Butter Chicken 2.0 - Almost Tikka Masala Recipe

Creamy. Rich. Flavourful. This butter chicken recipe ticks all the boxes for comfort food, but is surprisingly healthy! Using chicken thighs marinated in a spiced yogurt overnight and garnishing with dried fenugreek, you'll start seeing how Indian restaurants hold up your your cooking.

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This recipe can take some time. Between the marinade and the batch-frying of the chicken, there are a lot of moving parts to this recipe - but the results are so worth it. It can be daunting for a lazy weekly meal prep, but it's the perfect curry recipe to bust out when you're hosting company or need to make something for a pot luck. Don't believe me? Try it once, and tell me if I'm wrong.

This recipe pairs wonderfully with naan, plain rice, or my absolute favourite - vegetable pulao.

Butter Chicken vs. Tikka Masala

What's the difference? Butter chicken, being a milder and creamier dish, is the authentic Indian curry. Tikka Masala was created in England more recently, and is typically punched up with more spices. There are many variations in Tikka Masala recipes - and I'll use the word 'traditionally' very loosely here - are traditionally made of bone-in thighs in a tandoori oven.

We're going to use a few more spices than a classic butter chicken recipe and marinate our meat as though we're following a tikka masala recipe, and our creamy, smooth, and flavourful curry will fall somewhere in between.

This butter chicken recipe calls for almost every spice in the cabinet. If you don't already have an arsenal of Eastern spices, don't worry. We have plenty of other recipes that call for them, so they definitely won't go to waste.

I've had a lot of trouble finding dried fenugreek at my local grocers, and had to turn to drying my own. To avoid being so dramatic, if you can't find any locally you can surprisingly pick some up dried fenugreek from Amazon.

This process involves blooming (or tempering) your spices, which means frying them in oil first to unlock some extra flavour and also transfer some more punch to the oil (which then transfers it through the dish). Blooming whole spices is less risky, you need about 60-90 seconds of heat to get through - but ground spices have a very high surface area, and can burn very quickly. Burnt spices taste only of bitter and sadness, so make sure you start putting cold ingredients in the pan and mixing before the 30-second mark after ground spices are added to a hot pan.

Ingredients

Marinade

• 1 kg chicken thighs

• 1.5 cups plain yogurt

• 1 tsp garam masala

• 1/2 tsp turmeric

• 1 tsp ground cumin

• 1/2 tsp chili powder

• 1 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp coriander

• 1 tsp cardamom

• 1 tsp paprika

• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 1" knob of ginger, grated

Sauce

• 4 tbsp ghee or clarified butter

• 2 large onions, diced

• 4 cloves of garlic, minced

• 1" knob of ginger, grated or minced

• 28 oz can of crushed tomato

• 1 tsp whole cumin seeds (or 1/2 tsp ground)

• 1 tsp garam masala

• 1/2 tsp turmeric

• 1 tsp coriander

• 1 tsp cardamom

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 tsp paprika

• 1/2 tsp chili powder

• 1 tsp honey or agave nectar

• 1/2 cup of heavy cream

• 1 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves

Directions

Marinade

• Mince garlic and mince or grate ginger. Combine everything in a large bowl with your yogurt and the marinade spices.

• Chop your chicken thighs into bite-sized pieces, add to the bowl, and combine thoroughly so the chicken is covered on all sides by the marinade.

• Cover and leave in the fridge for at least 3 hours, up to 24.

Fried Chicken

• Heat a large pan or skillet on medium-high, and season with 1 tbsp of ghee or clarified butter. You can use oil as a substitute but you'll sacrifice texture and flavour.

• Place an even layer of chicken on the pan, leaving space between the pieces to not overcrowd the pan. Flip after 2-3 minutes, when golden brown, and after another 2-3 minutes remove the pieces and set the chicken aside.

• Continue cooking in batches. About halfway through, you might notice a crust forming at the bottom of the pan - between batches, pour some water in the pan to deglaze and clean the pan into a separate bowl to keep the fried marinade bits for later.

• Re-season the pan with a second tbsp of ghee/clarified butter, and continue cooking the chicken in batches until done. Keep the marinade bowl nearby.

Curry Gravy

• After the chicken is fried and set aside, and leaving some friend marinade in the bottom of the pan, reduce heat to medium and add the rest of your ghee with your whole cumin seeds. Wait 60 seconds for the seeds to temper while stirring - if using ground cumin instead, add it with everything else.

• Add the rest of your spices (including garlic and ginger) and stir for about 10 seconds to temper.

• Add your onion, and combine. While stirring, scrape up the fried marinade from the bottom of the pan.

• After the onions turn soft and translucent - about 5 minutes - add your crushed tomato, honey, and scrape out any leftover marinade from the chicken bowl. Combine, and slowly add back some fried marinate bits from earlier to your taste (I usually add it all back in, but it can be bitter if heavily burnt. Go slow and stir and taste as you go).

• Reintroduce the chicken pieces, and leave on a low simmer to cook for about 20 minutes.

• Garnish with fenugreek, and serve with your favourite rice or naan.

Check out the video walkthrough below for tips and tricks!