A few years ago I went on a
girl’s trip with some friends to Washington, D.C. to visit our mutual friend,
Ashley. We spent our days seeing the
sights and visiting monuments, and had a fantastic time. One of the nights we got all gussied up and
went to a very hip restaurant for dinner that turned into a club. It was probably too hip for me. I remember thinking the other patrons looked
like the cast of Gossip Girl. Anyway,
the cuisine was Asian and Indian fusion and the food was outstanding.
Ashley happened to know the owner
of the restaurant. This will come as no
surprise if you know Ashley. To know her is to love her, she is full of
personality, spunk, and style. In fact,
she just started her own styling business and I have absolutely no doubt that
she is going to be a huge success. Check
out her charming website at www.TheStyleEffect.com. Since she could pull some strings at the
restaurant she ordered us some dishes that were not even on the menu. One of those was Butter Chicken. Oh, my goodness. I was expecting chicken dripping in a garlic
butter sauce, but it was a spicy tomato based sauce and I was in
love.
After that trip I did some
research on butter chicken and realized it is very similar (if not the same
thing) as chicken tikka masala, which is a very popular Indian dish. I have made a few versions of tikka masala and
they were good, but this one was definitely the best. I think what really made the difference in
this version was the chicken preparation.
It is spiced, then dipped in greek yogurt, and cooked under the
broiler. I have never considered doing
this before and was a little dubious. It
was amazing! The chicken was moist from
the yogurt and had the perfect amount of charred flavor.
Oddly enough, there is no butter
in the recipe and the entire dish is light and healthy. I served it with Tandoori Rice (made with
brown rice) and store bought naan. It
was even great leftover.
