Today marks the end of the Chef’s Notes Hearty Soup Series, and I really wanted to go out with a bit of a bang. So, I created this recipe for Butter Chicken Soup and boy am I glad I did. Imagine everything you love about butter chicken but in a soup. It’s creamy, it’s a little spicy, and it is loaded with flavour. It is the exact thing that we all need to get us through this last little push of winter. So, won’t you join me as I walk you through how to make what is sure to be your new favourite soup? Let’s get to it.
The ingredients list for this Butter Chicken Soup may seem intimidating at first. I’m not going to lie to you; it’s kind of long. But other than one or two of the spices, there is nothing in this soup that should be unfamiliar to you. The soup starts with an onion, a few cloves of garlic, a Thai red chilli, and a piece of ginger. You can leave the red chilli out, but it does contribute to the flavour of the soup. The next ingredients are two potatoes, one cup of tomato purée, a pound of diced boneless skinless chicken thighs, and half a cup of frozen peas. Coming in at the end is one cup of whipping cream, a quarter cup of chopped cilantro, two tablespoons chopped mint and 1 tablespoon fenugreek leaves (aka Kasoori Methi) which are optional. There is also a teaspoon of lemon juice and three cups of water.
The Butter Chicken Soup spices are one tablespoon garam masala. You can buy garam masala or make it. There is half a teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder which is an Indian chilli pepper that is ground. You can substitute it for half as much cayenne. There is a quarter of a teaspoon each of cumin, coriander, ground cardamom and black pepper, one teaspoon kosher salt. And finally, one tablespoon of sugar. I’m sure some of these are unfamiliar to you, but you can find most if not all at your local grocery store or specialty Indian market. If you don’t want to buy all the spices, I get it. It can get expensive. Most grocery stores now sell butter chicken spice blends. You can buy that and use it instead. I’m not sure what the measurements would be, though. I would say start with a tablespoon, and if you need to add more, you can.
To prepare the ingredients to start by dicing the onion. Next, mince the garlic and ginger. Slice the chilli as thin as you can. And dice the potatoes, then rinse them in cold water until the water runs clear.
Heat a large pot over medium-high heat. Add two tablespoons of olive oil to the pot, then the chicken. Cook until the chicken starts to brown, then add in the onions and cook for about three minutes or until they start to soften. Next in goes the garlic, ginger, and chilli. Cook those for a minute before adding a tablespoon of butter and the spices. Cook the spices for about a minute, then add the tomato purée, water and potatoes. Bring the pot to a boil, put a lid on it, turn the heat to medium-low and cook for ten minutes. Add the peas into the pot, put the lid back on and cook for another five minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
To finish the Butter Chicken Soup, add the cream and cook for two minutes. Take the pot off the heat and stir in the cilantro, mint, fenugreek leaves and lemon juice. Taste the soup and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper as needed.
What a way to end the series! Truth be told, I’ve been thinking about this soup for weeks now, and I am so glad to have finally been able to make it and share it with you. I hope you enjoyed this post and this Hearty Soup Series. Next Wednesday, we start a brand new series all about Casseroles which I’m very much looking forward to, and of course, there is the ongoing Friday bowl series. Lot’s happening. That’s it for me for now. Thank you so much for reading, and remember to share this post with your friends if you think they’d like it. Have a great day. I’ll talk to you soon.
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I made this yesterday, and we really enjoyed it. It was so easy to make! Being post-pandemic reclusive (I know I need to work on that), I used skinless, bone in chicken thighs and had to leave out the mint. It was still delicious. My husband objects to super spicy food, so I timidly split, seeded and soaked the hot pepper, then drained it and tossed it in, and pulled it out at the end, along with the chicken bones. He never saw the pepper and really liked the bit of 'warmth' he detected. I only had cereal cream, but will make sure that next time I have the whipping cream.
Thank you for a delicious recipe!
Thank you Bonnie. I'm very happy to hear that you enjoyed the soup. I like what you did with the pepper. I would have done the same thing with the substitutions.