Chicken in a rich buttercream sauce

Name: Chicken in a rich buttercream sauce
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: India
Ingredients: Indian bread or Plain Boiled Rice, to serve; Indian bread or Plain Boiled Rice, to serve; 10 ml/2 tsp dried fenugreek leaves; 150 ml/5 fl oz/½ cup double (heavy) cream; 5-10 ml/1-2 tsp chilli powder; 200 ml/7 fl oz/¾ cup warm water; 3 cardamom pods, bruised; 5 cm/2 in cinnamon stick, broken up; 2 green chillies, roughly chopped; 4 cloves; 30 ml/2 tbsp tomato purée (paste); 400 g/14 oz canned chopped tomatoes; 10 ml/2 tsp salt; 10 ml/2 tsp sugar; 10 ml/2 tsp gram flour (besan) or cornflour (cornstarch); 2.5 ml/½ tsp chilli powder; 5 ml/1 tsp sugar; 10 ml/2 tsp gram flour (besan) or cornflour (cornstarch); 45 ml/3 tbsp sunflower oil or light olive oil; 45 ml/3 tbsp sunflower oil or light olive oil; 150 g/5 oz/10 tbsp unsalted butter; 50 g/2 oz/4 tbsp butter, melted; 675 g/1½ skinless chicken breast fillets, cut into 5cm/2in cubes; 30 ml/2 tbsp lemon juice; 5 ml/1 tsp salt, or to taste; 115 g/4 oz/½ cup Greek (US strained plain) yogurt; 15 ml/1 tbsp garlic purée; 15 ml/1 tbsp ginger purée; 2.5 ml/½ tsp ground turmeric; 5 ml/1 tsp garam masala

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Medium

Appears in

The Complete Indian Regional Cookbook

By Mridula Baljekar

Published 2017

About

One of the most popular dishes in India, Murgh Makhani, or ‘butter chicken’, is an ingenious invention from creative Indian chefs who were seeking a way to reheat tandoori chicken without drying it out. You can use leftover tandoori chicken, cooked on the bone, or you can make it with freshly cooked chicken, as here.

Ingredients

For the chicken tikka

675 g/1½ skinless chicken breast fillets, cut into 5cm/2in cubes
30 ml/2

Asia
India
Main course
Spicy

Method

Put the chicken in a mixing bowl. Rub in the lemon juice and salt. Cover with clear film (plastic wrap) and set aside in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Whisk the yogurt and stir in the remaining tikka ingredients, except the butter. Add to the chicken, then stir until the chicken is evenly coated. Cover with clear film and chill for 2-3 hours or ove