🐣 "Not Butter Chicken" Sauce

🛒 The ingredients

  • 15g Oil

  • Dry spices: 1 tsp cumin seeds, 3 cardamom pods, 1 bayleaf

  • Powdered spices: 1 tbsp coriander powder, 1 tbsp cumin powder, 1 tbsp Kashmiri chili powder, 1 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp kasuri methi (fenugreek leaves), 1/2 tsp turmeric powder

  • 1 (medium) red onion

  • 5 dried red chillies

  • 1 inch ginger

  • 10 garlic cloves

  • 750g tomatoes

  • 1 heaping tbsp of Gochujang

  • 15-20 cashew nuts

  • salt

  • black pepper

  • 2 tbsp butter

  • 500ml water

🧑‍🍳 The how

  • Add oil to the pan on low heat. Once it starts coming up to temp, add the whole spices (cumin seeds, cardamon pods, bayleaf and dried red chillies)

  • Once you can smell the spices, bump the heat up and go in with the onion, quickly followed by the ginger and garlic.

    • You can also use 2 tbsp on ginger garlic paste here as a substitute.

  • Add the Gochujang and mix it in before adding the tomatoes and the butter.

  • Next up are all our powdered spices along with the cashew nuts.

    • The neat thing about this being a "not butter chicken" sauce is that there are no rules. If you don't have all the spices, just grab garam masala (which is essentially a spice blend) and go heavier on that.

  • Add the water and bring it to a simmer. Once simmering, cover and cook for 20 minutes.

  • Taste for seasoning and adjust accordingly.

  • Remove the bayleaf and cardamom pods and blend until super fine.

    • Trust me, the finer the better, I personally also pass it through a colander.

  • Enjoy?

📝 Notes

  • As mentioned above, there are no rules. If you don't have Gochujang, just grab something else that's spicy + sweet or add honey/sugar with some green chilies instead.

    • You need the "sweet" to cut the acidity/tart from the tomatoes.

  • On other substitutions, individual powdered spices can be spice blends with roughly the same spices.

  • On application, you really can use this sauce with anything:

    • Serve as-is with some Rigatoni

    • Works great with Spaghetti and grilled chicken

    • Or on it's own with chicken

      • Add coriander, slices green chillies or pomegranate seeds on top to finish.

    • Tell me what else you do with it?

📸 Photos