Murgh Makhani

Also known as Butter Chicken, this Indian curry is generally mild, though in parts of Asia I've ordered it and it's most definitely been a medium-spicy curry! In fact, the sauce I used for the dinner party was also a medium curry, so I'd suggest you use less of the paste if you don't like spice very much. According to Wikipediea the authentic Delhi version of butter chicken is more spicy than the western kinds so that might explain the spice differences!

If you want a vegetarian curry then change the chicken to Paneer cheese (it's Indian cottage cheese, I bought mine from Waitrose). You don't need to marinate the cheese, just make the sauce and add the paneer about five minutes before serving it. It's called Paneer Makhani if you make it this way.

Paneer

Murgh Makhani Recipe

Serves 4

Serve with rice and/or naan (homemade is best!)

You need to marinate the chicken for at least 2 hours, but I normally do this overnight to help the flavours develop (ooh, that sounds very professional!)

Ingredients

Marinade

450g diced chicken

2tbsp butter chicken paste (mine is Fern's and I bought it from theasiancookshop.co.uk and souschef.co.uk - it's fairly authentically spicy though!)

2tbsp thick plain yogurt

2 crushed garlic cloves

1tbsp vegetable oil

Sauce

2tbsp vegetable oil

1 diced onion

100ml cream

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

2tsp sugar

100ml water

2tbsp butter

2tbsp curry paste

Method

Mix all of the marinade ingredients together in an oven proof dish and put in the fridge for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.

When you want to start cooking preheat the oven to 200˚ and put the chicken in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, turning occasionally.

Meanwhile, fry the onions in oil until soft and then add the curry paste, frying until fragrant.

Add tomatoes, butter, water and sugar and then cover the pan with a lid, cooking for 20 minutes.

Put the cooked chicken into the sauce, or gravy as it's also known, and cook for a few more minutes, stirring everything together - it'll really start to look good now.

Finally add the cream and check seasoning before serving.

How spicy do you like your curries?