Are you a butter chicken lover but need something similar yet different? Chicken Lababdar has got it covered for you. Chicken lababdar aka murg lababdar is made in thick gravy of tomato, cashews and cream. This gravy is the soul of the recipe. You can easily make this heart warming recipe at home following this step by step recipe.
Index
What is Lababdar
Lababdar in its true sense implies utmost temptation for something. In the context of food, it is used to indicate, the urge to eat something. Chicken lababdar, reflects the chicken dish which fits the true description of this urge of tastebuds to surrender for a mouthwatering chicken curry.
Chicken lababdar vs butter chicken vs tikka masala
Butter chicken has travelled continents and everyone knows about it. On the first look, chicken lababdar is extremely close to butter chicken, however, there are subtle differences. The core difference between this recipe and butter chicken recipe is no use of honey/sugar as chicken lababdaar is still on milder side of spiciness but without sweet tinge as in butter chicken. Tikka masala is on the other hand have more spice levels
You can read more details on butter chicken recipe here.
Ingredients for chicken lababdar
This recipe has two parts, marination and gravy.
For marination you need core spices such as ginger-garlic paste, coriander powder, turmeric powder, lemon juice, gram flour and yogurt. Lemon juice helps in tenderising chicken, gram flour and yogurt, helps in offering a coating on chicken pieces.
For the gravy, key ingredients are cashews, butter and cream. These three makes a rich gravy. You will also need tomatoes as the gravy is tomato based.
Method
Marination
- In a mixing bowl, add ginger-garlic paste, Coriander powder, turmeric powder, Salt, Red chilli powder and lemon juice. Mix it and add chicken pieces to it. Mix well so that all the chicken pieces are coated in this spice mixture nicely. Cover the bowl and let chicken marinate for 25-30 minutes.
Making lababdar gravy
- Heat 2 tablespoon of Oil in a pan over medium heat. Once the oil is warm, add asafoetida and cumin seeds and when they start crackling, add bay leaves, cinnamon stick and black cardamom and saute. Add chopped onion and saute till they are pink. Add broken cashews now and saute again for 2-3 minutes.
- Add ginger garlic paste and saute till the raw smell fades away. Add Salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and saute again. Now add chopped tomatoes and saute till it start separating oil. Switch off the heat and let the mixture cool down.
- To the marinated chicken, add gram flour and yogurt and mix again so that its coated nicely all over chicken. Keep aside for 15 – 20 minutes.
- Once the gravy mixture is cooled, take out all the whole spices from it and transfer the mixture into a grinding jar. Add little water and grind it into a fine paste.
- Once the gravy mixture is cooled, take out all the whole spices from it and transfer the mixture into a grinding jar. Add little water and grind it into a fine paste.
Adding chicken pieces and final touches
- Heat the same pan over medium heat and add rest of 2 tablespoon oil and butter to it. Add marinated chicken now and saute till the pieces start changing colour. Add the gravy and 1/2 cup of water and mix everything well. Cover the pan with lid and let the chicken cook for 15-20 minutes.
- Add Cream and kasuri methi and mix. Cover the lid again and let it cook more for 5-7 minutes. Switch off the heat.
- Transfer it into a serving bowl and garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot and enjoy with rice or bread of your choice.
Key points
Some of key points to keep in mind whilst following this chicken lababdar recipe
- At the point of grinding the gravy to make it creamy, you must pick up whole spices as bay leaves from the gravy, else gravy will have strong flavour.
- You can grate cheese on the top at the point of serving.
- To save time, you can prepare gravy in advance and keep it frozen. Simply thaw the gravy, heat it, and chicken pieces for a quick gravy. Ever wondered, how does a restaurant gets curry ready so quickly? This is exactly how they do. Most of the things are ready prepared and all they do is mix ready gravy with chicken and serve in 15 mins.
Serving suggestions
This chicken lababdar recipe is best enjoyed with Indian bread. You can choose from range of these Indian breads, such as simple chappati, butter naan, roomali roti, even plain paratha. Point to remember is that the food must be served hot to offer best flavours.
This Chicken Lababdar
- Is great for kids and adults. Kids will like it as it is on milder tone.
- The rich gravy makes it pretty filling and you do not need to have other curries in plate.
- Is good change from usual butter chicken
- Can be frozen in batches and used when required
Other chicken curries
For the chicken lover in yourself, treat your tastebuds with some of these chicken curries listed below
If you got questions, you can reach out to me on my Instagram
Recipe Card
Chicken Lababdaar
Ingredients
For Marination
- 1.5 kilogram Chicken
- 1 tbsp Ginger Garlic Paste
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp Coriander Powder
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1/2 tsp Red Chilli Powder
- 1 tbsp Lemon Juice
- 2 tbsp Gram flour / Besan
- 2 tbsp Yogurt
For Gravy
- 1/3 tsp Asafoetida
- 1.5 tsp Cumin Seeds
- 1 inch Cinnamon stick
- 2-3 Bayleaves
- 2 Black Cardamom
- 1 Onion chopped
- 4 tbsp Broken cashews
- 1 tbsp Ginger Garlic Paste
- 1/2 cup Chopped Tomatoes
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Coriander Powder
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1/2 tsp Red Chilli Powder
- 4 tbsp Oil
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 2 tbsp Cream
- 1 tbsp Dried Fenugreek Leaves / Kasuri Methi
- 1 tbsp Fresh Coriander Leaves chopped
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl, add ginger-garlic paste, Coriander powder, turmeric powder, Salt, Red chilli powder and lemon juice. Mix it and add chicken pieces to it. Mix well so that all the chicken pieces are coated in this spice mixture nicely. Cover the bowl and let chicken marinate for 25-30 minutes.
- Heat 2 tablespoon of Oil in a pan over medium heat. Once the oil is warm, add asafoetida and cumin seeds and when they start crackling, add bay leaves, cinnamon stick and black cardamom and saute. Add chopped onion and saute till they are pink. Add broken cashews now and saute again for 2-3 minutes.
- Add ginger garlic paste and saute till the raw smell fades away. Add Salt, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and saute again. Now add chopped tomatoes and saute till it start separating oil. Switch off the heat and let the mixture cool down.
- To the marinated chicken, add gram flour and yogurt and mix again so that its coated nicely all over chicken. Keep aside for 15 – 20 minutes.
- Once the gravy mixture is cooled, take out all the whole spices from it and transfer the mixture into a grinding jar. Add little water and grind it into a fine paste.
- Heat the same pan over medium heat and add rest of 2 tablespoon oil and butter to it. Add marinated chicken now and saute till the pieces start changing colour. Add the gravy and 1/2 cup of water and mix everything well. Cover the pan with lid and let the chicken cook for 15-20 minutes.
- Add Cream and kasuri methi and mix. Cover the lid again and let it cook more for 5-7 minutes. Switch off the heat.
- Transfer it into a serving bowl and garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot and enjoy with rice or bread of your choice.
Video
Notes
- The core difference between this recipe and butter chicken recipe is no use of honey/sugar as chicken lababdaar is still on milder side of spiciness but without sweet tinge as in butter chicken.
- You can grind the whole spices with the gravy and can skip taking them out if you want stronger flavour.