Butter Chicken

Northwest Transplant's Note:

This version is phenominal! It contains the right balance of ingedients and flavors to make your taste-buds sing, and you the stand-out hero at any dinner party. Ladle a heaping portion over a pile of fluffy Basmati rice along with delicious Naan (recipe to follow) basted with garlic-butter. I would suggest that you use only the freshest of ingedients in this recipe for maximum "punch" (cashews contain oil which unfortunately will turn rancid over time, and ground cumin seed will begin to lose strength after six months or so. Sorry, it's just a sad fact).

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

Butter Chicken

• 2 tablespoons butter (Apx 2 Tbls for the sweat, & enough to saute chicken)
• ¼ cup cashews (roasted & salted)
• 1 ½ tablespoons cumin seeds (preferably whole, see recipe description)
• 1 indian green chili pepper , diced (or other of your choosing)
• ½ large onion , diced
• 2 garlic cloves , diced
• 3 roma tomatoes , diced (or 3 small regular tomatoes)
• ¼ cup tomato paste
• 1 cup cream (apx a Cup or so)
• 1⁄3; cup fresh cilantro , chopped
• 5 boneless chicken breasts or 5 chicken thighs , diced

Naan

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup water
• ½ teaspoon salt

Garlic Butter

• ½ cup butter
• 6 -7 garlic cloves , peeled and chopped

Directions:

1. Butter Chicken: Melt 2 Tbls butter in large frying pan. Sweat cashews, cumin, diced chile, onion and garlic until soft, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes and tomato paste, and cook for another 3-5 minutes. Deglaze pan with cream; then, working in small batches, blend until smooth. Saute chicken, reheat sauce and toss in chicken. Reserve the cilantro for garnishing.
2. Naan: Mix flour and salt in a bowl, then make a well. Add water, stirring it into the flour until a soft, but not sticky, dough forms. Use more flour or water as needed. Knead dough on a clean surface until smooth. Allow to rest for 30-60 minutes.
3. Cut into 8 even pieces and roll each out on a lightly floured surface. Cook on an inverted wok, griddle or cast-iron skillet until lightly browned on both sides. (In reality, "lightly browned" is a bit misleading. What you should see is blackened "boils" or pock-marks on the surface.) Oh, and if you cook on an electric range, don't despair; you can just as easily make naan under your broiler. However, since I have never used this method, I cannot suggest how long to bake; but I'm guessing it would take no longer than a minute or two.
4. Garlic Butter: This one is fairly straight-forward so I won't bore you with details, but I will hit the highlights.
5. Melt butter in small saucepan over low heat; add chopped garlic and let heat until butter is slightly browned, garlic is soft and very fragrant (the smell of garlic should fill the house). Apply liberally to Naan.