Butter Chicken

We made this yummy dish last night for our friend's Scott and Katie who recently announced they are expecting their first child!  We were so excited and wanted to celebrate their good news over a meal with friends.

Left to right: Scott, Katie, Chris, Alex, Doug, Summer, and Jessica

I found this recipe a few weeks ago on the Pioneer Woman's website.  She has a section called Tasty Kitchen where other people can post recipes on her website.  She posted, on her cooking blog, her top favorites from Tasty Kitchen.

I wasn't sure why this was called Butter Chicken.  Yes, you use some butter in the recipe, but why not tomato chicken???  When Katie got to our house last night she saw the recipe laying out and commented that she had butter chicken before at a Indian restaurant.  It made me curious so I did a little research.  Here is what I found on wikipedia about Butter Chicken.

The dish was delicious.  You do need to prep the chicken the morning of or the night before.  After that you just throw it all together and serve over rice.  We also had a cesar salad for a side dish.

This was my first time cooking with cardamom.  It added a nice flavor.  It isn't hard to find.  I found it in the spice section at Publix.

Yum, I can't wait to heat up the left overs as soon as I am done typing this up!

I doubled this for all our guests.

I spy a four legged friend in the background.  That would be our cat Callie.

Butter Chicken
Source : Pioneer Woman's Tasty Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 4 pieces of boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into bite size pieces)
• 5 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp. ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp. cumin
• 1/4 tsp cardamom
• 1 whole lime, juiced
• 1 whole onion, diced
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) tomato sauce
• 1 can (14.5 ounces) diced tomatoes
• 1 pint whipping cream
• 1 bunch of chopped cilantro, to taste
• 2 cups basmati rice

Directions:

Combine the first 9 ingredients and marinate overnight.  (I made it in the morning for dinner that night).

Saute the onion in the butter until soft.  Add marinated chicken and cook about 10 minutes.  Add the tomato sauce and diced tomatoes.  Cook for 30 minutes over medium low heat with the lid on.  Add the whipping cream and cilantro just before serving over basmati rice.