Donal Skehan: An ode to butter chicken

Butter chicken – two simple words to describe one of the richest of Indian dishes. Yoghurt marinated chicken pieces wrapped in a buttery curry sauce humming with coriander and cumin and fresh, aromatic garlic, ginger and chilli. Served with saffron speckled basmati rice and garlic naan bread, it’s the stuff of my late-night weekend cravings.

Known as murgh makhani in Hindi, butter chicken is easily one of the most popular Indian dishes recreated around the world. Its invention is widely credited to one restaurant, Delhi's Moti Mahal, where in the 1950s, as a means to use up leftover tandoori chicken, they added it to a tomato- and butter-based curry sauce. Accident or act of genius, butter chicken was born and it continues to appear on the menus of Indian restaurants across the world.

In the absence of a visit to your local Indian restaurant, the question is: just how easy is it to recreate the dish at home?

While there is a fairly extensive list of ingredients, and a few stages to it, it’s a satisfying recipe to cook, with impressive results. Like many dishes that have travelled across the world, there are, of course, variations that will no doubt have traditionalists up in arms.

However, the essence of this dish can be recreated in the home kitchen. It relies heavily on the use of aromatics. Even the most dour-looking jars of spices lurking in the back of your store cupboard can be catapulted to greatness in a dish such as butter chicken.

In the moment you add cardamom pods, cumin and coriander to the hot pan and allow them to release their oils and become deeper and more earthy in flavour, the bones of this brilliant supper are being built.

India has been on my bucket list of places to visit for some time, but for the time being, as a pot of this rich chicken stew blips away on my stove, I am happy to be transported to colourful spice markets and bustling street food stalls through each bite.