Chicken in a rich buttercream sauce

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

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

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