This recipe is from Gordon Ramsay’s Great Escape: 100 of My Favourite Indian Recipes.

Gordon: “Butter chicken, or murgh makhani, was one of the first dishes I tasted when I went to India. Its origins can be traced back to Mogul times, but the dish and its history is most closely associated with Delhi’s famous Moti Mahal restaurant, where I had the pleasure of eating this fantastic dish. Over time, numerous chefs have attempted to emulate the rich buttery sauce, and flavours vary slightly between restaurants. This is my version of the classic dish.”

For the sauce:

1½T  ghee or melted unsalted butter
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
2cm ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 cardamom pod, seeds lightly crushed
2 cloves
1t  ground coriander
1t  garam masala
1t  ground turmeric
1t  hot chilli powder, or to taste
275ml tomato puree
1T  lemon juice
40g unsalted butter
100ml double cream
1T  chopped coriander, to garnish

1. Place the chicken in a bowl with the garlic, ginger, salt, chilli powder and lemon juice. Mix, cover with cling film and chill for 30 minutes. Mix together the yoghurt, garam masala, turmeric and cumin and add to the chicken, making sure that each piece is well coated with the mixture. Cover again and chill for 3-4 hours.
2. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Put the marinated chicken pieces on a grill rack set on a baking tray and bake for 8-10 minutes. Brush the chicken pieces with a little oil and turn them over. Bake for another 10-12 minutes until just cooked through (or grill over very hot coals on the braai – ±5 minutes on each side).

For the sauce:

1. Heat the ghee or butter in a pan and add the garlic and ginger.
2. Fry for a minute or so then add the cardamom, cloves, coriander, garam masala, turmeric and chilli powder. Stir well and fry for 1-2 minutes until they give off a lovely aroma.
3. Stir in the tomato puree and lemon juice and cook for another couple of minutes.
4. Add the cooked chicken pieces to the sauce and stir well to coat. Finally, add the butter and cream and stir continuously until the butter has melted and the sauce is smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Transfer to a warm bowl and serve hot, garnished with chopped coriander.

Serves 4

More Indian cuisine from Ramsay:

Gordon’s tandoori spiced halibut
Gordon’s vegetable curry
Shami lamb kebabs
Gordon’s chicken tikka masala
Gordon’s samoosas

For other Gordon Ramsay recipes, click here

Other Gordon Ramsay books reviewed by Wickedfood:

Gordon Ramsay’s Great British Pub Food

Cooking for Friends

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

In Gordon Ramsay’s Great Escape: 100 of My Favourite Indian Recipes, Gordon embarks on a culinary journey around India, discovering the breadth and depth of cooking of the country. This new cookbook from him is packed with the best recipes from his travels to India, where he had never been to until now (and perhaps too many photos of him and not enough of the food).

Accompanied by a Channel 4 film crew, Gordon takes the culinary trip to discover Indian cuisine and share this collection of over 100 of his favourite Indian dishes. The book explores Indian food from Kerala deep in the South of India with spicy coconut-based curries, to Rajasthan with creamy, flavourful dishes of the North. Along the way Gordon experiences the hugely different flavours and spices from the different regions and absorbs local cooking styles and traditions.

Not perhaps his best book and certainly not the best book on Indian cuisine, but none the less, well worth getting if you are a Ramsay fan, or do not have another book on Indian food and want some solid recipes that work.

For Gordon Ramsay recipes from the book, click here

Other Gordon Ramsay books reviewed by Wickedfood:

Gordon Ramsay’s Great British Pub Food

Cooking for Friends

Interested in buying this book? visit - Red Pepper Books – The South African online bookshop, they will be able to offer you great prices on any book you are looking for.

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

In his latest cookbook, Gordon Ramsay’s Great British Pub Food, he teams up with Mark Sargeant to look at some of the best  British pub cooking. Packed full of mouthwatering, hearty, traditional recipes, this book is perfect for relaxed, homely and comforting cooking. Pubs were once a place where you could always guarantee good, simple, cheap food and a great Sunday roast. But when the steak houses and fast food chains arrived in the UK, the good home cooking from the pub kitchens was replaced with tasteless, defrosted meals. Then came the gastropubs, which weren’t much better, serving mediocre food at restaurant prices.

When Gordon Ramsay and Mark Sargeant set up the Gordon Ramsay pubs in London they wanted to reintroduce some of these simple but delicious British classics, and to serve them at affordable pub prices. Dishes like rich, hearty Chicken and Smoked Bacon Pie, mouth-watering Gloucestershire Sausages with Grainy Mustard Mash and Red Onion Marmalade and indulgent Treacle Tart – classics that have stood the test of time. Now Gordon has gathered his favourite British recipes into one sumptuous collection.

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Wickedfood Cooking School runs Johannesburg cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. We offer a variety of Cooking Lessons. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and team building cooking classes these classes are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.