Butter chicken got famous for being gentle. Nothing wrong with that, but roll it in bread and it needs an edge or the whole thing slides into sweet cream and you stop tasting it halfway down. The crunch goes on last, on top, never stirred through. Stir it in and you have spent good money on texture you can no longer feel.
Pickled onion does the other half of the job. Sharp, and it takes four minutes.
30 mins. Serves 4.
Ingredients
- 4 Roti or paratha, frozen is fine
- 600g Chicken thigh, cut into 3cm pieces
- 3 tbsp Greek yoghurt, plus more to serve
- 1 tsp Garam masala
- 1 tsp Ground cumin
- 30g Butter
- 1 tbsp Ginger and garlic, grated
- 400g Tinned tomatoes
- 100ml Cream
- 2 dessertspoons Plateit Bombay Chilli Crunch
- 1 Red onion, sliced thin
- 1 Lime
- Coriander, a good handful
- Salt
Method
- Onion into a bowl with the juice of the lime and a decent pinch of salt. Scrunch it with your hands and leave it. It turns pink and sharp while you cook.
- Chicken with the yoghurt, garam masala, cumin and salt. Ten minutes is plenty.
- Butter into a hot pan. Chicken in, one layer, and leave it alone until it has colour. About 5 mins.
- Ginger and garlic, a minute. Tomatoes in, break them up, simmer hard for 8 mins until it darkens and thickens and stops tasting of tin.
- Cream through, off the heat. Salt.
- Roti in a dry pan, high heat, until it blisters and puffs in spots.
- Chicken down the middle. Plateit Bombay Chilli Crunch spooned over the top. Pickled onion, coriander, a spoon of yoghurt. Roll it and eat it standing up.
Swap it: Last night's butter chicken works and is arguably better for it.
