Butter up: The world’s best share their butter chicken secrets
LOOKING to make a knockout butter chicken? Two of the world’s finest share their top tips for cooking the Indian classic that has won them fans from Melbourne to Mumbai, including a MasterChef favourite.
delicious.100
Don't miss out on the headlines from delicious.100. Followed categories will be added to My News.
WITH heady aromas of cinnamon, garlic, fenugreek and cardamom rising from a rich, creamy blanket covering smoky chunks of chicken, it’s the curry loved the world over.
But what is it about India’s most famous dish that has us all reaching for the naan to wipe the plate dry?
Mani Waraich from Babu Ji in St Kilda and sister restaurant Piquancy in Hawthorn says the appeal of butter chicken is all in the name.
“You put butter on anything, and it will taste amazing. And who doesn’t like chicken! And once you taste butter chicken, you get addicted,” he says.
PIQUANCY OFFERS GF-FRIENDLY INDIAN FARE
BHANG SERVES UP INDIAN FOOD, COOL BRUNSWICK DELIGHT
LONGSONG BAR OPENS ABOVE LONGRAIN IN MELBOURNE CBD
EXPERIMENTAL VICTORIAN RESTAURANTS PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES
Also known as murgh makhani, butter chicken is a dish of chicken cooked in the tandoor and served with a mildly spiced gravy of tomato and ghee or cream. And though it traditionally uses a tandoor oven, it’s actually one of the easiest curries to make at home.
At his restaurant in Mumbai, Saransh Goila serves what is billed as “the world’s best butter chicken”. And it’s not just George Calombaris who thinks so.
While visiting India’s largest city last year, the MasterChef judge tried Saransh’s signature dish and proclaimed it “the best butter chicken I have ever tasted!”
“Maybe I was naive, but what I thought was Indian food, wasn’t. I had this moment where I thought, what have I been eating all these years? This is so goddamn delicious!”
George says he loves that Saransh takes a classic dish and interprets it for a new audience.
“It’s his modern approach, the dish isn’t all about heaps of dairy, but it’s still being true to butter chicken,” he says.
Saransh will be in town for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in March, serving his curry at the Press Club Projects throughout the 10-day festival.
And to whet our appetite, Mani and Saransh have shared their tips for making a knockout butter chicken at home.
Tick tock
The key to a great butter chicken is not to rush, Mani says. “It’s not a quick two-minute meal. Good marination of the meat, for at least four hours or overnight, is important.”
He says “curries are like babies, they need your attention”, and it takes time to put all the elements together.
“The chicken must be marinated and cooked separately, cook the curry separate, and then marry them together. Never put everything all together.” And he advises to always use fresh onion, ginger and garlic. “Don’t use pre-made paste, especially ginger and garlic.”
Top tomatoes
“Butter chicken is a dish that is based strictly on good tomatoes,” Saransh says. “So sourcing a good tomato is the key to a great butter chicken. Great tomatoes with a 70:30 ratio of dairy products (milk/butter/cream) can promise you a great butter chicken.”
Saransh uses a mix of ripe and unripe tomatoes in a 3:1 ratio for the perfect blend of acid in the dish.
Cream team
“I dislike the fact that a lot of people look at Indian food being unhealthy or over indulgent,” Saransh says. “The picture of Indian cuisine that was painted by restaurants two decades back by serving fat- and butter-laden dishes needs to change, and what better than to start from the heart, which is butter chicken.”
In the Goila version, Saransh uses cashew nuts to replace most of the cream in the dish. At home, blanched almonds can also be used. “If you smoke them with woodchips before you add them to the gravy, it’ll remind you of the tandoor,” he says.
Chicken lickin’
“We use free-range chicken thigh fillet: it has less fat and doesn’t get hard and dried after cooking like breast. It stays quite soft and juicy,” Mani says.
Cook the marinated chicken in a 180C oven for about 40 mins before adding to the gravy.
“The traditional recipe requires you to use chicken on the bone, but we use boneless chicken leg and thigh cut into two-inch (5cm) cubes because it enhances the eating experience and is much more convenient,” Saransh says.
Spice is right
“Dried fenugreek leaves (Kasoori methi) are very important to my recipe,” Saransh says.
Other spices in the Goila recipe include cinnamon, bay leaf, cloves, and cardamom.
“I leave out peppercorns and cumin because they change the flavour profile, and we never use the traditional garam masala,” Saransh says.
“The use of spice is very subtle in our recipe.”
Mani says sourcing fresh whole spices, which you can grind at home, will make a huge difference to the end result.
While recipes vary to taste, most marinades for the chicken pieces include ginger, garlic, chilli powder, garam masala, ground cumin and coriander, mixed with yoghurt and lemon juice.
Gravy train
Cook your tomatoes with butter, lots of garlic, the whole spices (Saransh uses a muslin cloth for the spices and steeps the sauce while it’s simmering away), cashew nuts and honey. Blend, add cream and the fenugreek leaves.
Smokin’ hot
Saransh says there is a way to impart smokiness to the gravy at home, which he says is the main secret to his famous dish.
Burn a piece of coal, and place into a steel cup (or any cup that can withstand high temperatures). Place in the centre of the gravy pot, on top of the tomato gravy. Splash some butter on the burning coal. Once it’s smoking, immediately place a tight-fitting lid on the pot to trap the smoke inside. After 5 mins, remove the lid and discard the coal.
“It will be as smoky as any version served in India!” he says.
Serve an ace
Mani says good basmati rice and naan are perfect accompaniments.
“Sides are just as important as the dish,” he says. “A good suit will only work with a good pair of shoes!”
DO THIS
As part of the 2018 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, Saransh Goila will be cooking his famous butter chicken every night of the festival at George Calombaris’ Press Club Projects.
Channelling a Mumbai street curry vendor, the standing room-only space will serve Goila Butter chicken and cocktails mixed by the Greek mixologists behind The Clumsies, ranked the #6 best bar in the world. Four sessions every day of the festival from 5pm. For more details and to book: MFWF.com.au
Why wagyu cannoli should be on your must-eat hit list
Marameo serves up kitchen hits like a knockout plate of reginette and the terrifically twisted wagyu cannoli. But it’s not just the food luring in the office lads and ladies to this reborn CBD stalwart.
The stupidly delicious dish you need to order at Maha Bar
Everything you need to know about Shane Delia’s new venue Maha Bar, the northside sibling to his Maha restaurant, can be found within the four-bite must-order borek bun.