Butter chicken

Serves 4

Preparation time: 15 minutes 
Marinating time: 3½ hours  
Cooking time:
30 minutes 

This dish has lots of delicious sauce that needs lots of fresh naan! 

Ingredients
800g chicken, boneless and skinless and cut into bitesize pieces 
4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped 
25g ginger, peeled and finely chopped 
½ tsp salt 
2 tsp chilli powder 
3 tsp garam masala 
2  tsp ground turmeric 
2 tsp ground cumin 
3 cardamom pods, crushed 
4 cloves 
1 tsp ground coriander 
½ tsp amchoor powder or 1 tbsp lemon juice 
1½ tbsp lemon juice 
75ml natural yoghurt 
100g tomato purée  
175g passata 
100g butter 
100ml double cream 
2 tbsp sugar 

Equipment needed
Skewers

Method
In a bowl put half of the garlic and ginger, the salt, 1 tsp chilli powder and 1 ½ tbsp lemon juice. Mix, add the chicken pieces.  Cover and put into the fridge for 30 minutes.  If you are using wooden skewers then put them in water to soak. 

Mix together the yogurt, 1 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp turmeric and 1 tsp cumin and add to the chicken.  Carefully mix together to ensure everything is properly coated.  Cover and put back into the fridge for 3 hours. 

Preheat the Grill to high.  Thread the chicken onto the skewers, but don’t put the chicken pieces too close together as it won’t cook evenly.  Cook for 15-20 minutes turning every 5 minutes or sooner if it looks like it is catching too much.  You do want a little char to it. 

Meanwhile heat a heavy based pan over a medium heat and add 25g of the butter.  When the butter has melted add the rest of the garlic and ginger and cook for 2 minutes.  Add the remaining chilli powder, garam masala and turmeric and also the cardamom, cloves and coriander. Stir well and cook until you can smell the aromas. Add the tomato purée, sugar and the amchoor powder and cook for a further minute so you cook out the raw tomato taste, add the passata and cook for another couple of minutes. Remove the chicken from the skewers and add to the sauce and stir well to coat. Add the cream and stir through and then add the butter and stir until the butter has melted. Taste for balance and seasoning.  The sauce will be a little acidic because of all of the tomatoes but should not be too acidic.  If the balance is not quite right add another tbsp of sugar and a little more butter and cream.  Different tomatoes and tomato purées have different acidity levels.  Serve with basmati rice and lots of naan bread to soak up the juices.