Indian butter chicken, one of my all time favourites. Â This is definitely one dish I’ve tried making at least 10 different ways. Â That’s the thing with curries; unless you follow a specific recipe and portion every ingredient and each spice to a T, you will get a slightly different result each time. Â And while the traditional recipe calls for heavy cream and yogurt rather than coconut cream, in the end there really isn’t that much of a difference in terms of taste and the richness of the dish. Â However, I found that using coconut oil to replace the ghee (clarified butter) does affect the end result a lot more.
So just for the sake of making it Paleo, I kept the ghee, but substituted coconut cream for the dairy cream. Â Note here that I talk about coconut cream and not coconut milk. Â The reason for this is simple, same reason as you wouldn’t want to use dairy milk instead of dairy cream, it just won’t be creamy enough. Â To make sure you get only the cream or solid part out of the can of coconut milk, refrigerate overnight. Â The cream will come to the top and the liquid will stay at the bottom. Â Oh the beauty of physics…
You will notice that I am not serving this dish with basmati rice as it is traditionally. And I decided to add red and green peppers to the curry, which also isn’t traditional. Â What you serve this dish with is completely up to you. Â I don’t eat rice in general but still wanted something to soak up all this delicious sauce so I made the Indian Roasted Veggies and the Paleo Naan Bread.
- 4 medium chicken breast, cut in cubes or strips
- 2/3 cup coconut cream (fat part of the coconut milk)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice freshly sueezed
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 cup coconut cream (fat part of the coconut milk)
- 2/3 cup crushed tomatoes
- 3 tbsp ghee (clarified butter), divided
- 1 tbsp lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 2 green peppers, sliced thin
- 2 red peppers, sliced thin
- 1 large yellow onion, sliced thin
- 4 medium shallots sliced thin
- 2 inch ginger piece, minced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp dried fenugreeek
- 5 cardamom pods
- 1 bay leaf
- sea salt to taste
- fresh cilantro, for garnish
- 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup tapioca flour
- 1 cup coconut milk full fat
- organic ghee (clarified butter)
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- minced garlic
- Start by mixing all butter chicken ingredients into a bowl, adding chicken pieces only when the coconut cream and spices are well blended together. Coat chicken with mixture. Allow to sit for a while.
- In the meantime, on medium heat in a large skillet (ideally in a cast iron pan), heat up 2 tbsp of ghee until melted.
- Add spices to the pan and cook until they become fragrant, shouldn't be more than a couple minutes.
- Add sliced onions, shallots and peppers to the pan and saute until onions are translucent and peppers soft, about 10 minutes.
- Add minced ginger and garlic to the pan and cook for a couple more minutes.
- Add remainder of the ghee and allow to melt. Add chicken and it's marinade and cook for about 5 minutes. Stir chicken to make sure it is nicely browned on each side.
- Add crushed tomatoes, bay leaf and cardamom pods and allow to simmer for about 10 minutes.
- Add coconut cream and lemon juice and leave on for another few minutes, on low heat.
- Garnish with fresh cilantro & serve with Indian Roasted Veggies and Paleo Naan Bread.
- Mix almond flour, tapioca flour, coconut milk and sea salt together until uniform
- Drop a little bit of ghee and minced garlic on a nonstick pan over medium heat. When pan is hot pour batter to desired thickness. (This recipe will yield either 2 large naan breads or 4 medium ones.)
*For Roasted Indian Veggies recipe, click here