How to Make Murgh Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken)

[Music] my daughter loves mirk makni which is butter chicken because the sauce it's tomato and cream it's fragrant but not spicy and i love it because it comes together in a snap so it's perfect for a midweek dinner now we always serve it over basmati rice which i have cooking back there in the rice cooker and you got to start that first because the rice takes longer than the dish itself all right now we're going to focus on the sauce first because it's all about the sauce first up a nice big onion that we're just gonna chop i cut the tip off first and then i cut it in half through that root end and this is when i peel it i think it's easier to peel after you've cut it in half to cut an onion the easy way you're going to cut it into quarters again through that root end so the layers stay together and cutting towards but not through the root we're going to cut down and then we're going to tip it on its other side and do the same thing and then you can simply slice down into a nice fine chop all right with that onion out of the way it's time to focus on the ginger you want to use fresh ginger here about four teaspoons and i have to say that prepping ginger is my least favorite kitchen task but something that i found that makes it a bit easier is peeling with a spoon because the peels are really thin and you can just scrape it off quick way to grate ginger is just using a rasp style grater and it's really easy once it's peeled all right so that's about four teaspoons i'm gonna put that right in the same bowl with the onions next up a serrano pepper and this adds a little bit of spice and heat of course i always take out the seeds and ribs because those are the spiciest parts the chili but it's fresh grassy flavor is really important in the sauce and now i'm just going to mince up this serrano all right into the bowl it goes last but not least some garlic and a good amount of garlic this is five nice sized cloves so i'm just going to trim the garlic take the skins off by banging it against the side of my knife and then i love using a garlic press just makes this whole process so easy and for this having a perfect mince just isn't important so that is it for the vegetable prep for the sauce now i'm going to focus just on the few spices that really give the sauce its flavor we're only going to use three spices now the first is garam masala a tablespoon and garam masala is a blend of spices different brands taste differently and of course there's lots of variations but anything you find at the supermarket will taste good here if you want to make your own garam masala you can find a recipe for that on our website next up a teaspoon of ground coriander half a teaspoon of ground cumin last but not least we're gonna add half a teaspoon of ground black pepper veg prep is done the spices are measured out it's time to go to the stove alright so we're gonna build this sauce in a simple saucepan and i've already got two tablespoons of butter melting in here i'm gonna add those vegetables it takes only eight to ten minutes you want them to soften the onions are gonna get a little brown but that is crucial for flavor that you sweat those vegetables and they release their flavor into the pot before you add the liquid it's been about 10 minutes and you can see that the onions have really softened and it started to brown around the edges and that is perfect time to add those spices now them all at once and again we're cooking over medium heat i'm going to let these spices cook for about three minutes we really want to work their flavor into the vegetables and into the pot before we add the liquid it's been a couple of minutes you can really smell those spices they don't smell as raw they're a bit more muted and that's what we're looking for now we're going to add the liquid and the liquid is just water a cup and a half of water and the tomato paste half a cup which is more than one of those little cans so stock up on your tomato paste if you like this dish we're just going to whisk this in and while i'm whisking i'm feeling for any of those brown bits or that fond that formed around the edge of the pan i want to make sure you scrape that into the sauce because that's good flavor all right so there are no lumps of tomato paste in there now we're going to add a little sugar this is a tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of table salt return this to a simmer and that happens pretty quickly there we go now i'm going to turn the heat off and i'm going to add a cup of cream so now i'm going to use an immersion blender and put it in the pot to make the sauce as smooth as possible if you didn't have one of these of course you could transfer this to a blender and do the same thing but it can make a mess if you don't know what you're doing the one tip is to make sure these holes are always submerged because if those holes are visible sauce is gonna spit out all over the place all right so that's pretty good i'm going to put this back on the heat return it to a simmer and then we're going to whisk in just two more tablespoons of butter just for a little finish again this dish is known as butter chicken for a reason um okay so the sauce is done what i'm going to do is i'm going to put the lid on to help keep it warm now i'm going to turn the heat off next up the chicken with this sauce done it's time to focus on the chicken and here i have two pounds of boneless skinless chicken thighs don't substitute chicken breasts here the thighs have much more flavor and they stay tender as they sit in that sauce even my daughter who doesn't really like chicken thighs likes them in this dish so no one's gonna complain you want to trim these sometimes there's a lot to trim some fat and gristle sometimes there's nothing and these were pretty clean and we're just going to season them with a teaspoon of table salt toss them around and now traditionally the chicken is marinated in yogurt which is delicious but the yogurt actually does too good a job of marinating and it'll make this chicken a little on the mushy side so all we're going to do is toss it with the yogurt then cook it straight away you just need half a cup of nice thick greek yogurt the yogurt also will help the chicken brown in the oven and that browning is pretty crucial for the flavor so you just want to toss the chicken around make sure it's nice and evenly coated with the yogurt before you start cooking when it comes to cooking the chicken we're going to use the broiler because it's as close as we can get to a tandoor oven so the chicken gets a great char which is awesome flavor but in our kitchen we're just going to use the broiler just make sure the rack underneath the broiler is about six inches from the broiler element that way you get a good amount of browning all right i'm going to place this chicken on a wire rack set over rimmed baking sheet lined with foil and that is for easy clean up because the foil will look like a mess these are ready for the broiler it's going to take anywhere from 16 to 20 minutes i'm going to flip them over halfway through so we get browning on both sides and we're looking for a final temperature of 175 degrees [Music] oh these look good i know they might look a little burned if you've never made this before but that is the level of char you're looking for that is good flavor so i'm just going to flip these over and cook them on the second side back into the oven another 10 minutes or so until they register 175 degrees oh it smells good now i often find that the second side doesn't get as brown as the fur side but that's okay it's still going to taste great so again we're looking for a temperature of 175 degrees we're good i'm gonna set these aside let that chicken rest for five minutes before we cut it up and in the meantime i'm gonna reheat the sauce over medium heat before serving the chicken has rested and it's time to cut it up into bite-sized pieces in general you want to go for three-quarter inch pieces or so basically you want them to fit on a fork all right so into the sauce all this chicken will go oh yep last but not least i'm gonna chop up a little cilantro and stir it in i'm gonna add about about two tablespoons of cilantro in here maybe a little extra for good luck oh goodness here's that basmati rice which is great because it soaks up all the sauce ah the moment i've been waiting for oh that's good with that little extra kick of heat if you want to make murg mokni remember two things first you want to coat the chicken with yogurt not marinate it and second you want to throw that chicken under the broiler to cook so it's nice and blackened from america's test kitchen at home a house favorite recipe for merg makhni thanks for watching america's test kitchen what'd you think well leave a comment and let us know which recipes you're excited to make or you can just say hello you can find links to today's recipes and reviews in the video description and don't forget to subscribe to our channel see you later i'll see you later

Channel: America's Test Kitchen

Views: 227,518

Keywords: americas test kitchen, cooks illustrated, cooks country, murgh makhani, indian butter chicken, butter chicken, how to make indian butter chicke, indian butter chicken recipes

Id: ZkvbDB0cgMk

Length: 9min 19sec (559 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 21 2021