Low Fat Butter Chicken

Butter Chicken and low fat?? Something just doesn’t seem right here. Do you feel the same? Well, I had the same feelings when Parina told me that she would like to share the recipe of her favourite curry – Butter Chicken in my Jan 2021 series. My first reaction – I already have a recipe for Butter Chicken which I had shared with all of you sometime back. Next reaction – how can butter chicken be part of a health conscious and balanced meal? She answered this in a very simple manner – I am sending you the recipe. Try it out and then let’s decide.

I felt like I was thrown a challenge. So the moment she shared the recipe, I was very excited to go through it and figure out what’s so different in this recipe. Wait! This butter chicken recipe didn’t have any butter added. No cream either. It just had a little amount of ghee. Now, I became interested. The ingredients were more or less similar to my original recipe, but there was a difference in how this was made. Challenge accepted! I was going to try it out and my family was going to give the verdict on this one.

I made this and served it for dinner the same day. First reaction from kids and Jayesh even before they tried it out – have you made butter chicken?? First test passed – it did look and smell like butter chicken. They tasted it and they all instantly liked it. This was much lighter on the stomach and still had the same taste as the traditional butter chicken. So the decision was made – I had to share this recipe with all of you. My kids now call this dish – Parina aunty’s butter chicken recipe..:)

Parina is certified in Personal Training from National Academy of Sports Medicine. With the the motto ‘Give More. Get More’, she designed NEIKI, her fitness program, wherein she strives to reduce injury risk and prepare our bodies to bear the impact they need to. On this excursion, her endeavour is to help people stand upright – physically and mentally.

It is not just recipes that Parina is sharing with us – it is a lot of other information too. Head over to my YouTube channel to see all that we discuss around food and nutrition! Cheers to a balanced and healthy start to 2021..:)

Low Fat Butter Chicken

Course: Side DishCuisine: IndianDifficulty: Moderate

Servings

3

servings

Prep time

10

minutes

Cooking time

30

minutes

Calories

785

kcal

Total time

40

minutes

A delicious Butter Chicken recipe, but without all the fat that goes into the traditional recipe!

Ingredients

• For Marination

• Boneless Chicken Thigh Pieces – 500 gms, cut into medium size pieces

• Salt – as per taste

• Pepper – as per taste

• Tandoori Chicken Masala – 1 tbsp

• For the gravy

• Ghee – 20 gms

• Tomato – 4 medium sized

• Coriander – a handful, chopped

• Green Chilli – 1 small

• Onion – 2 large, chopped

• Cashews – 14 gms

• Cumin Powder – 2 tsp

• Kashmiri Chilli Powder – 2 tsp

• Turmeric Powder – 1 tsp

• Coriander Powder – 2 tsp

• Garam Masala Powder – 2 tsp

• Kasuri Methi – 2 tbsp

• Sugar – ½ tsp (optional)

Directions

• Marinate the chicken with salt, pepper and tandoori chicken masala. You do not need to marinate the chicken for a long time for this recipe – 5-10 min is good enough.
• Add 2/3rd of the ghee quantity to the pan and cook the chicken on high flame till the pieces get a nice char on both sides. Keep the chicken aside.
• Blanching of tomatoes: In a bowl, add some hot water into it. Score an X on the under-side of the tomatoes before adding them to the hot water. Leave them in there for about 5 min and then put them into cold water for a couple of minutes. Starting from the under-side where the tomatoes were scored, start peeling off the skin.
• Once the skin for all the tomatoes is removed, add them to a blender jar along with the green chilli and coriander leaves and blend it to a fine puree. Sieve this puree and keep it aside.
• In another pan, add 3 gms of ghee and add the cashews and onions to it. Cook till they turn a light brown color. Take it off heat and let it cool for a while. Once cooled, grind this to a fine paste and keep it aside.
• In the same pan in which the onions were cooked, add the remaining ghee.
• Once the ghee is hot, reduce the heat to low and add the cumin powder, chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and garam masala powder.
• Stir the spices for a couple of seconds till fragrant and add the tomato puree.
• Let the tomato puree cook together along with the spices till the raw smell of the tomatoes and spices is no longer there.
• Add the onion paste to this and mix well.
• Next, add the chicken pieces and cook it together in the gravy for about 10 min. A little water can be added at this stage if the gravy is too thick.
• Add the kasuri methi and sugar (if needed) to balance out the sourness from the tomatoes and let it all come to a boil together.
• Garnish with some coriander leaves and turn off the heat.
• Serve with some whole wheat rotis.

Recipe Video

Notes

• Tomatoes: Follow the process mentioned in the instructions to blanch the tomatoes and then puree them. If the tomatoes are very sour, you can reduce the quantity to three instead of four.