Preparation:

How to do the marination for butter chicken:

• Clean boneless chicken pieces properly and pat them dry with a kitchen towel. We don't need excess water in the chicken.
• Take chicken in a bowl, add salt and turmeric powder.
• Also, add chilli powder and cumin powder.
• Put some kasuri methi and hung non-sour curd. Choosing the fresh curd is important to get creamy rich butter chicken gravy.
• Combine everything together properly and keep covered this marination for a minimum of 30minutes to overnight in the refrigerator.

Recipe:

How to make the base makhani masala for butter gravy:

• Take a flat pan, heat oil and add crushed ginger garlic or ginger garlic paste.
• Saute well for two minutes to remove the raw smell of garlic.
• Add chopped tomatoes and saute for two minutes. No need to saute till mushy as we are going to cook them covered.
• For creaminess add some cashews with tomatoes, cover with a lid and cook for four to five minutes in medium heat until tomatoes become soft.
• Switch off, transfer to another plate and let this cool down completely and grind into a smooth paste and keep ready. This is our base makhani masala.

How to cook chicken:

• To the same pan add extra tbsp of oil and heat.
• Add the marinated chicken and try to layer the chicken pieces in such a way that all pieces have contact with the pan. If you don't have a large flat pan, you can do this in a dosa tawa also.
• Do not add water. Chicken can get cooked in its own water plus the curd we added for marination. Also we add oil for the roasted effect.
• Since we use only boneless chicken for this butter chicken gravy, covered cooking is not required.
• Cook the bottom sides of the pieces for 3 minutes and flip them all.
• In total 8 minutes all the moisture is absorbed and chicken cooked well. Switch off keep aside.

How to make the butter chicken gravy:

• In another kadai, heat butter and saute whole spices.
• Let them roast and nice aroma arises in a few seconds.
• Add the makhani masala(ginger-garlic, tomato and cashew paste) and mix well.
• Saute and add chilli powder and garam masala powder.
• Mix some water to adjust the consistency of the gravy and let cook for a few minutes until the oil separated on sides.
• Add required salt and little sugar.
• Put some salt and sugar.
• Now add the cooked chicken pieces with some water and mix well. Let the chicken absorb the spices for five minutes.
• While finishing, add fresh cream and Kasuri methi leaves.
• Mix and let the cream thickens in the gravy for few seconds, switch off.
• Serve with roti, paratha, Phulkas or pulav.