Main Dishes

One of my favourite dishes of all time is Butter Chicken. This is a dish I frequently crave along with a hot-from-the-pan roti….this is not the easiest thing to think about while you fasting *wipes drool*

There are so many butter chicken recipes out there, some include cashew and fresh cream whereas others include plain yoghurt or sour cream and tomato paste. Definitely on my bucket list is to learn to make authentic Pakistani butter chicken, preferably by a Pakistani 🙂

Yesterday I had my best friend, Tasneem AKA Domingo and her husband Waseem over for iftaar (meal eaten by muslims to break their fast). Domingo and I were on a mission to find Eid clothes Saturday morning and while driving we took about 2minutes to decide on the menu for our iftaar together the next day – I find it incredibly easy to decide what to make during the fast, as each day comes with its different cravings.

Yes, the obvious choice was the heavenly combination of butter chicken and roti and for dessert, Domingo requested I whip up a batch of chocolate brownies.

The blog is definitely tickling my adventurous bone, pushing me to try new recipes, so I thought because I was sticking to my old-faithful choc brownie recipe I should definitely be audacious with the butter chicken. I remember seeing Deena Naidoo’s (winner of MasterChef SA) butter chicken recipe in the MasterChef and You magazine collaboration. With baking being my passion, majority of the posts would fit under that category but due to special requests, I will be including some “foodie recipe”. With that said, please see below (and try out!) my first “foodie” recipe:

Butter Chicken – (MasterChef winner Deena Naidoo recipe)

Ingredients

20ml oil

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1 stick cinnamon

1 medium onion chopped

300g chicken fillet (cubed)

1/2 tsp whole jeera (cumin)

1/2 tsp bori (turmeric)

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp coriander powder

2/3 cup liquidised tomatoes

1 1/2 tsp garlic & ginger

4tsp ground cashew (I used ground almond)

1/2 tsp salt (to taste)

1/2 cup fresh cream

Method:

Fry mustard seeds and cinnamon stick in oil until seeds start popping.
Add onions and cumin seeds, heat until onions become translucent.
Add remaining dry spices.

Add tomato, garlic & ginger and cashew (I used ground almond simply because I had no ground cashew) then simmer for 2-3 minutes.
Remove from heat and remove cinnamon stick.
Blend this mixture with a hand blender.
Add cubed chicken and simmer for 5-7 minutes.
Add salt to taste and pour cream in pot allowing to simmer over very low heat for 3-4 minutes or until cooked.