Hi! This week, I wanted to make Butter Chicken. Since Genius Hour is coming to an end pretty soon, I wanted to really only make Nepali/cultural dishes from here on out, as that is what I said I’d do in my first blog post. Butter chicken is not originally from Nepal, but I will still be making it since India is quite similar to Nepal. However, I should also start finding an expert. As of right now, I am thinking of finding a Nepali restaurant to contact and ask for tips on making butter chicken. I’m making it this week so that next week I can use the tips to make it better. I’m thinking of contacting the restaurant Swagat because their food is really delicious and I’ve been there a lot of times. Also, next week would be an ideal time to go in and talk with my expert, because, after that, I think I still have a week to use those tips to make the dish. That’s the plan so far!

Recipe: https://cafedelites.com/butter-chicken/

Editied Recipe: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uv8ZPBWWyC3g1PTUiJJ23Bsbml82ndp0XK-ciSwvIY8/edit

This dish turned out really, really good! If I knew at the beginning of Genius Hour that I would be able to make my own butter chicken from scratch with zero assistance, I would have never believed that. However, now I am able to do just that! The butter chicken was super delicious, to say the least! I was pretty worried at the beginning that the dish would not taste anything like restaurant butter chicken, but in my opinion, it tasted really similar to restaurant butter chicken! To balance the overpowering taste of the crushed tomato, I used whipping cream and plain yogurt, but next time I could definitely use a lot more because the flavour of the crushed tomato was still really strong. The chicken that I made was also super delicious! Since I marinated it and left it in the freezer overnight, the spices really thoroughly got to soak in. The chicken was not bland at all, and it was very flavourful and rich in spices. Additionally, I think I could’ve cut the chicken a little smaller. Moving on, I definitely could have blended the sauce way better, as I could still feel some onion chunks when I was tasting the dish. Instead of using a handheld blender, I think I’ll use an actual blender so that no chunks remain. Last but not least, next time I am thinking of making naan to go along with this dish. Overall, I am very, very happy with how this dish turned out. With some improvements, I could see this dish being close to restaurant quality! I am super proud of myself for making this dish all by myself. I would have never been able to make this dish singlehandedly at the very beginning of Genius Hour. I think making this dish really really showcases my growth throughout this project!

Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Vvl-H-g6AqVWIi_My9SWOBUJzBMWUU4t/view?usp=sharing

Here are some things I learnt from making this, and some things I would do if I were to make the dish again:

• Find something to balance the crushed tomato flavour
• Cut the chicken a tad bit smaller
• Blend the sauce a lot better, so that there’s absolutley no chunks/pieces of onion left
• Make some naan to go along with it!