BY JOSH HILLMAN, PEARL WINE CO.
This month my culinary alchemist and dedicated companion Jenny challenged me with a question of colossal magnitude; pick and make my favorite dish of all time. The challenge of this question wasn’t in making a choice of dishes so much as indicating a preference for one over the other. Yet, life calls for such definitive choices sometimes and that’s why it was easy to say—Jenny, I love you, and I love Butter Chicken.
Rewind to my angry teenager years in Dubai. The UAE might not be the epicenter of Punjabi cuisine but for so many thousands of migrant workers from the subcontinent, it was home for a time as it was for me, and I fell in love with their savory dishes, foremost among them, the creamy soothing flavors of butter chicken. Butter Chicken wasn’t an Indian mainstay until the 1950’s when Indian restaurants experienced growth all across the subcontinent. Three innovative eatery owners decided that they were wasting too much of less desirable dark chicken meat. Mixing it with nan butter, northern Indian spices and tomato base they stumbled upon a mixture that has dazzled palettes around the world.
There are a range of wine options that pair well with the spice and flavor of Indian food but to really build into something amazing my favorite is the Château du beaucastel, Cotes du Rhone Coudoulet Rouge. This wine is full of its own spice and a beautiful red fruit base that carries the butter chicken spice in a great direction. I hope my favorite becomes one of yours, bone apple tea!
Base
2 white Onions
5 garlic cloves
2 cayenne Peppers
2 thumbs of ginger
6 tbs olive oil
Sauce
1/2 cup ghee
3 tbs turmeric
2 tbs chili powder
2 tbs cumin
2 tbs ground coriander
3 tbs tomato paste
1 jar plain pureed tomato sauce
2 tbs Gram Masala
1 tbs Fenugreek
Finishers
4 Boneless Skinless Chicken breast (marinate in lemon, yoghurt, chili, ginger, coriander, cumin, and turmeric for more authenticity)
1 cup Heavy Cream
1/4 lb of butter (one stick)
Step 1
Add all base ingredients to a blender and puree. Once blended, add all ingredients to a large heavy pot on medium heat. Cook for 2 minutes.
Step 2
On medium heat, stir in all base ingredients EXCEPT tomato
paste/sauce, fenugreek and Gram Masala. Stir for 20 minutes and then
add tomato products. Stir for two minutes before adding fenugreek and gram masala. Let sauce cook on low for 1 hour.
Step 3
Add cubed chicken breast straight to sauce and let cook until chicken is white, about 10 minutes. Add all other ingredients and cook until butter melts.
“Josh Hillman is a certified sommelier by the Court of Master Sommeliers and the wine buyer at Pearl Wine Company. Jenny, his girlfriend, is the GM of Savory Spice in Littleton. They love to cook and love good wine. This column is about their journey through matching food and wine together to create the perfect pairing.”