DELHIBELLI'S BUTTER CHICKEN
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 pound onion, chopped
2 teaspoons garam masala, or more
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger *
1 teaspoon sambal oelek *
6 ounce can tomato paste
2 cups homemade chicken broth
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 1/4 pounds boneless chicken thighs, cut in cubes *
Salt, to taste
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 tablespoons butter, divided
In a 6-quart or larger pan, cook the onion in the oil about 15 minutes over medium-low heat until the onion is lightly browned. Stir in the garam masala and ground ginger. Add the sambal oelek, tomato paste and broth. Puree this mixture using an immersion blender until smooth. Add the cream and season to taste with salt. Bring to a simmer. Simmer, stirring often, until the sauce has reduced to 3 cups. This will take about 5 minutes. Put the sauce in a bowl and set aside while cooking the chicken. Wipe out the cooking pot because you will use it to cook the chicken.
Season the chicken with salt and the 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Brown the chicken over high heat with 1 tablespoon butter in the same pan that you made the sauce in. Cook until the chicken is completely opaque on the outside and nearly cooked through on the inside. Add the sauce and simmer over medium heat until the chicken is thoroughly cooked, about 10 minutes.
Cut the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter into chunks and stir into the sauce until melted.
Makes 6 servings
* I forgot to buy a fresh chile so I used some sambal oelek instead and added it later. I used ground ginger instead of fresh. I used about 3 1/4 pounds of boneless chicken thighs instead of the 1 1/2 pounds called for.
Per Serving: 335 Calories; 25g Fat; 20g Protein; 10g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 8g Net Carbs
This recipe was posted on Low Carb Friends by DelhiBelli. Because the sauce has a lot of carbs from the onions and tomato paste, I decided to use twice as much chicken as the recipe called for since I'd read that it makes a lot of sauce and they were right. Even with double the amount of chicken, there was a copious amount of sauce. One odd thing that I discovered about the recipe is that the sauce doesn't call for any salt. I have no idea how much I added but enough so that it no longer tasted flat. I also had to cook my onions much longer than directed. They took about 15 minutes, not 5 minutes, to get golden brown.
I don't have much experience with Indian food but I expected this to be a lot more flavorful. DelhiBelli, who is in fact Indian, does mention in her comments that she sometimes triples the amount of garam masala. I think that would be the thing to do but I was afraid to just stir more in after it was done cooking. I have a feeling though that this is the kind of dish that will taste better the next day. Click the photo to see a close-up.