Dinnerblog: Butter Chicken

Dinnerblog 2 is one of my favourite dishes: butter chicken.  As far as Indian food goes, it's pretty mild and quite easy to make, which is probably why it's so popular.  That said, if you like it hotter than what you'd get in an average Indian joint, you can easily fix that by adding more chillies.

Here's what you'll need to butter up some chicken:

• 3 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
• 1 yellow onion
• 4 cloves garlic
• a 2 inch piece of ginger
• a 15 oz can of whole tomatoes
• 1/3 cup plain full fat yogurt (if you use non fat yogurt an adorable Indian baby cries)
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 1.5 tbsp tomato paste
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1/2 tsp chilli flakes (add more for teh extra hawtness)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• a handful of chopped cilantro (optional ... I forgot to get some as you'll see below)
• 2 tsp cooking oil (I use grapeseed, but canola, vegetable, or olive work fine.  If you want to be really authentic, find some mustard oil)

First off, I cube the chicken and sprinkle the salt and pepper on it.

I put that aside while I mince the onion, garlic, and ginger.

Prep work is done ... that was easy!  Time to saute some chicken.  I throw the oil in the pan on medium high heat, and wait for it to get nice and hot.

The chicken goes in.  (Side note: after seeing this pic, I noticed that a piece of chicken got stuck in the back burner!)

I flip it around until it's solid white on all sides.  This only takes about five minutes in a hot pan.  It's done as soon as it's white outside - if it gets too cooked it won't be tender at the end.

The chicken is set aside for now.  I give the pan a very light rinse with warm water, and put it back on medium heat with the butter.  The butter melts and grabs all those tasty chicken crumbs.

Once the butter has fully melted, I saute the onions, garlic, and ginger in it.

The onions start to soften and turn translucent after about two or three minutes.  That's when I add the spices.  Things start to smell really good right about now.

I keep everything moving so as not to burn it.  You want to toast the spices without scorching them.  After a couple minutes of that, the yogurt gets stirred in.  It melts and covers everything.

I immediately stir in the tomato paste ...

... then the tomatoes.  I crush them a bit with the spatula to let the juices out.  We want those juices to mingle.

That's our sauce.  I turn the heat down to medium low and let it simmer for about five minutes, stirring occasionally.  Once that's done, the chicken goes back in and joins the flavour party.

I simmer like this for ten more minutes.  The chicken gets nice and tender and the tomatoes get downright sloppy.  That's how I like them ... oh yeah.  Let's see how it looks after that.

Yeah, basically the same except the tomatoes are kind of sinking.  That's good.  Oh, and if I had been smart and remembered to buy cilantro, it would be going in right here.  Just use your imagination.

Here's the final product served on rice with a home-brewed India Pale Ale.  Let's hear it for the subcontinent!

Dinnerblog: Szechuan Chicken

Welcome to the first edition of Dinnerblog!  In this feature, I use the magic of digital photography to take you through the preparation of a nice meal from start to finish.

Our first recipe is Szechuan Chicken.  I'm sure anyone who's been to a Chinese restaurant will recognize this.  On the occasions when I've had it out, it's usually been very tasty but very greasy.  My recipe here attempts to minimize the greasiness while retaining the flavour you'd expect.

In case you feel like making your own (and you should), here's what you'll need:

• 3 large chicken breasts
• 1/2 red bell pepper
• 1/2 green bell pepper
• 2 large carrots
• 3 green onions
• thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger
• 2 egg whites
• 2 tbsp corn starch
• 2 tbsp sherry, cooking or otherwise
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tsp chilli flakes (or more if you like it hot)
• 1/4 cup vegetable or canola oil
• 3 tbsp + 1 tsp sesame oil

Here's the photographed cooking process.  Click on any image to make it bigger.

I start by slicing the chicken breasts into thin cross-sectional slices.  This is easiest to do when the chicken is partially frozen.  Make sure it completely thaws before you actually cook it, of course.

Next I prep the vegetables.  I peel and slice the carrots, slice the peppers, and the green onions.  I probably should have sliced the carrots into thin strips to be consistent with the peppers, but meh.

In a bowl I get started on the sauce.  The base is the sherry, the soy sauce, the Worcestershire, and 1 tbsp of the sesame oil.  Sesame oil has a very strong flavour and you don't really need a lot of it.

I almost forgot to peel and mince some ginger!

The ginger, sugar, and pepper flakes get whisked into the sauce.

The sauce gets set aside for now.  Next step is the chicken batter, which I start in a second bowl.  It's the egg whites and the corn starch.

Here it is whisked together.  I make sure there are no lumps of corn starch left.

I toss the chicken in the batter until it's nicely coated.

Time to start cooking!  The wok contains a blend of the vegetable oil and 2 tbsp sesame oil.  You don't want to use all sesame oil here because it's expensive, and it has a low smoke point, which means it will get nasty under high heat, which is what I'm using here.  The burner is on high - we want a very hot wok.

I flick a bit of water into the oil to make sure the temperature is correct.  If it jumps around and sizzles immediately, it's hot enough.  That's when I add the chicken.

I fry the chicken until it is white on all sides.  This doesn't take long in the hot oil - less than five minutes on my crappy electric stove.

The chicken comes out and sits in paper towel to soak up the excess oil.  The oil itself is disposed of.

I put the wok back on the heat, add a teaspoon of sesame oil, and start stir frying the vegetables.  Hardest always goes first, and that's the carrots.

After a minute or so, I toss in the peppers.

After another minute, I make a well in the middle of the veggies and pour in the sauce.

Once the sauce starts bubbling I stir it in.  The chicken makes its triumphant return at this point.

The onions go in last.

A couple minutes later, it's done!

Szechuan chicken seen here served on medium grain white rice, paired with a nice British Columbia pinot blanc.  Yes I know that's a highball glass ... I lost/broke all my wine glasses.

Tantalizing close-up:

If you try this recipe, please tell me about it in the comments.  Enjoy!