Butter Chicken

Why grill the chicken first?

Because the char is a flavour that cannot be produced in a simmering sauce. Direct high heat browns the surface proteins and sugars in the marinade, which creates a whole set of roasted compounds, and it also drives off surface moisture so the pieces stay firm. Chicken poached straight in the gravy releases its water into the sauce, thins it, and gives meat with a uniform soft texture. Cook the tikka properly, to the point where the juices run clear and there is no pink at the centre of the thickest piece, and let it carry its charred edges into the pan.

Why is the gravy strained?

Because the defining quality of this sauce is that it is completely smooth, with no trace of tomato skin, seed or onion fibre. Even a good blender leaves fragments that catch on the tongue, and pushing the puree through a sieve with the back of a ladle removes them. It takes four or five minutes and it is the difference between a home curry and something that tastes like the restaurant version. Peeled tinned tomatoes reduce the problem but do not remove it.

Why does the cream split?

Heat and acid together. Tomato gravy is acidic, and cream added to a pan that is still bubbling will curdle into visible specks within seconds. Take the pan off the flame, let it stop simmering, and stir the cream in then. Full fat cream is far more stable than a low fat one, and a spoon of the gravy whisked into the cream first before the whole lot goes back is good insurance. The same rule applies to curd in any hot curry.

What does kasuri methi actually contribute?

The bitter, hay like note that sits underneath the sweetness and stops the dish being cloying. Fresh fenugreek leaf is not a substitute; drying concentrates the aroma into something quite distinct. Crush it between your palms as it goes in, because the friction breaks the leaf and releases the oils, and add it at the end since prolonged cooking dulls it. Leaving it out entirely gives a sauce that tastes flat and oddly like tomato soup, which is the most common complaint about homemade butter chicken.

How is this different from chicken tikka masala?

Less than the menu suggests, and they share the grilled tikka stage. Butter chicken leans on butter, cream and cashew and is deliberately mild, sweet and smooth. Tikka masala usually keeps a coarser onion and pepper base, carries more chilli and garam masala, and is not strained. The vegetarian equivalent, paneer butter masala, uses essentially this gravy with paneer in place of the chicken, and the marinade here is the same one behind chicken tikka eaten dry as a starter.

What should it be eaten with?

Naan or roti and a plain rice, and the honest observation is that the naan is where a lot of the energy in the meal comes from. A portion of butter chicken with two buttered naans is a substantial plate, so a smaller bread with a larger salad changes the balance without touching the curry. How to make that sort of trade off without wrecking a dish is the practical side of the culinary nutrition course.

Does it keep?

It improves overnight, which is unusual for a cream sauce, and it holds for three days refrigerated. Reheat it gently on a low flame rather than in a microwave, which can break the emulsion and leave a ring of butter on top. If you plan to freeze it, freeze the gravy and the grilled chicken separately without the cream, and finish it fresh, since cream frozen in a tomato sauce almost always separates on thawing.