I don’t know about you, but our family loves a good sauce on our chicken. Some of my favorite sauces come from of Indian cuisine. I love it all, but butter chicken is almost a comfort food. Creamy and rich. The spice profile is delicious but not overpowering. You can kick up the heat with chili peppers if you like that extra kick, but we choose to omit them in our house. I use breast meat (save those legs for the grill and don’t forget to make bone broth with the backs!), but any part of the chicken will do!
Ingredients:
1 ½ lbs Grass Fat Farm chicken (about two breasts), cut in 1” chunks
¾ cup yogurt
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp garam masala
4 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
1 onion, diced small
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp finely grated ginger
1 ½ tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp black pepper
1 Serrano chili pepper, diced small (optional)
6 oz tomato paste
1 ¼ cup chicken broth or water
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1 cup heavy cream
handful of cilantro, chopped
basmati or jasmine rice
Steps:
Mix ingredients for marinade (yogurt, salt, and garam masala). Add chicken pieces to marinade and let sit in fridge for at least two hours or as long as overnight.
To make sauce, melt 2 tbsp butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add onions, garlic, and ginger. Cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture just starts to brown, about 8-12 minutes. Add spices and chili pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, for about three more minutes. Add tomato paste and broth/water. Whisk until tomato paste is no-longer clumpy. Add the sugar and salt, bring sauce to a boil, then remove from heat. Stir in heavy cream. Blend sauce until smooth. I use an immersion blender, but you can also ladle the sauce into a standard blender and then return it to the saucepan. Bring the sauce back to a simmer over medium-low heat and then add the remaining 2 tbsp butter. Stir until the butter melts. Cover and remove from heat. The sauce can be made up to two days ahead of time and then gently reheated when you are ready to cook the chicken.
Position rack under broiler and turn it on. Thread chicken pieces onto skewers and put loaded skewers onto a sheet pan. Place sheet pan on the oven rack under the broiler and cook for 6-8 minutes. Turn skewers and broil the other side of your chicken pieces for another 6-8 minutes. You want to see a bit of char on the outside of the chicken and the inside should register at 165 degrees. *
Pull chicken off of skewers and put it into the saucepan of warm deliciousness.
Serve the chicken and sauce over rice and garnish with cilantro.
*Alternatively, you can definitely cook the chicken on the grill.