Who says pasta sauce is just for pasta?! Not us! Here’s our family-friendly shortcut to butter chicken, starring Home Base!
Serves 4
Mariande
500 g chicken thighs, cut into bite sized pieces
½ cup plain full fat yoghurt
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 tbs fresh ginger, grated (or 1 tsp dried ginger)
1 tsp salt
Sauce
40g butter+ 1 tbs olive oil (or 40g ghee)
250ml home base
250ml pure cream *
½ tsp sugar, optional
Salt to taste, optional
1 small head cauliflower, cut into little florets
1 can drained chickpeas (optional)
To serve
Rice, Pappadum's, Coriander or mint
It all starts with marinating bite-sized chicken thighs in yoghurt, garam masala, turmeric, garlic, salt, ginger (fresh is best, but hey, I was out, so dried ginger to the rescue), and a squeeze of lemon. Ideally, you pop that in the fridge overnight, but it’s usually 3 hours in my house.
Next up, melt some butter with oil (or ghee if you’ve got it), then fry up the chicken. Now, it won’t brown much because of the yoghurt, but no worries—that’s not the point! Tip in some Home Base sauce and cream, add a sprinkle of sugar and salt to balance things out, and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Toss in some cauliflower—and sometimes I add chickpeas to bulk it up! Cook for another 10 with the lid on, and you’re golden.
I serve it up on rice with coriander (or mint) and some microwavable pappadums. It’s mild, creamy, packed with flavour thanks to the work Home Base is already done and best of all – kids love it.
* Note: you can make this dairy free by replacing cream with coconut cream – but you might need to balance the flavours slightly.