Cheap Meals Around the World: Creamy Butter Chicken Recipe
I’m trying to get out of my cooking rut by making meals from countries around the world. This week, it’s Indian food! I’ve never made Indian food before so making cheap Indian food will be a challenge for me. I’m also going to do it on a budget.
I’ve decided I’m making a creamy butter chicken recipe (courtesy of Gusscooks.com). How will it taste? With Indian food, I understand there are a lot of spices that make the dishes delicious. So let’s see what I can find to make this work!
Ingredients
Here’s what I was able to get at my local Walmart for butter chicken:
- Chicken breasts
- Basmati rice
- 1 can tomato paste (I didn’t use this in the end)
- 1 can tomato sauce
- 1 small container of plain Greek yogurt
- Onion
- Heavy whipping cream
- Ginger root
- Naan bread
I did look everywhere for garam masala, a spice that is necessary for Indian food, but I could not find it in three stores. I pulled my own spices and used those for the marinade.
Spices
Here’s what I used for spices, in addition to butter, salt, and pepper:
- Minced garlic
- Paprika
- Chili powder
- Ground cinnamon
- Cumin
- Turmeric
1. Dice chicken
Cut up chicken into 1-inch diced pieces.
2. Add spices
Add spices to the chicken pieces. Mix it all up.
3. Add yogurt
Add ½ cup of Greek yogurt to the chicken and spices. Toss the chicken and yogurt. Let it marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes.
4. Make rice
While the chicken is marinating, make the rice.
5. Mix the masala
I don’t have coriander, ground cloves, or cardamom to make the masala. So I’ll make it without those ingredients.
I mixed 1 tablespoon of cumin, 1½ teaspoons of black pepper, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, and ½ a teaspoon of nutmeg. It would be optimal if I had ½ teaspoon of cloves, 1½ teaspoons of coriander, and 1½ teaspoons of cardamom, but I don’t have it.
6. Prep the onion and ginger
Dice up the onion and scrape off the peel of the ginger (you will grate it in a second) before grating it.
7. Saute ingredients
Saute onion in a pan till they are translucent, then add 1 teaspoon of masala, and then add in the chicken. Saute for five to seven minutes. Then, add a tablespoon of minced garlic and mix.
8. Grate ginger
Grate the ginger right over the pan that is sauteing. Stir it in.
9. Add tomato sauce
Add tomato sauce (you can add chicken broth if you prefer). Let it all cook for 10 minutes.
10. Add cream
Add a cup of heavy cream. Stir and let simmer for five minutes. After five minutes, add two more tablespoons of butter and stir.
Creamy butter chicken recipe
It smells amazing! I’ve never tasted Indian food so I was very excited to try it! It’s creamy with a unique flavor. I served it with bread and rice and it was delicious.
This dish exceeded my expectations! I spent about $20 on all the ingredients and this will feed my whole family and I have a ton of rice left over.
For me, it was a cheap butter chicken recipe and a real win. Please let me know where to find garam masala! Then let me know if you have cooked Indian food before and what did you cook?
Comments
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Looks and sounds good to me!
You can get Garam Masala on Amazon...