it for my taste. My BF uses it all the time to make tandoori chicken on the BBQ.

I think you guys are right about the tomato paste. The place we go to uses crushed fresh tomatoes. Whenever I eat there, even though I try to stay "legal", I could swear that I'm eating alot of hidden carbs I'm not expecting.

...and right again about the tandoori chicken added to the sauce. That's exactly how they make it.

Apologies, it's just that in the UK butter chicken is not usually red/orange, but is like the picture - very similar to korma and pasanda in colour.

skinnysoon
 

I've posted this recipe before, i have to say that i think it tastes awesome!!and you'll be pleased to know that it is an orangy colour!
Butter chicken
25gms butter
1 onion,finely chopped
1 clove garlic-crushed
2 large boneless,diced chicken breasts[about 600 gms]
1/2 tspn each of ground ginger,cinnamon,salt,tumeric & mild chilli powder
3/4 -1 cup cream
1 Tblspn tomato paste
1/4-1/2 tspn garam masala

Melt butter, saute onion and garlic.
Combine spices [not garam masala] and toss chicken until well coated.
Saute chicken, stirring until golden.
Stir in cream and tomato paste.Sprinkle with garam masala.
Cover and simmer 8-10 mins...mmmm

I think I'll try both recipes.... but I won't have the time for a couple weeks. (i'm going out of town)

Demi... no worries. I'm sure it comes prepared in many different ways, and colors too.

I thought it probably had sugar in it too until I checked the ingredients on the website.

Water, Tamarind, Ginger, Salt, Coriander, Cumin, Garlic Powder, spices, Acetic Acid, Colours (E163, E122, E129), Lactic Acid

It has 17.8 grams ECC for 100 grams which is about 1/3 of a bottle. That's loads more than you need for a whole chicken and it's usually mixed with yogurt for marinating. So, it's not as bad as first thought.

If you like spice, Patak's lime pickle rocks with fried eggs and it's very low in carbs.

Karen

I don't know which one you're using, but my bottle says 4 grams of net cabs per serving, which is only 2 tbls. I never read the ingredients to see where all the carbs were coming from, but I'm happy there's no sugar in it. It's probably from the tamarind.... but spices add up carbs fast too.

It's the way he makes it that adds up the carbs. When my BF makes tandoori chicken, he uses the entire bottle and mixes it with a full 32 oz tub of yogurt and puts about 5 pounds of chicken in it. We cook for the "boyz" on Friday nights sometimes.

I still eat some of it, but I wonder how many carbs I get from it because it's really hard to figure out carbs from marinades when your not eating all the marinade.

OMG>>> YUMMMM!
 

I have to say, I've never even cooked an Indian dish before but I think I done good on this one. :)

I happen to love Indian food, and have never had this dish, so maybe it didn't come out "the way it's supposed to"... but I could've eaten the whole thing!!

I used Natrushka's recipe, but I searched for a regular recipe for Murg Makhani - got a good one on this site: http://chicken.allrecipes.com/az/Mk...nBttrChickn.asp
because I saw the comment about blandness and lack of chilies and/or garlic.

So I added 1/2 teaspoon (didn't want to burn off my tongue) of green chili paste, and 1 tablespoon of chopped garlic with Nat's recipe. Also one tbsp. of garam masala.

I REALLY WISH I had made a lot more...it really was decadent, aromatic, delicious, :yum: and tempting.

Thank you!

I want to thank you so much for posting this recipe...I bought about 50 pounds of thighs and drumsticks at 27 cents a pound and was getting tired of buffalo wing style chicken...

This is the best tasting chicken recipe i have ever tasted in my life...I love it!! Now I know what to do with the 40 pounds I have left!!! Thank-You Thank-You Thank-You!!!!

We had this for dinner tonight and I thought it was wonderful. I served all the non LC people safron rice and rolls with it and I had brussel sprouts. It was very easy to prepare and the taste was definately something different than what I usually make. I will be making this again. Thanks for sharing!

The bright orange that's typical of tandoori chicken, and of dishes made with tandoori chicken, just comes from red food coloring mixed with the yogurt (or sour cream, if you're sub'ing) in the marinade. Nothing complicated about it -- all my Indian cookbooks name the red food coloring.

Haven't done an intro yet, but I will eventually. In any case, I used to cook for a living, and Indian was among my favorite types of cooking. Love the complexity of flavors. This recipe is very much like the butter chicken recipe I use.