Makhani Chicken

Makhani means "with butter" and this chicken recipe is also sometimes called Butter Chicken. I love this Indian dish and you can alter the amount of spices to personalize it to your tastes.

You need boneless skinless chicken breasts, for me when I did this, I used 6 ( I love leftovers for lunch the next day).

Put your chicken into a bowl and juice 1 lime, add a pinch of salt, a pinch of pepper, approximately a tablespoon of cardamom, a tablespoon of coriander, and a generous amount of cayenne. My husband and I like heat, but for those who don't, don't be scared but add a little cayenne for flavor. Dice a few cloves of garlic and add to bowl as well. Mix all the seasoning and lime juice over the chicken and put in the fridge for at least 20 minutes to let all the flavors make love and mix together.

Dice an entire onion (I used a white onion). Add 1/4 cup butter to a frying pan till melted. Add the onion and cook till the onion is translucent and browning. 

Add marinated chicken to pan to brown. When you lay the chicken breast down, the pan should be sizzling, if it doesn't, your pan isn't hot enough so take chicken out and let pan heat up more. If you add chicken to a pan and it doesn't sizzle, you aren't going to get the beautiful browning you want. 

Once you get a pretty browning on the chicken (approx 5 min) flip the chicken over and let the other side brown and cook. Once both sides are brown (and this should be smelling FABULOUS at this point) add 16oz of tomato sauce. 

Next add 1 can of diced tomatoes. 

Make sure you stir all around and let everything mix together nicely. Simmer for approximate 20 minutes to allow all the flavors to combine. Make sure you are cooking on low/medium and stirring regularly so the sauce doesn't burn. 

Once you are ready to serve, add in heavy whipping cream to sauce. Make sure you incorporate fully and get all the edges and below and above chicken. I used almost an entire small container of cream and got this beautiful rich color sauce shown below. 

At this point taste the sauce and make sure it has enough heat and flavor you like...if not add some more seasoning and incorporate fully. Make sure sauce warms up after you added the cream. Serve over a bed of rice...I choose brown rice for some whole grains.

Top with some cilantro and Bon Appetite! Let me know what you think or what you did differently to personalize this.