Nut-Free Butter Chicken Recipe!

This butter chicken is creamy and delicious. Let's make some. I'm going to start by cutting some boneless skinless chicken thighs into nice bite-sized pieces and you're going to use this spice mix that I have listed here. Try not to omit any of the spices because each spice plays an important role in the overall flavor of the dish. Your goal is to try to make sure that all the chicken is covered. Add approximately one tablespoon of olive oil to this mixture. This is going to help you mix the spices. You can also use your fingers while you're doing this. I actually like to use a spoon because there's so many spices. I want to make sure that the chicken has the spices and not my fingers. It should be smelling good already. Once all the spices are mixed in, it's time to add Greek yogurt. The Greek yogurt is going to help tenderize this meat and it's also going to make this dish nice and fresh and creamy. Once your yogurt is all incorporated, we are going to top this with the lid and we are going to marinate in the refrigerator for two hours. The chicken is done marinating. Let's get started on this dish. We're going to put two tablespoons of butter in a skillet and we are going to start cooking our aromatics. Aromatics are vegetables and herbs that add really nice flavor to a dish and they also smell wonderful while you're cooking them. They smell amazing right now. We're going to start by adding our onion and our jalapeno first because they take longer to cook. Do not add the garlic and ginger yet because they don't take as long to cook. We're going to cook these until they are nice and soft or another word is sweated. So once you sweat your onions and your jalapenos down, then it's time to add your garlic and your ginger and you're going to cook these until they are nice and soft. You should already be smelling this aroma. It smells absolutely amazing. Once your aromatics have cooked down, it's time to add our chicken. It should be room temperature about now and let me tell you, as soon as you add that chicken to the skillet, you should already smell the dish. The spices from the chicken along with the aromatics, it makes such a beautiful aroma. We are going to cook this on a nice medium heat. We're not going to rush this. This dish is going to take some time. It's going to take a lot of love and a lot of attention. After you've cooked your chicken for approximately 10 minutes, we're going to add our tomato puree. This is the base of the butter chicken. After you have folded your tomato puree in, it's time to adjust our seasoning. When you add new ingredients, you always re-season. I am adding a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of garam masala, a teaspoon of curry powder, and also a teaspoon of cumin. These are the same seasonings that we used when we seasoned our chicken. This process is called layering of flavors. We are going to simmer this sauce for approximately 20 to 25 minutes to allow our tomatoes to get nice and sweet. Make sure you are tasting your sauce and adjust your seasonings as need be. Okay, we are almost done. Hang in there. You see that? That sauce is looking smooth and silky. That's exactly what we were going for. Now it's time to make this even better. We're going to add a half a cup of heavy cream. Yes, I know it's sexy. We're also going to add a little bit more butter. Approximately two tablespoons. I mean, it is called butter chicken, right? We are gently going to fold that cream and that butter into the tomato mixture. Make sure you get it all incorporated. It should look a little soupy right now, but don't worry about it. We are going to cover and simmer this for approximately 10 more minutes. Almost there. Okay, let's see. Let's see what it's looking like. Oh yes, that's what I'm talking about. This is nice and it's thick and it's luscious and it's creamy. It smells absolutely amazing. The color is gorgeous. The taste is on point. It's time to plate this up. Let's go. I am plating this with baksmati rice. Let me show you a trick. All you do is take your measuring cup. You put the amount of rice that you want in there and you flip it on your plate and look, voila, restaurant quality. Don't play with me. We are plating this to perfection today. Then you're going to take your butter chicken. You want to go around the rice mound. What I do is I put a little spoon around there. Then I turn my plate. I'm going to spoon it. I'm going to keep doing this until the rice is surrounded by that beautiful butter chicken. I'm going to top it off with one more spoon. There we go. Yeah, this is ready. You always want to clean your plate before you serve it. We're going to garnish this with a little piece of cilantro. There you go. Bon appetit. Let's eat. Oh, and don't forget the flatbread. You got to have the flatbread.