This dish was one of my favourites growing up. However in true mother fashion, my mum didn’t have a recipe for it. It all involved a little bit of this and a little bit of that, taste as you go along and voila dinner is served. However being a science student, I prefer to be precise – this obviously did not work well in my mother’s kitchen.
My mother’s recipe involved chicken fillets in a thick creamy sauce and As soon as I got married I wanted to make this dish for my new family. With no recipe I jumped right into it, to later learn that my new hubby doesn’t like chicken fillets. I couldn’t give up that easily, I love this dish and I was going to make it work. I tweaked it a little bit, actually measured what I was putting into the pot this time and here we are my version of my mums oven baked butter chicken that the hubby now LOVES!
Ingredients
For chicken
- 1 kg chicken fillet cubed
- 1 tsp. salt
- 5 tsp. red chilli powder
- ¼ tsp. turmeric
- 1 tsp. crushed cumin
- 1 tbsp. lemon juice
- Generous glug of olive oil or regular oil If you prefer
For the sauce
- 250ml fresh cream
- 50 g tomato paste
- 3 tbsp. Nandos mild peri-peri sauce
- 3 tbsp. Nandos lemon and herb peri-peri sauce
- 3 tbsp. Hot Nandos peri-peri sauce
- Salt for taste
Method
- Pre heat your oven to 180ᵒ C on bake
- In a bowl mix together all the ingredients for the chicken and marinate the chicken in it.
- Lightly pan fry the chicken cubes so that they only slightly pink on the inside
- In an oven safe dish add all your ingredients for the sauce and whisk all together until uniform in colour
- Add your chicken into the sauce cover with foil and cook in oven for 45 mins
- Thereafter remove the foil and increase the temp to 200 for 10 to 15 mins or until golden brown on top
Serve this with rice or roti and a fresh garden salad.
It’s not the most elaborate of dishes but it’s a unique take on a traditional meal that’s wholesome and tastes even better the next day as a scrumptious lunch sandwich for school or work.
