James Martin Butter Chicken

James Martin’s butter chicken marinates diced chicken breast in a spiced yoghurt and cashew purée, grills it until charred, then finishes it in a quick tomato sauce enriched with chilled butter and cream. The chicken marinates for an hour, grills for 12-15 minutes, and the whole thing serves four with homemade chapatis. It’s a lighter, fresher take than the usual takeaway version.

The recipe is from his BBC One series Home Comforts at Christmas (2015). Martin frames it as a Saturday-night feast for friends and family, with the kids roped in to roll the chapatis. His twist is grilling the marinated chicken first, tandoori-style, so it takes on colour and char before it ever meets the sauce, and blending cashews into the marinade rather than the gravy.

The step that earns the name comes at the end. You whisk cold butter into the tomato sauce a little at a time, then add cream, which emulsifies into a glossy, rich finish. Add the butter too fast or over too high a heat and the sauce splits, so this is the moment to slow down.

James Martin Butter Chicken

Recipe by Pinch Perfect

0.0 from 0 votes

Course: Dinner, LunchCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy

Servings

4

servings

Prep time

20

minutes

Cooking time

30

minutes

Calories

785

kcal

Total time

50

minutes

James Martin’s fresher butter chicken from Home Comforts at Christmas: yoghurt-and-cashew-marinated chicken grilled for char, then simmered in a light tomato sauce mounted with butter and cream. Served with quick homemade chapatis. A family feast for four.

Ingredients

• For the chicken:

• 2 tsp chilli powder

• 2 tsp ground cumin

• 1 tbsp garam masala

• 1 tsp ground coriander

• 6 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

• ½ tsp ground turmeric

• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

• 7.5cm/3in piece fresh root ginger, roughly chopped

• 50g/1¾oz cashews, roughly chopped

• 2 lemons, juice only

• 150g/5½oz plain, full-fat yoghurt

• 4 large boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2.5cm/1in dice

• For the sauce:

• 1 tbsp vegetable oil

• 1 cinnamon stick

• 4 cardamom pods, split

• 2 long green chillies, finely sliced

• 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes

• 75g/2½oz chilled butter, plus 25g/1oz melted butter

• 50ml/2fl oz double cream

• For the chapatis:

• 250g/9oz wholemeal plain flour, plus extra for dusting

• salt and freshly ground black pepper

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Directions

• Make the marinade: Blend the chilli powder, cumin, garam masala, coriander, 3 of the garlic cloves, turmeric, ground cinnamon, ginger and cashews to a fine purée in a food processor. Add half the lemon juice and blitz again until smooth, then stir in the yoghurt.
• Marinate: Coat the diced chicken in the marinade and chill for 1 hour.
• Grill the chicken: Preheat the grill to its highest setting with a shelf in the middle. Spread the chicken on a foil-lined grill tray and grill for 12-15 minutes, until the marinade has browned and the chicken is just cooked.
• Start the sauce: Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the cinnamon stick and cardamom and stir-fry for 1 minute until fragrant, then add the remaining garlic, the green chillies and the tomatoes and simmer for 4-5 minutes.
• Combine: Add the grilled chicken and cook for a further 4-5 minutes, until the sauce has thickened slightly and the chicken is cooked through.
• Enrich: Whisk in the chilled butter a little at a time, then add the cream and simmer for 2 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and keep warm.
• Make the chapati dough: Pile the flour on a clean surface and make a well. Gradually add 250ml/9fl oz cold water, pulling in the flour until it forms a soft dough, then knead until smooth and elastic.
• Roll and cook the chapatis: Divide into 4, roll each into a ball, then roll out on a floured surface to 2-3mm thick. Cook one at a time in a very hot griddle or non-stick pan for about 20 seconds a side, until charred and bubbling, then brush with the melted butter.
• Serve: Serve the butter chicken with the warm chapatis.

Notes

• Marinate 1 hour

FAQs

How is this different from a classic butter chicken?

It’s fresher and quicker. A restaurant-style butter chicken (murgh makhani) usually simmers a long, silky gravy of tomatoes, cashew cream, butter and fenugreek, then adds the chicken to cook through in it. Martin instead grills the marinated chicken separately for a charred, tandoori-like edge, then brings it together with a light, barely-cooked tomato sauce.

He also puts the cashews in the marinade rather than blending them into the sauce, so they season the chicken instead of thickening the gravy. The result is looser and brighter than a heavy takeaway version, with the char doing a lot of the flavour work. Neither is more correct, they’re just different styles, so pick the one you’re in the mood for.

Why grill the chicken before adding it to the sauce?

For flavour and texture. Grilling the marinated chicken on a high heat browns and lightly chars the spiced yoghurt coating, giving that smoky, tandoori-style depth you can’t get by poaching the chicken straight in the sauce. It’s the same principle as a tandoor, using your grill as the fierce dry heat source.

It also keeps the sauce from turning watery. Because the chicken is already cooked and its surface caramelised, it only needs a few minutes in the tomato sauce to finish, so the sauce stays vibrant rather than being diluted by raw chicken juices. Line the grill tray with foil, since the sugary marinade catches and burns onto the tray otherwise.

How do I stop the butter sauce from splitting?

Go slowly and control the heat. The richness comes from whisking cold butter into the sauce a little at a time, which emulsifies it into a glossy finish, but if the pan is too hot or you add the butter in one lump, the fat separates out and the sauce turns greasy. Keep it at a gentle simmer, not a rolling boil.

Add the chilled butter piece by piece, whisking each in before the next, then stir in the cream and give it just 2 minutes more. In testing, the sauce held together far better when I pulled the pan off the fiercest heat before mounting the butter, then returned it gently. If it does split, a splash of cold cream whisked in hard can sometimes bring it back.

How spicy is it, and can I make it milder for children?

As written it has a moderate, warming heat: 2 teaspoons of chilli powder in the marinade plus 2 sliced green chillies in the sauce. It’s punchy rather than fiery, but Martin pitches this as a family feast with the kids involved, so you may want to dial it down for younger eaters.

To soften it, halve the chilli powder and use just one green chilli, deseeded, or leave the fresh chilli out and let people add it at the table. The garam masala, cumin and coriander carry plenty of flavour without heat, so you lose very little by reducing the chilli. A dollop of extra yoghurt on the plate also cools it nicely.

Any tips for making the chapatis?

Two things matter most: thickness and heat. Roll the dough thinly, to 2-3mm, and cook the chapatis in a properly ripping-hot dry pan for only about 20 seconds a side. You’ll know each one is ready when bubbles puff up across the surface, at which point Martin brushes them with melted butter for softness and shine.

Make the dough while the chicken marinates or grills, since it’s just wholemeal flour and cold water kneaded until smooth and elastic. If you’re short on time, warmed shop-bought naan, flatbreads or plain basmati rice all work as stand-ins, though the fresh chapatis are the point of getting everyone involved.

Can I use chicken thighs, or make it ahead?

Thighs work well and are more forgiving. Boneless skinless thighs stay juicier under the grill’s high heat than breast, which can dry out if slightly overcooked, so they’re a good swap if you’re worried about that. Keep the same dice size and marinating time.

You can also get ahead: the chicken can marinate for longer than the stated hour, even overnight, for deeper flavour, and the tomato base can be made in advance and reheated before you mount the butter and cream. Add the butter and cream fresh, though, since reheating an already-enriched sauce hard is what tends to make it split.