Skinnymixer's butter chicken

Skinnymixer's butter chicken

I have made the Skinnymixer's butter chicken a few times now, and it is definitely my favourite version of butter chicken. I have always made the one that is on the blog, which is available here. The other day I purchased a hard copy of the Skinnymixer's recipe book, A Little Taste of India, which came with a free ebook of all the recipes as well. I haven't received the hard copy yet, so I used the recipe from the ebook. The only difference seems to be the omission of the tandoori/food colouring in the ebook version. I don't like adding food colouring to recipes unless it is really necessary, so I didn't mind leaving it out.

The recipe list looks extensive at first, but a lot of the ingredients are repeated throughout. Also, I have a lot of spices in my cupboard so I didn't need to buy any of those. And I always have garlic and ginger handy.

There are also quite a few steps and setting things aside. I think the first time you make this dish, it is a good idea to print the recipe out and cross off the steps as you go, that way you can't accidentally skip one. Once you have made it a few times you get the idea of what to do where.

I really like that the recipe uses almond meal, as it gives the curry an authentic texture. The spices all blend in really well together, and the tartness you get from the vinegar is lovely. Tonight when I added the chilli powder, I only used 1/4 of a teaspoon. The garam marsala I had contained pepper, so I thought going lighter on the chilli would be wise. In the end, the dish wasn't that hot spice wise, even the kids could have eaten it. I think last time I may have used more chilli because I remember it being too spicy for the kids.

One thing I have noticed with this recipe is that there is a lot of sauce in relation to the amount of chicken. If you wanted to you could cook a little extra chicken in a frying pan or even steam some, and then stir it through the sauce afterwards. This would be great if you have a lot of people to feed. However, I normally stick to the amount suggested in the recipe, and then serve up the chicken or leave leftovers for tomorrow, and the remaining sauce I freeze in a container. Then next time we want some butter chicken all I need to do is steam some chicken in the varoma, then stir through the sauce, add some coriander and almonds and its done. And because dinner is so easy that night, I might even make some garlic and cheese naan bread too.