Indian Butter Chicken Slow Cooker

Becwil75's Note:

I have been looking for a good Butter Chicken recipe that can be done in a slow cooker for quite some time. I found this one on http://crockpot365.blogspot.com. I am yet to try this recipe but wanted to post it so I wouldn't lose it. These notes are posted with the recipe: This is so good! I could have gone with a bit more cayenne, because I'm a nut, but the depth of flavor is wonderful. You can tweak the amount of garam masala and curry to your own taste---it's fine to add more at the end of cooking. This is a winner recipe. Thank you so much, Kindra!

• Total Time: 8 hrs 10 mins
• Prep Time: 10 mins
• Cook Time: 8 hrs

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 2 lbs boneless skinless chicken thighs (mine were frozen solid)
• 1 onion , sliced
• 6 garlic cloves , chopped
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 15 cardamom pods (sewn together!)
• 2 teaspoons curry
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 (260 ml) can coconut milk (I used light)
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1 cup plain yogurt (to add at the end, I used fat free)

Directions:

1. Use a 5 quart (20 cups) or larger crockpot. Carefully sew together the cardamom pods using a needle and thread. You can put them in a little cheese cloth bundle, instead, if you have that in the house. Put chicken in crockpot, and add onion, garlic, and all of the dry spices. Plop in the butter and tomato paste. Add lemon juice and coconut milk. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4. The chicken should shred easily with 2 forks when fully cooked.
2. Stir in plain yogurt 15 minutes before serving. Discard cardamom pods. Salt to taste, serve with white or brown basmati rice.

Reviews

[cathy_n]

Tried this recipe the other night and wanted to share a few things I learned about this fabulous dish. (1.) I substituted chicken legs instead of thighs just fine. I'll probably skin my chicken first next time. The skin seemed to inhibit the meat from absorbing flavor. (2.) "Coconut milk" seems to come in two basic varieties: Asian and Spanish. You'll find them in their respective sections of the supermarkets. Asian tends to be thicker and more expensive. Goya tends to be a bit thinner and cheaper. I used Goya. (3.) Because this is in a crock pot, the sauce doesn't reduce much. It'll be a bit thinner than the stuff you get in restaurants. Maybe if I used the thicker coconut milk, the sauce would have been thicker. (4.) As a previous commenter noted, don't be shy with the salt. You probably need at least half a teaspoon. You can add it in at the end along with the yogurt and taste. (5.) Reheat leftovers slowly and gently.

[Chef #635744]

This was wonderful! I followed the advice about the type of coconut milk and got a nice thick sauce. Also I have a recommendation for the cardamom pods - instead of using cheesecloth, I put them in a tea ball. That worked quite well.

[GoodnPlentiful]

For ease of recipe alone, this will definitely become a favorite in my household. Like everyone else had said, it does need a copious amount of salt but that is easy to add at the end. I didn't have any cardamom pods so I substituted a teaspoon of ground cardamom (which was plenty!) and it lent a cool sweetness to the end product. It was also a bit soupy for me but instead of plain yogurt, I opted for Greek and it thickened it to a rich, velvety texture.