Happy St. Patrick’s Day Week!

I realize that if I was going to give you some St. Paddy’s day recipes, I should have done it last week so that you’d have them in advance. However, then I’d be eating these goodies a week early, and that seemed wrong somehow, so this week it is.

As you’ve probably gathered by now, I am not Irish. Not at all. Probably a negative amount. However, I still celebrate the day. Here’s why.

First- Mama Buddha. I’ve said before how awesome she is, and one of the reasons that she gets major mom points is that she made a big deal about every holiday. Every single one. We made heart shaped pizzas for Valentine’s Day, dyed eggs for Easter, celebrated both Canadian and American Thanksgiving (as well as both Canadian and American Independence Days), baked cut out cookies for Christmas and always, always had corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day. Maybe part of it is that we went to Catholic schools, where the day was celebrated anyway, but even so, the celebration continued at home. We even had special St. Patrick’s Day outfits, and if I had access to mom’s photo album, you’d be seeing evidence of that right now.

After I grew up and went on my merry way at the age of 18, I attended Notre Dame, the home of the Fighting Irish.  So, after spending 4 years at the greatest university on Earth, I can say I’m Irish to the core, even if not by blood. 

Even though my trip to the Emerald Isle piqued the idea for this blog in the first place, when it came to cooking Ireland, it sort of got the brush off when I combined with the United Kingdom. Why, I don’t know. Irish food stands as one of the top countries for food in all of my travels– Tomato and I couldn’t stop raving about every single thing we ate on that trip and still dream of a certain lamb shank stew from Killarney.  This week serves to make up for my previous negligence on the subject.

 A fun fact for you:  Mango and I went to Dublin for St. Patrick’s Day back when we were studying abroad in England because we were SO close and it just seemed like the thing to do. Turns out, it’s not all that big of a deal to the Irish (confirmed by my Irish friend, Zucchini) and we spent most of the weekend partying with fellow Americans or Ozzies.  In attempt to be religious and cultured in between bar hopping and our trip to the Guinness factory, we figured we’d go to St. Patrick’s Cathedral for mass on the day. Turns out, St. Patrick’s Cathedral is actually for the Church of Ireland, whereas Christ Church Cathedral is the Catholic Church. Perhaps we should have done our research beforehand, but since we didn’t, it was quite the surprise as we rolled out of bed for 9 am mass that morning.  So, take note if you’re ever heading to Dublin, and Catholic mass at St. Patrick’s was on your to-do list.

Irish Soda Bread-style Orange Muffins

Roasted Herb Chicken with Irish Whisky Gravy and Oven Roasted Potatoes

Corned Beef Tacos with Crispy Leeks and Parsley Cream

Dessert, TBD

Looking for an easy dish to get back into the swing of Southern India, I went with a vegetarian Tomato Biryani. 

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I got more than one “Mmmmm.  I LOVE butter chicken!” response when I told my friends about my menu plan for the week. While it seems to be a heavy favorite amongst my compadres, I can’t say that I’d ever specifically ordered it on my own. I’m sure I’ve had it buffet style, but when it comes to ordering off the menu, I’ve always tended to shy away from any dish whose name screams butter or cream. My Crestor has enough work to do, thanks.

Today’s Butter Chicken, or Murgh Makhanni, isn’t authentically from Central India, but is rather hails from a bit further north in Delhi but because it was such a favorite, I had to make it.  Like the tandoori chicken, this fan favorite comes at the hand of a restaurateur.

According to the website Butter Chicken (no joke), chef Simon Mahli Chahal created this dish at his Delhi eatery when he combined leftover Tandoori chicken with extra tomatoes, butter and spices.

While I appreciate the ingenuity, making the tandoori chicken first and the sauce part second seemed a bit stupid and extra work so I sort of combined the two steps and cooked the chicken right in the sauce, no doubt cutting down on pans to wash and time until dinner.  I supposed I could have used any tandoori chicken, but there was none left. As if there would be…

Tips and Tricks:

1.  I did not use butter. Sorry, butter chicken, but this no-cow-dairy girl had to follow the rules.  I merely used coconut oil.
2. I did use goat milk yogurt. Like I mentioned with the tandoori, I wonder about the success of using coconut cream as the “yogurt” marinade. I’m sorry this remains a theory. To be tested soon.
3. You may notice that this is not as dark as typical butter chicken. Why? Down with the food coloring!  I just let nature do the dying.
4. For the cream, I used cashew milk. There are a lot of alternative milks out there, and many of them have their own unique flavor. While the sauce for this dish has enough power to overtake whatever the manufacturers add, I used unsweetened vanilla cashew milk. My physical therapist as it happens has Celiac disease and lactose intolerance, and she said that her chef friend/client swears by cashew milk as a heavy cream alternative. I will admit that compared to other non-milks out there, it looked the closest to heavy cream. I bet coconut milk would make a very tasty addition, but alter the taste enough that it would be less a butter chicken than this non-butter butter chicken is.  Does that make sense? If not, just nod your head and pretend that I stopped talking at #3.

**I liked my sauce a bit thicker. If you want more, feel free to add some more water to the pan.

Butter Chicken

Chrissy

Non-dairy version of everyone's favorite takeaway order, Butter Chicken.

Print Recipe

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Resting Time 4 hours hrs

Total Time 4 hours hrs 40 minutes mins

Course Butter Chicken

Cuisine Indian

Servings 4

Ingredients

  

• 2 pounds chicken combo of breasts, legs and thighs
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ cup lemon juice about the juice of one hearty lemon
• 1 cup yogurt
• 1 onion, medium chopped
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1 ¼ inch ginger peeled and grated
• 1 jalapeno chopped
• 2 tsp garam masala
• 2 tsp sugar
• ½ tsp chili powder
• 1 TB lemon juice
• 1 tsp cumin
• 2 TB coconut oil or butter
• ½ cup parsley, chopped
• 2 cups rice, cooked, to serve

Instructions

 

• Cut the chicken into strips. Sprinkle with salt and lemon juice.
• Place the yogurt, onion, garlic, ginger, jalapeno and garam masala in a food processor and press play until smooth.
• Add the yogurt puree to the chicken and refrigerate 4 hours or overnight.  Remove the chicken from the marinade and let drip for about 5 minutes. Reserve 1 TB of the marinade and discard the rest.
• To a deep pan over medium heat, add the coconut oil.  Brown the chicken, about 2 minutes on each side.  Once the chicken has been cooked, remove from the pan.  To the pan, add the reserved marinade, tomato puree, milk, ginger, extra garam masala, sugar, chili powder, lemon juice and cumin. Stir to combine.
• Bring to a boil and cook for two minutes.  Add the chicken pieces, reduce the heat and let simmer until the chicken has fully cooked through, about 30 minutes.  Serve with rice and garnish with parsley.

Keyword 30-minute meals, chicken, one-pot dish