This recipe was better the second night when I tweaked it a bit. Okay, so I just added a little more salt and pepper, but tweak seems to be a word used a lot in the kitchen, and since I am on recipe number three, I gave myself permission to use it.
I picked this recipe because of its name: Butter Chicken. How can you be led astray by a recipe called Butter Chicken? Even if the meal fails, you still get to tell people you made Butter Chicken for dinner.
What I could use with some of these meals are a few good vegetable sides. It would be helpful if you would post a few. If they were named things like buttered corn, caramelized carrots, or baked apples, I wouldn’t object. Really.
Once again, the Butter Chicken recipe assumed I would have almost all the ingredients in my kitchen. I didn’t.
Wait, before we go any further, I do have a question. How long do spices last? I should clarify. How long do spices in bottles labeled McCormick last?
The reason I ask about the spices is I now have cayenne, cumin, cardamom, andcoriander in my pantry. I almost had heart failure when I read the price of the cardamom at $15.00. What gives this spice the right to be so expensive? Will I ever use it again? Tell the truth, would I have missed a spice I had never even heard of?
I took 4 chicken breasts and chopped them in to bite-size pieces. The recipe said bite-size, but the picture showed whole chicken breasts. I suppose you can do it either way, but I can’t help wishing they had matched their words to their picture. I made an executive decision and chopped up the chicken and put it in a bowl.
Next, I added 5 cloves of minced garlic to a bowl. Does anyone want to share a tip for mincing garlic? Then I added 1 teaspoon of salt, 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper, 1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper. I very carefully added 1/4 teaspoon of ground coriander, 1/4 teaspoon of cumin, 1/4 teaspoon of cardamom, and finally, the juice from one whole FRESH lime.
Now, here is where I read the part where I was supposed to take this bowl of ingredients, introduce Chicken to Spice, and let them spend time getting to know one another, with the result being they would “marry”inate and ride happily off into my cast iron skillet. I did not plan for this. It was late, we were hungry, so I told them to just sleep together, for God’s sake, and I would be back in 1/2 an hour. Fate took a turn for the best.
Imagine my surprise when one half hour later, I took the bowl out of the fridge and Spice and Chicken were smiling all lovey at one another. I heard wedding bells.
Crying while dicing up an onion, I imagined the diced onion performing the wedding ceremony for Spice and Chicken.
Next, I melted lots and lots of butter in my cast iron skillet. (Yes, I have several cast iron skillets. I will tell you about them another time when we are not in the middle of a marriage ceremony.) I was supposed to use about 1/4 cup of butter but I might have used a little more. We needed a lot of butter to serve as bridesmaids and groomsmen.
Spice and Chicken arrived at the cast iron skillet chapel. Diced Onion married them while the butter bridesmaids and groomsmen surrounded them in golden goodness.
The ceremony took about 10 minutes.
After the ceremony, they were joined at the reception by Tomato Sauce (14.5 oz can) and his wife, Petite Diced Tomatoes (14.5 oz can). Homemade sauce was not invited.
The reception last about 30 minutes as they all simmered together under the light of a silver pan lid. If the sound of bubbling is any indicator, everyone had a wonderful time.
Then Spice and Chicken were toasted with a pint of the finest whipping cream (you could use light cream or half and half, but this is a wedding, for God’s sake!).
Later, a little sauced, the bride and groom rode off on basmati rice (actually, I used Minute rice because I DID have some in my pantry. HA HA HA!) while their friends threw cilantro on them.
Everyone lived happily ever after in the village of Butter. Spice and Chicken named their children Yummy and Tasty.
The End.
Glad you were in my Odd neighborhood. Feel free to hang around with us any time. Odd Loves Company and odd loves you and you and you!! I would love to hear from you in the comment section of this blog, or on Facebookor Twitter!
A few notes:
If you would like to visit the town of Butter to clarify a few points of my story (in other words, if I just confused the heck out you) here is their address http://bit.ly/spiceandchicken.
The cream in the glass is not my photo. We needed a more festive picture of cream than the one I took.
The final picture is from actual recipe. The picture I took was to dark BUT my Butter Chicken looked just like this picture except the chicken bites were not perfect, I think my sauce was a little lighter, and the cilantro was more haphazard since it was thrown by the wedding guests.
Looks delish – you’re experience in preparing chicken is priceless!
My imagination runs a little wild when I attempt to cook….I should just focus on mincing the garlic or minding the onions but….
Thanks for stopping by Odd!
That sounds delicious. I’ll have to try it sometime. You and Paula Deen could be great friends. 🙂
Thanks! It was tasty!….and as you explained on Facebook ,Paula is a cooking person who likes lots of butter..lots of butter works for me.
Thanks for dropping by Odd!
Hungarian Chicken Paprika
Now you can use boneless chicken for this recipie but I never do because I prefer to buy chicken on the breast. Why ? Because the flavor is better and I collect the breast bone with remaining meat scraps. Yes I gather them like a squirrel gathers nuts. Why? Because a) it is economical because the chicken breast with the bone is half the price. b) I immediatley place the deboned chicken in bowl to cut up and I place the breast bone with meat scraps in a freezer bag. When I have collected a very large bag of frozen breast bones I than add a whole chicken ( when it is reduced to 69 cents a pound) and then I make a huge batch of broth . The broth is used when anybody gets sick. Get the magic broth into them and Poof! An instant cure !
Now back to Hungarian Chicken Paprika
Now you have your cut up chicken in a bowl or freezer bag. I squeeze a little lemon and I use a garlic crusher. ( never chop ) I allow that to sit in a bag in the refrigerator. You can even do this the night before. I like to do things in stages. More effieient.
Melt about 3 Tabs of butter and saute a large sliced onion and 3 crushed garlic. Add 3 large Tablespoons of Imported Hungarian Paprika ( It has a big red can) Add 3 tabs of flour until it is thickened. Add 1-2 cans of chicken broth and stir, stir, stir until lumps come out. Add one large can of stewed tomatoes. Transfer into a big bowl or use another skillet. Next I use olive oil or canola oil and brown the chicken. Add the sliced chicken to the tomato onion mixture. When it’s all hot and bubbly add one or two pints of sour cream depending how thick you like it. Sprinkle a bunch of chopped parsley at the end. Turn it off for a bit and let the sour cream tomato mixture break down your chicken fibers. Taste and if it is a little bland you can add a little chicken boullion to taste. But you must resume to bring to a simmer at this point so the boullion dissolves nicely. Stir and Stir do not let it stick to the pan. Add some nice ground pepper.
Find a nice wide egg noodle and preapre it. Strain the noodle and add a little more butter,salt and parsley toss. Next heat up your Chicken Paprika mixture serve it over hot buttered noodles.
This dish can be made in about 30 minutes. If you prepare your chicken before hand. It is something I make on a cold day. Your house smells wonderful. May I suggest going to the Corner Bakery and buying the large White Rye with the Carraway Seed on top. Place bread and butter on the table with your warm Chicken Paprika. Scoop up your gravy with the good rye bread. Yummy in your Tummy ! My entire family loves this dish it disappears in a matter of minutes. It also reheats nicely the next day.
Sounds very tasty!
MJ
Cardamom is $15 now? Holy crap, frankincense and myrrh are probably cheaper! I must have a very old bottle. I bought it for an Indian cooking class.
Mary Lee? Do you have an old bottle of frankincense and myrrh OR Cardamom? 🙂
I think this Cardamom will last me a very LONG time..I wish you could buy spices by the tablespoon….
Thanks for dropping by Odd.