butter chicken Archives - One Girl and her Thermie

Murgh Makhani (Butter Chicken)

Butter chicken or murgh makhani is a dish, originating in India, of chicken in a mildly spiced tomato sauce. This is one of the ultimate curry dishes. The secret is to marinate the chicken in the chicken tikka paste overnight before combining it with the rich, indulgent makhani sauce.

I’ve seen ‘skinny’ or diet versions of this on various Thermomix bloggers websites. I’m going to take a stand on this and say don’t go there. If you translate murgh makhani it literally translates to chicken butter. If the key ingredients weren’t chicken or butter, then it wouldn’t be called that. If you don’t want to indulge in these, then choose another dish. Something like chicken tikka masala which uses tomatoes as the base, not butter and cream. There is absolutely no point of even attempting this dish if you are not going to stay true to the dish.

Seriously though, if the ingredients give you cause for concern or you are following a particular diet, then use the tikka paste and make chicken tikka masala which uses tomatoes as a base instead of cream and butter. It’s another Punjabi dish and one of our family favourites.

N.b. I have a separate post for the tikka paste on the website.

Tikka paste

1 Comment / Basics, Vegan & Vegetarian

This really easy homemade Tikka Paste is great to have handy in the fridge, ready for your next impromptu curry night.

A selection of Indian spices, fresh garlic, fresh ginger, garlic cloves, tomato puree, olive oil, and fresh coriander. Pop all the ingredients into the Thermomix and blend into a paste. The important part here that Thermomix can do that a normal blender can’t is the cooking part. The beauty of it is that once made you can stick the jars in the fridge and use as and when desired. It will keep for up to 3 months.

I like to marinade chicken pieces and then turn this into butter chicken, I slather it on salmon and steam it, or simply such as to any meat, fish or veggies plus a can of coconut milk for a quick curry.