Instant Pot Butter Chicken

Scott and I took William to an Indian restaurant recently that someone at Scott's work recommended and I tried butter chicken for the first time and really enjoyed the entire exotic experience. Then, about a week later, we saw Costco had a butter chicken dinner pack, complete with naan bread, so we took that home to compare and let Chris and Lucas try it. From there I started to look on the Internet and I found this Instant Pot recipe from Six Sister's Stuff. We tried it last night and every agreed that it was even better than the Costco pack! Enjoy!

See the original recipe here: https://www.sixsistersstuff.com/recipe/instant-pot-butter-chicken-recipe/

If you haven't had butter chicken before, one of the things that I think makes it taste so exotic to my pallet is that the Indian spice blend (garam masala) contains flavors that I usually associate with baked goods (cinnamon rolls, cookies, breads) and instead they are used in this savory creamy tomato sauce for the chicken.

Instant Pot Butter Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, diced
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 Tablespoons butter
• 2 pounds chicken thighs, or chicken breasts (raw, not cut or in large pieces for easy removal from the pot)
• 15 ounces tomato sauce
• 3 Tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 Tablespoons red curry paste
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• 1½ teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
• ½ cup heavy cream
• fresh cilantro, optional garnish

Directions:

1. Set your Instant Pot to SAUTE and add butter, onion and garlic. Sauté for approximately 5 minutes until the onions are tender. Press OFF to cancel the sauté.
2. Add the chicken, tomato sauce, tomato paste, red curry paste, garam masala, ground ginger, salt, and smoked paprika to the Instant Pot. Lock the lid in place and turn the pressure valve to seal it. Set to HIGH PRESSURE for 7-9 minutes, depending on how larger your chicken pieces are.
3. When the timer goes off do a natural release for 5 minutes and then turn the valve on top to VENTING to let the remaining steam out of the pressure cooker.
4. Remove the lid and using a slotted spoon remove the chicken from the sauce and set aside.
5. Add the heavy cream to the pot and, using an immersion blender puree the sauce until smooth. (See Marsha's note about using a blender instead.)
6. Set the Instant Pot to SAUTE and stir the sauce while simmering for 7-10 minutes, or until it thickens. Turn OFF saute. (I found this step to be unnecessary, but if my sauce did appear to be too thin after blending, I could pour it back into my Instant Pot liner and continue to sauté.)
7. Add the chicken back to the sauce, stir together, and serve with a garnish of cilantro.
8. Serve with naan bread and white rice (here is my favorite Instant Pot rice recipe, which makes may about twice as much as you will need for the butter chicken but you can freeze the rest for later if desired:https://1brother2sisters.blogspot.com/2020/02/white-rice-in-instant-pot.html)

Marsha's Notes:

• For me, next time I am going to cook my chicken in larger pieces (instead of raw bite-sized pieces), then chop the cooked chicken on a cutting board into bite-sized chunks and then transfer them to my large serving bowl. Then, I am going to pour all of my sauce ingredients into a blender to make my sauce, then pour it over the chicken in the serving bowl. Because...
• The original recipe says to have the chicken in bite-sized pieces, but then later you have to fish them out of the pot to blend up the sauce. When I looked on their website, there is a picture of how they just put whole chicken thighs into their pot to cook. So I am not sure what is going on there, but I recommend either putting your boneless chicken in as is (for smaller thighs) or at least cutting into fairly large pieces/chunks that are easy to find and scoop out of the pot (i.e. cutting a breast into 2-4 pieces). Once the chicken is cooked and removed from the pot, then you can cut it into bite-sized pieces to add back to the sauce after it has been blended. Depending on how large your chicken pieces are, you may have to adjust the cook time for a minute or two longer.
• I also found that there wasn't enough sauce ingredients in the bottom of the Instant Pot to blend with my emersion blended without it splashing all over the place because the head of the blender couldn't get completely submerged, so it might be worth it to pour your sauce into a different, smaller diameter bowl for blending, or even pouring it into a blender.

This recipe calls for red curry paste, which I found easily in the Asian/Indian section of my local grocery store. However, I could not find the garam masala spice blend, so I had to order mine from Amazon. There are recipes online for making your own homemade version, but I wasn't really sure what it was supposed to taste like, so I got a professional blend. Now that I know better what things should taste like, I might try making my own when this bottle runs out. Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00309S13Q?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

Homemade Garam Masala Spice Blend (from Allrecipes.com)

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cardamom
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions:

1. Mix all together. 
2. Store in airtight container.

Grandma Pack's Chicken Curry Casserole

I found this recipe years ago and am now copying it here from our family cookbook binder. Enjoy!

