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[QUESTION] - Indian Cuisine Butter Chicken (lemmy.world)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/cooking@lemmy.world
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Hi all,

Most recipes and videos I have seen online start with a yogurt based marinade for the chicken. The chicken is then "seared", removed from the pan, rest of sauce built up and chicken returned to finish cooking.

My issue here is that you cannot really sear wet stuff in a pan. So that chicken, covered in yogurt marinade will not really sear (even if you shake off the excess). You basically get a braising conditions in the pan. This probably DOES work in a grill as the marinade simply drips into the coals and burns but not in a pan.

So the question is:

  • Wouldn't it be better to dry rub the chicken so it could be seared and simply use the yogurt (and rest of wet ingredients for the marinade) as a deglazing liquid afterwards?
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[–] 1 point 8 months ago (3 children)

When I get butter chicken from a restaurant, there’s a bit of a smoky flavour in the chicken and it makes me suspect they just blast all their chicken in the tandoor and drop it in sauce to order. When I make it at home, it tastes completely different but the process is like what you said. However, my “Indian” cookbook seems to be pretty regionally oriented.

But that’s pure supposition.

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    I agree with your observations 100%.

    In a tandoor or grill, the sauce would drip and NOT get the chicken soggy but that's impossible in a pan (even cast iron) which is why I am looking at this alternative approach

    I will most likely give this a try tomorrow with the "new" technique to get some actual sear... I'll post my notes here

    Thanks for your reply

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