BUTTERED CHICKEN (SERVES 4-6)
Arun’s Murgh Oudhi – my version of the ever popular, creamy chicken, Murgh Makhani. We’ve based this recipe on a dish my father’s good friend used to enjoy whilst at college in Lucknow (Oudh). Bizarrely enough, this particular recipe uses cheese for added richness, an ingredient used in more opulent, banqueting dishes the rich Northern Indian Nawabs encouraged their chefs to prepare for them. Fresh cardamoms, creamy sauce, simple cooking….beautiful!
WHAT YOU NEED
Ingredients:
1kg Good Chicken, thigh meat, skin off, bone out, chopped into good sized, chunky pieces, or 4 Chicken breasts is fine too.
½, juice and zest lemon
Marinade:
300ml Greek (style) natural yoghurt,
100g, Butter, softened
100ml Cream
75g, Ginger, fresh root, roughly chopped
4 fat cloves Garlic
1, Bird’s Eye chilli, red, deseeded and roughly chopped
30ml Sunflower oil,
60g, Cheese, grated. (Use your favourite type of cheese. A mild cheddar, Ardrahan, Comté or Emmental all work really well)
Spices: 12 green cardamom pods, 2 tsp cumin, 1 tsp black pepper, all freshly blitzed then add 2tsp turmeric, 1tsp of Garam Masala and a good couple of gratings of nutmeg
HOW TO MAKE IT
- Place the chicken into a sturdy, snug-fitting roasting tray. Sprinkle the chicken with the lemon zest and its juice. Cover with foil and set aside.
- Meanwhile, place all of the Marinade ingredients and your Spice Mix into a food processor and blitz to a smooth, thick paste.
- Pour your marinade over the lemony chicken, scraping every last bit from the processor’s ‘jug’, then mix everything around to combine all the flavours and to coat the meat.
- Cover with the foil again and place in your fridge for about 20 minutes.
- Turn your oven on to medium to low heat. About 190°C, Gas Mark 5 is fine.
- Pop the roasting tray, still covered with foil onto the middle shelf of your oven and allow to cook for 20 minutes, then take off the foil cover, roast for a further 10 minutes or until the chicken is just cooked, but still juicy and tender.
- Serve immediately with green leaves, Indian bread and Green Saffron’s Aged Basmati rice and Mango Chutney, spooning the roasted marinade juices all over for extra (special) flavour …simply beautiful!!
WHY NOT TRY
Try pushing the marinated pieces of chicken onto a skewer for a brochette effect, grill or cook on a griddle pan and serve with good crusty sour-dough or freshly baked bread and a crisp salad….You could use pieces of 1kg lamb, leg of lamb, instead of the chicken for a more ‘meaty’ feast!
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