Butter Chicken

I wish I had an option to make life easier - if someone could just chart out a menu for me ............thinking what to do - choosing who likes what - even when the family is small ................is not an easy experience for me. I do manage with a lot of shortcuts...........and here is one such Butter chicken - spicy but tasty. 

 I do not vouch for processed foods to be part of regular diet, but they are really time savers if you could just get a lil innovative. So , as in the pic I have used a Tandoori Chicken Tikka - ready to fry ...........so no big deal ..just open a pack and fry them. Set aside. This pack should fetch roughly about 8-9 boneless marinated pieces of chicken.

Boil 2 large tomatoes and puree them. Heat about 2 teaspoons of butter. Pound together 3 garlic pods, a small piece of ginger and 3 green chillies. I always use bird chillies in my cooking as it helps me decide on the spice as they are quite consistent in taste. Hence, adjust the quantity of chilly according to taste. Add the pounded paste to the butter and saute well. Add half a teaspoon of tomato paste. As they brown add the tomato puree. Adjust flame to medium heat and stir well. Add salt, Chilly powder, turmeric,garam masala and  a pinch or two of kasoori methi. Continue stirring till the ingredients turn into a deep red paste and the oil separates from it........as seen in the pic

 Add approximately half a cup of warm water and adjust the gravy. Start with less water and add on if the gravy is too thick. Make as paste of 6 cashew kernels in a blender and add to the gravy. Stir well.......adjust salt if needed..........add water and adjust the gravy which should be neither watery nor too thick. Toss in the  fried chicken pieces and let it simmer. Garnish with chopped fresh coriander & drizzle a lil fresh cream.

Lovely dish to serve with rotis or rice. A cucumber raita would be ideal to go with it to balance the spice.