Chicken Curry Casserole

Ingredients: 

• 4 or 5 split chicken breasts
• Salt
• Water
• 2 pkg. frozen broccoli (10 oz.)
• 1 or 2 cans cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup mayo
• 1 tsp. curry powder
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• salt to taste
• 1 small can water chestnuts, sliced
• grated cheese
• crushed potato chips or bread crumbs 

Directions:

1. Boil chicken in salt water, cool, and bone and skin chicken.  
2. Cook and drain broccoli.  Place in bottom of casserole dish.  
3. Place boned chicken on top of broccoli.  
4. For sauce, mix cream of chicken soup, mayo, curry powder, lemon juice, and salt and pepper.  Pour sauce over chicken.  
5. Drain and slice water chestnuts and pour over chicken.  
6. Top with grated cheese and crushed potato chips or bread crumbs.  
7. Bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees.  (You can also add sliced mushrooms.)

Marsha's "NYC Street Food" Chicken and Rice with Veggies

I came across a recipe from Tasty for NYC Street Food Chicken and Rice that looked good. I wanted to make it a more complete meal though, so I added some veggies to mine, plus my rice needed some additional water to get fully cooked. This would be good as a chicken and rice bowl, or scooped into a tortilla. The chicken needs to marinate, so plan for some extra time there, depending on how long you want it to marinate for added flavor. My method of preparation is just a bit different than Tastey's version, making this "Marsha's" version of NYC Street Food Chicken and Rice.

Marsha's "NYC Street Food" Chicken and Rice with Veggies

Servings:  4

Ingredients:

For the white sauce:

• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar (or white vinegar)
• 1 lemon, juiced
• ½-1 teaspoon sugar, or to taste
• ½ teaspoon salt

For the chicken and marinade:

• 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• ¼ teaspoon black pepper
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• ¼ cup olive oil

For the rice:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 2 cups basmati or long grain white rice
• 2+ cups chicken stock
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Shredded or finely diced carrots, to taste
• Frozen peas, to taste

Additional optional ingredients:

• Sriracha, harissa or your favorite hot sauce (optional to serve)
• Fresh parsley (optional for garnish)

Directions:

1. Whisk together all sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Refrigerate until ready to use.   
2. Toss chicken with lemon juice, oregano, coriander, salt, pepper, garlic and olive oil.  Marinade at least 15 minutes, an hour is ideal.
3. Heat a large pot over high heat and add enough oil to coat the bottom lightly.  
4. Cook the chicken in the preheated pot in batches until done. Remove chicken from pan, set aside and keep warm. I put mine in the oven on the warm-and-hold setting covered in some foil to keep the chicken from drying out.
5. In the same pot you cooked the chicken, add the butter, rice, turmeric, cumin and any hard veggies (carrots, celery, peppers, etc.).  Stir to coat rice, cook about 1-2 minutes.  
6. Add chicken stock and salt and bring to a boil.
7. Turn heat down to low, cover and cook 15 minutes.  If the rice is not yet tender and the liquid seems mostly gone, you may need to add just a touch more broth or water to finish the cooking process.
8. When rice is done, add frozen peas to the rice mixture (peas will gently thaw from the heat of the rice in a minute or two without over cooking). Fluff with a fork when finished and remove from heat. (If I was using canned corn, I would add a handful of corn at the same time as the peas.) 
9. When everything is done, dice the warm chicken into fork sized pieces.
10. Serve chicken pieces on top of rice (or mixed in), drizzle with the white sauce and add hot sauce if desired.  
11. Enjoy!

Marsha's Notes:

This recipe calls for a unique and flavorful white sauce. It's tangy and sour, and I felt like I needed just the smallest drizzle to add an interesting flavor to this dish. It really grew on me, but it was STRONG. If the yogurt white sauce is not your cup of tea, you could easily replace it with sour cream or ranch dressing instead. But be brave and give it a try (a small portion try) before you decide. :)

How many veggies you add is completely up to you. I have a baggie of pre-shredded carrots that I use for salads, and so I tossed a handful in. I also just used a handful of frozen peas. Another yummy addition might be corn kernels, finely diced celery, or even colorful peppers. Scott liked it when I made it with red, yellow and orange peppers, but I did not because it was too strong with the pepper flavor. So, for our family, go gently with the peppers.

For the original recipe and video, go here:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/emilyhorng/travel-to-new-york-city-without-leaving-your-house-with-this?bffbtasty&utm_term=.jpjGRyKLL#.lkaJ8vLkk