Crockpot Chicken Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken)

I was excited to try the Pioneer Woman recipe for Chicken Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken) because Jes trialed it and said it was awesome and was also interested in the A Year of Slow Cooking's version which has been bookmarked on my Google Reader for who knows how long.  So, I took the ingredients from Pioneer Woman and the method from Slow Cooking's to make this recipe.

Because I only had 2 chicken breasts on hand, I halved the recipe but what you'll find below is the original recipe.  But since my crockpot is HUGEEE (yeah, got it from Costco and everything at that store, including appliances, comes in bulk sizes!) I decided to use the method of nesting a stoneware dish inside of my crockpot to create a smaller vessel and avoid burning/drying out of my food.  Did you know you could do that??  Yeah, nifty little trick.  Take a heat safe dish like Corningware or Pyrex and just stick it right inside of your crockpot.  Cool.

The end result?  A really easy version of Chicken Makhani.  But, flavor wise it was too weak and I much prefer the Chicken Tikka Masala that I previously made and blogged about (in fact, had some for dinner recently that I froze and reheated...still awesome!).  Yes, they're technically different dishes but the modifications I made to the original Tikka Masala recipe made it closer to a Makhani and in restaurants that don't have one of the other they tell you to get the other anyway as a subsitutute.  Texture wise, I should have known that crockpotting would result in a shredded chicken and I'd MUCH rather have real chicken cubes rather than shredded chicken.  If anything, this reminds me of what I'd imagine an Indian version of pulled pork/chicken might look like lol!

Anyway, I'm sharing this with you because my goal is to share all things yummy and not-so-yummy that comes ouf ot my kitchen.  Thankfully, things I consider successes far out number what I'd consider failures.  I wouldn't personally make this one again as I know that I can do better but if you don't mind crockpot chicken texture and are looking for something a bit different, I suppose it's worth giving a shot.

Crockpot Chicken Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken)
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Yields: 4 servings

Ingredients

• 4 pieces Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts
• 5 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• ½ teaspoons Black Pepper
• ½ teaspoons Cayenne Pepper
• ¼ teaspoons Ground Coriander
• ¼ teaspoons Cumin
• ¼ teaspoons Cardamom
• 1 whole Lime, Juiced
• 1 whole Onion, Diced
• ¼ cups Butter
• 1 can (14.5 Oz. Can) Tomato Sauce
• 1 can (14.5 Oz. Can) Petite Diced Tomatoes
• 1 pint Whipping Cream
• 1 bunch Chopped Cilantro, to taste
• 2 cups Basmati Rice (or However Much You Want)

Directions

1. In a bowl or gallon sized ziplock bag, combine first 9 ingredients (through lime juice).  Let marinade in refrigerator overnight.
2. Put chicken in crockpot, and add onion then butter and tomato sauce and diced tomatoes. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours, or high for 4. The chicken should shred easily with 2 forks when fully cooked.
3. 15 minutes before serving, add whipping cream.  Serve over basmati rice and garnish with fresh cilantro, if desired.

Source: Ingredients from Pioneer Woman and cooking method from A Year of Slowcooking