No-Butter Butter Chicken

I grew up eating a lot of traditional Indian food at home and since I started avoiding dairy due to allergies, I’ve really been missing some of my favorites. This is virtually allergen-free recipe for butter chicken, which has always been a hit for me at potlucks. The dish is composed in two steps: first make a tandoori chicken – this recipe is one I’ve adapted from my mother’s to be a little less spicy. The next step is to cook the chicken with butter (or Earth Balance!) and add a cream and tomato-based sauce. I tried this revised recipe out with a group of friends and it was a big hit!


Step 1: Tandoori Chicken

4 lbs skinless chicken thighs (preferably bone-in)
1/2 cup plain coconut kefir
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp minced, peeled gingerroot
1 Tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp curry powder
1½ tsp salt, or to taste
1 tsp cayenne pepper

Using a sharp knife, cut long, diagonal slashes in each chicken thigh, almost to the bone. This will allow the marinade to penetrate.
In a large bowl, mix together all ingredients except the chicken until well combined. Add chicken, turning to coat and making sure marinade goes into all slits. Cover and marinate in refrigerator for at least an hour or overnight.
This dish can be grilled or baked. Shake off excess marinade and discard before cooking. To grill: Grill each side 20-25 minutes at around 400 degrees. In the oven: Bake at 400 degrees in a shallow pan about 35 minutes or until juices run clear when pierced with a knife.


Step 2:

To make into Butter Chicken (Murg Makhanwala), I’ve adapted Suneeta Vaswani’s recipe from her Complete Book of Indian Cooking. This adds layers of flavor to the dish and makes it a bit more decadent.

12 cooked chicken thighs, intact with bones removed
3 green chilies, preferably serranos, each 2 inches
1 piece peeled gingerroot (~1 inch)
1 can whole or diced tomatoes, with juice
½ cup Earth Balance margarine, divided
2 tsp paprika
1 cup plain coconut kefir
1½ tsp. salt, or to taste
2 tsp. garam masala

In a food processor, process chilies and ginger. Add tomatoes with juice and puree until smooth
In a large saucepan, melt ¼ cup of the margarine over medium heat. Add one-third of the chicken and sauté until edges begin to brown, 3-4 minutes. Remove and brown remaining thighs in batches, adding an additional 1-2 Tbsp of margarine as needed.
Turn off heat and remove browned bits from pan. Melt the remaining 2 Tbsp. of butter and stir in 4 tsp. of the cumin and paprika. Cook, stirring rapidly, for 1 minute.
Pour in tomato mixture and return to a gentle boil. Cook, stirring frequently to allow flavors to blend, about 10 minutes. Add kefir, salt, chicken and accumulated juices. Garnish with cilatro leaves and serve with basmati rice.

Diet vs. Exercise, Part III

I truly feel that people’s diets represent intensely personal and emotional aspects of their lives. Trying to overhaul this fragile balance will rarely end well. Each time a person diets, he or she will usually gain back more weight than was ever lost. The more times that people diet, the lesser chance they have of ever being successful. This can put an incredible psychological strain on a person.
Here is what I asked of my clients. To simply eat real food, keep track of everything that they ate, and to sit down for each meal. Eating real food involved some planning as did sitting down for meals. But the planning is a big part of eating consciously and takes away from the anxiety that some people associate with the onset of hunger. Preparing one’s own food can also contribute to the sense of satisfaction felt when eating it. I suggested for my clients to use Sparkpeople.com, a free service that provided a food log, nutritional analysis and an online community. For most people this can yield results, so long as they don’t fall into a deprivation-binge cycle. A heightened awareness as well as a sense of accountability is usually enough to stay on track and see steady results. Just look at Weight Watchers.
However, the results yielded from my above recommendations may not be enough to maintain motivation. This is where exercise comes in. Here, I can’t stress enough that this must be strenuous exercise. Cardio, resistance training, plyometrics, core work and all other exercises should be demanding, and should challenge the person in some new way each time. A good way to check in on this - at the end of every workout, the exerciser should feel a massive endorphin high. Although weight loss through a low-calorie diet may offer faster results, I think the best way to reduce body fat is to keep a moderate calorie diet, avoiding any ultrahigh calorie meals and then starting a rigorous exercise schedule. It’s my opinion that the reason exercise is undervalued as a weight loss tool in the health community is because the activities they reference are repetitive, low- to-moderate intensity ones, like walking. While great for starting out, the body will adapt to this, and people will only continue to see results if they increase intensity (speed, incline) or better yet, try other exercises such as swimming or kickboxing. Additionally, it doesn’t appear that many of these studies follow the clients over a long enough period to take into account increased metabolism and body composition differences from muscle gain.
The essence of what I’m trying to say is that the more weight you can take off as a result of intense workouts rather than dietary restriction, the more sustainable you’re results will be. After all, the term yo-yo dieting was coined for a reason.