Butter Chicken

I love butter chicken but I am quite hesitant about ordering it in restaurants because of the amount of butter used in preparing this. I had this recipe written across the page of my diary and umpteen times I thought of cooking butter chicken at home, but being watchful on my diet, I didn't dare try this one. However, this time when my hubby invited few of his colleagues over for dinner, I made an attempt at cooking this.

I cooked 1 1/2 kg chicken using only 100 gm of butter. I know I should have been liberal with the quantity of butter but being used to skimp on oil, my hands didn't permit me more. The turnout was nice, at least me and my hubby had the dinner with pleasure but am sure anyone fond of eating oily food won't find my butter chicken appetizing. Never mind, just increase the amount of butter and your butter chicken would turn out to be something spectacular.

Ingredients:                                                          Cooking time: 1 hour ü  Tomato puree made from at least 6-7 tomatoes ü  1 kg boneless chicken ü  1 tsp chopped garlic ü  1 medium sized onion ü  2 tsp ginger paste ü  2 tsp garlic paste ü  2 heaped tbsp of curd ü  Lemon juice extracted from 1 lemon ü  6-7 green chillies (slit in the middle) ü  1 tsp sugar ü  2 heaped tbsp of cream ü  2 tsp of vinegar ü  2 tsp coriander powder ü  2 tsp cumin powder ü  2 tsp dry red chilli powder ü  Butter as per your wish (the more the better: D) Method: 1) Make a paste out of the following ingredients - onion, 2 tsp ginger paste, 2 tsp garlic paste, 2 tbsp curd, lemon juice, vinegar, 1 tsp cumin powder, 1 tsp coriander powder, 1 dry red chilli powder and salt. 2) Marinate the chicken with the above paste and refrigerate for an hour or so. 3) Heat butter. Add the marinated chicken and cook covered on low heat. 4) Meanwhile, in another pan, heat butter and add chopped garlic. When garlic takes on the golden brown color, add 1 tsp cumin powder, 1 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp red chilli powder, salt and tomato puree. Further add 2 tbsp of cream and green chillies. When it comes to a boil, add this to the chicken on simmer. 5) Add sugar and cook covered till chicken is tender and the spices blend with each other. 6) Finally garnish with more cream and coriander leaves. 7) Serve hot with fried rice or pulao.