Friday Fakeaway: Indian chef shares his signature dish, Chillies’ Garlic Butter Chicken

We all want to create an authentic restaurant or takeaway Indian curry in our own home. And now you can with this recipe for garlic butter chicken.

Indian food is fantastic and certainly something you can create at home easily enough, but we are all guilty of sticking to our comfort zone and rarely try to make something different.

Personally if I am cooking Indian at home, I will make a basic curry, a Madras or some tikka. That is pretty much my entire repertoire.

But now we can all try to cook something a little more extravagant, thanks to a local eaterie which has provided this week’s Friday Fakeaway.

Atik Raj from Chillies Indian restaurant in Carnoustie, Angus, has kindly let us in to the secrets of his cooking by providing this recipe for Chillies’ Garlic Butter Chicken which I will definitely be trying myself to at home.

Atik is a specialised tandoori and seafood chef with more than 25 years’ experience in the hospitality industry.

He worked in many places in Bangladesh and the UK, including Essex, South London, Kent, Oxfordshire, St-Andrews and Dundee.

Atik also gained some experience working with many renowned Thai, Indian and other multicultural chefs.

He said: “This is one of our best-selling item and chef’s signature dish. This one is highly recommended if you are looking for a healthy curry.”

Ingredients

For chicken marinade:

• 2 chicken breast (cut into bite size chunks)
• 1 tsp Fresh ginger (minced)
• 1 clove fresh garlic (minced)
• Salt (to taste)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp garam masala
• ½ cup yoghurt
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

For sauce:

• 25g butter
• 1 medium onion (finely chopped)
• 3 garlic cloves, peel cloves by crushing them lightly with the flat of a knife
• 1 tsp tomato puree
• 3 green chillies (thick chopped)
• 1 tsp fresh ginger (minced)
• ½ tsp turmeric powder-
• ½ tsp cumin powder
• ½ tsp red chilli powder
• ½ tsp coriander powder
• Salt (to taste)
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 2 Bullet chillies (one sliced into half, another one thick chopped)
• Spring onion (Finely chopped to garnish)
• Coriander (Finely chopped to garnish)

Method

1. Combine the cubed chicken with the lemon juice, garlic, ginger, salt, garam masala, cumin, paprika, yoghurt and stir until well-coated.
2. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour, or overnight.
3. Preheat the oven to 500°F (260°C). Line a high-sided baking pan or roasting tray with parchment paper.
4. Place the marinated chicken pieces on bamboo or wooden skewers, then set them over the prepared baking tray, making sure there is space underneath the chicken to help distribute the heat more evenly. Bake for about 15 minutes, until slightly dark brown on the edges.

Make the sauce:

1. Heat pan add butter and the chopped onions.
2. Fry on high heat for a few minutes until golden brown in colour.
3. Add ginger and garlic and cook on medium heat for 2 mins.
4. Add the tomato puree and green chillies and fry on medium heat for 2 mins.
5. Add the turmeric, chilli powder, coriander powder and cumin powder, mix & fry on medium heat for few minutes and then added one third of a cup of water and cook the sauce until oil comes up to the top of the pan.
6. Now add the chicken pieces and fry on a high heat.
7. Add salt, continue to fry on medium heat for another 5 mins.
8. Add chopped bullet chillies, spring onions and coriander.
9. At the end garnish the curry with half sliced bullet chillies.

Chillies restaurant, Links Parade, Carnoustie, is open seven days a week, from 1pm to 10pm for lunch and dinner. Takeaway and home delivery are available.

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