Makhan Chara (Butter Chicken)

This recipe has been in my cuttings folder for many, many years - so long I have no recollection of which magazine it came from, or when. It's at least 25 years old, as that's how long it is since I last updated this particular folder, and the typeface looks reminiscent of the old Slimming Magazine - although I'm guessing from the vast amount of butter in the recipe, that it wasn't from there!

Making it is a two-day event, as a fresh masala needs to be made and mixed with yoghurt, and the chicken marinated overnight.

Next day the chicken is grilled and then mixed into a sauce that is basically a gloriously unhealthy mixture of a vat of melted butter with some cream added (plus a little tomato purée as a vague nod in the vegetable direction). To make it easier to grill the chicken pieces, I threaded them onto skewers

Then grilled them until they started to catch on the edges - the marinade protects the chicken on the inside from drying out

I started making the sauce very early as it says it has to cook for 1½ hours - but even on the lowest heat, it would have fried away to nothing by then, and the cream, butter and tomato were all well blended within a couple of minutes, so I took it off the heat and just reheated it with the chicken pieced added once they were grilled.

The verdict - tasty, but more effort than it was worth. I make a lot of far tastier chicken curries that take a fraction of the time and make much less washing up. And as for the fat content - totally alarming!