Mr. B and I were, in times past, great fans of the South Beach Diet and the low-carbohydrate lifestyle. I love carbs, and have never met a carb I didn't love, but there's a reason farmers feed cattle grains. Before our wedding, Mr. B and I both lost copious amounts of weight by cutting out virtually all carbs, and amassed a gigantic folder full of low-carb recipes that we printed out from various websites and blogs. One of these was a brilliant recipe for butter chicken that we loved and ate again and again.
The main problem with this recipe was that you can only really eat it if you aren't having carbs. It had an entire stick of butter in it, as well as peanut oil and a cup of cream. As part of a South Beach/Atkins/whatever lifestyle, it was perfectly fine; with sides of rice and naan, it was belt-splitting.
Now that we're too broke to restrict carbs (all those bacon-and-eggs breakfasts and hunks of meat for lunch and dinner really do add up), we wanted to have butter chicken again, in perhaps a more healthful manner. So I devised a lightened-up recipe which still tastes great, if less creamy, and makes wonderful leftovers.
It's true that there are lots of ingredients, and I promised you that I wouldn't give you any recipes that had a million ingredients that you didn't necessarily have. I tend to have a lot of spices in my kitchen, because I can get them cheaply at a local Asian market. However, not everyone has a useful shop like this, and spices can be terribly expensive if you buy them in those little jars from the supermarket. So if you don't have all the things I've listed, it's fine to skip them all but the cinnamon, and replace the others with 2-3 teaspoons of curry powder and a modest shake of cayenne pepper.
Ingredients
1 onion, chopped medium
2 tablespoons peanut oil
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger*
2 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped finely
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper**
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon garam masala
2 large skinless, boneless chicken breasts (or 4-6 skinless, boneless thighs if you prefer dark meat)
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can coconut milk (I used reduced fat)
Salt and pepper
1/2 to 1 cup plain unsweetened yogurt, to taste (I used fat free)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (coriander leaves)
Slice the chicken into small bite-sized pieces, and cook them in a little oil in a large pan over medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes, or until it is cooked through. Remove with a slotted spoon.
Place 2 tablespoons of peanut oil and the butter in the pan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook it, stirring often, until it's soft and golden brown, about 20-25 minutes.
Add all spices, the garlic and the ginger and cook for another 2-3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add the tomatoes and coconut milk, and cook, stirring occasionally, for around 20 minutes, or until the sauce thickens. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Add the chicken to the sauce and cook, stirring, until the chicken is heated through. At the last minute, stir the yogurt, season again if necessary, then stir in the cilantro.
Serve over brown basmati rice with a side salad.
Serves 6 (or 2, with leftovers for a couple more meals)
*I keep a piece of fresh ginger in the freezer and grate bits off when I need it. You don't even need to peel the ginger when it's frozen, because the skin sort of sloughs itself off when you grate it.
**I tend to like curries hotter than this, but I tone things down these days because my toddler can't handle the sort of spices that make your scalp break into a sweat.
No comments:
Post a Comment