Sattie, since you consulted so many recipes not sure if you need mine but I make butter chicken every few months. Not too much because it's pretty high in fat. I follow this recipe and it works everytime.
At the end I will give you a little cheat trick that I use to make a very quick version when I don't have much time but I still want to get an authentic result.
Ingredients:
Marinade for the chicken
1 cup of plain yogurt (best one to buy is greek or middleeastern). It has the creamy texture that works well and it's not very sour
2 tsp of freshly minced or grated ginger
1 tsp of red food color
Toast the following spices - put them in a dry skillet and let them toast on a low heat
1 tbsp of cumin seeds, 1 tbsp of corrainder seeds, 1/4 tsp of black peppercorns, 3 cloves, 1 small stick of cinnamon, 3 dried red chilies
Grind the whole spices. You will use 2 tsps of this in the chicken
handful of chopped cilantro
juice of one lime
salt to taste
Mix this with a chicken (one whole chicken works well, remove the skin and cut into large peices) and let it sit for 3 hours.
Normally this chicken would be cooked in a tandoor but you can cook it on the grill, oven or even stove top. Cook it with the marinade and all until it's dry.
Let the chicken cool. Once it's cool debone it and reserve the meat.
Recipe for the Gravy:
1/2 cup of a cashews (sweet) grind finely
1 tsp of freshly minced ginger
1 small can of tomato sauce
1 small onion finely chopped
1 stick of butter
1/2 cup of cream
Reserved ground spices
2 tsps of kasuri methi (available at Indian stores in a box) - This is an absolute necessary ingredient in making a traditional butter chicken. You take the 2 tsps of this herb and then crumble it with your fingers and add it to the gravy.
salt to taste
2 tsps of sugar
corrainder leaves for garnish
In a pan, add the butter. Once it melts, add the onion and let it cook until it's golden brown. Next add the cashews and minced ginger and spices and let them toast in the butter for a bit. Now add the kasuri methi and tomato sauce and chicken, salt and sugar. Let it all cook on low for 10 minutes or so. In the end add the cream, stir it to combine and let it simmer for another 5 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and serve with naan.
Now the short cut method: The best spice mix to make butter chicken that I have come across is called Parampara (it's available in most Indian stores). It's a ready to use spice packet with a concentrated spice paste.
What I do is just cut up a whole chicken and marinate it in some lime juice.
Then I make a gravy using a stick of butter, some cashews, add the parampara paste to it and a few tbsp of tomato sauce. Then I add the chicken and let it cook on low until the chicken is cooked and curry thickens. Garnish with corrainder and you will have something pretty close to the real thing minus all the hard work
so what if the chicken has bones in it.
Also if you got spices you can use them in a gazillion dishes. Not all Indian dishes are curries I think they just have that rep. Hopefully you bought whole spices and if you are in doubt what to do with some of them send me a PT and I can give you some ideas.
All the best.
