Butter Chicken Pizza

About this Recipe...

Butter Chicken or Murgh Makhni is a classic indian dish with a flavorful Makhni sauce which is very creamy, rich and delicious. Everyone loves this dish and it is my favorite too. Whenever I go to a indian restaurant, this is my first preference to eat this with naan or tandoori roti. Making this traditional delicacy at home is really easy, you only need to do some basic preparation and voila the restaurant style dish is ready at your  plate.

Hence, very often I make this dish at home instead of having it in restaurant. But this time I thought to give a makeover to this dish and wanted to make a pizza with it. If I say in one sentence I wanted to combine two classic Indian and Italian dish together to make one delicious meal and that is 'Butter Chicken Pizza'.

Sound interesting right? We Indians loves pizza and giving it a twist with our own butter chicken is like Sone Pe Suhaga. Here I have used the Makhni gravy as the sauce of the pizza and the oven baked boneless chicken pieces which is cooked in the gravy as one of the topping. The other toppings which have been used in this pizza are onion, mushroom, bell-pepper, jalapeño and a good amount of cheese which takes this dish to another level and finally baked it into perfection.

You can definitely use other vegetables of your choice as topping or you can skip adding the veggies and simply enjoy only the chicken as topping, Its delicious in all forms. In every bite of this pizza you can feel the real flavor of butter chicken and the cheesy taste of pizza. I can say that this is the best pizza for my indian taste buds.

Ingredients

For Marinating the Chicken

• 1/2 lb Boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into small cubes
• 1/2 Cup Plain yogurt
• 1 tsp Red chilli powder
• 1 tsp Cumin powder
• 1 tsp Coriander powder
• 3/8 tsp Tandoori masala powder
• 3/8 tsp Black pepper powder
• Salt to taste
• 1 Tbsp Ginger-garlic paste
• 1 tsp Green chili paste
• 1 Tbsp Oil

For making the Makhni Gravy

• 2 Tbsp Salted butter
• 1/4 tsp Cumin seeds
• 2-3 dry red chili broken into two parts
• 1/2 Cup Chopped Onion
• 10-12 pieces cashew nuts
• 1 Tbsp Ginger-garlic paste
• 3 Tomato chopped
• 1 tsp Red chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp Coriander powder
• Salt to taste
• 1/2 Tbsp Sugar or honey 
• 1 Tbsp Dried fenugreek leaves crushed
• 1/2 tsp Garam masala powder
• 1/4 Cup Heavy cream

Pizza dough

• 1/2 Cup Luke warm water
• 1 Tbsp Sugar
• 1 Packet yeast
• 1 Cup All purpose flour
• 1 tsp Salt
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil

Pizza Toppings

• 1 Jalapeno cut into thin slices
• 1/2 Bellpepper sliced
• 1/4 Cup Onion sliced
• 1/4 Cup Sliced mushroom
• 1 tsp Italian seasoning
• 3/8 Cup Shredded Cheese

Directions

Pizza Dough

1. In a bowl, take lukewarm water, sugar and yeast. Stir it with a spoon and cover it for 5 minutes to activate the yeast.
2. After 5 minutes you will see that the yeast mixture has activated. Now in a mixing bowl, add all purpose flour, salt and olive oil and mix them together.
3. Now slowly pour the activated yeast mixture to it, knead the flour for at least 10 minutes and make a soft dough.
4. Drizzle oil on the dough, cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and keep it in a warm place for 2 hours for fermenting the dough.

Butter Chicken

1. Marinade the chicken with all the ingredients listed above and keep it in refrigerator for at least one hour.
2. After one hour take the chicken pieces and arrange them in a baking tray. 
3. Bake the chicken in a 400F preheated oven for 15 minutes.
4. After 15 minutes, flip the other side and again bake it for 10 minutes or until the chicken cooked nicely.
5. Bring it out from the oven and keep it aside for later use.
6. Now to make the Makhni gravy, heat 2 tbsp butter in a pan and add dried red chili and cumin seeds for tempering.
7. Sauté them for few seconds and add chopped onion to it.
8. Next add the cashew nuts and fry them together till the onions gets translucent.
9. Now add the ginger-garlic paste to it followed by red chili and coriander powder and fry it till the oil starts separating from the sides of the pan.
10. Add the chopped tomato to it and cook it till it gets soft.
11. Now switch off the flame and let the mixture cool down a bit before grinding.
12. When the mixture gets cooled down, transfer it to a blender and blend it to a smooth paste.
13. Now pour it to a heated pan, add some water for the gravy and mix it well.
14. Cover the pan and let the gravy comes to a boil.
15. When the gravy starts boiling, add the baked chicken pieces to it followed by salt and honey to taste and mix it well.
16. Cover and cook it in low flame for 5-6 minutes so the chicken can absorb the gravy nicely.
17. Now add the crushed fenugreek leaves and garam masala powder to it and mix well.
18. Finally add the heavy cream to it, stir it nicely and switch off the flame.
19. Your butter chicken or Murgh Makhni is ready.
    

Assembling the Pizza

1. After around 2 hours, you will see that the dough becomes double in volume. Punch the dough so the air bubbles can go away.
2. Now spread some dry flour on your work surface, take out the dough from the bowl and with the help of your hands try to spread it gently to a 12 inch round circle. ( if you are not comfortable with your hands, then roll it with a rolling pin.)
3. Now gently transfer the pizza base to a pizza stone and spread the butter chicken gravy all over the pizza base.
   
4. Now arrange the chicken pieces on top of it and sprinkle half of the amount of shredded cheese on it.
5. Next arrange the sliced vegetables and sprinkle some italian seasoning on it.
   
6. Now bake it for 5 minutes in a 450F preheated oven.
7. After 5 minutes bring it out from the oven and spread the remaining cheese on the pizza and again bake it for 6-8 minutes or until the cheese melts.
   
8. Bring it out from the oven, give it a rest for few minutes and enjoy your slice of butter chicken pizza.