We tend to segregate Asian Dishes into those served with noodles and those served with rice. But Sangita Patel says there’s no rule that you can’t mix it up a little. She loves Indian Butter Chicken on Mac & Cheese!
Butter Chicken Mac & Cheese: A great marriage of unlikely partners…
Not exactly ‘The Odd Couple’, but quirky enough to trigger a flood of reminiscences from recipe creator Sangita Patel in a recent interview with Yahoo! Life…
Why not?
There’s no hard and fast culinary rule that says you can’t serve noodles with Asian dishes that usually partner with rice. But we tend not to explore that largely unmapped territory. Asian chef/Covergirl ‘ambassador’/media celebrity Sangita Patel told Yahoo! Lifestyle Editor Chris Stoodley, Butter Chicken Mac & Cheese is a staple at her house.
East meets West
Patel has recently partnered with Canadian meal kit company WeCook, and her first recipe came out last month.
“We came up with the recipe that I think is incredibly amazing, and there’s actually no butter in it, technically,” she pointed out, saying she wanted to make a healthier version of the popular Indian dish. “So, it’s a recipe I wanted to share. And how do we infuse that with culture that people would love?”
Two recipes in one
You actually make two separate dishes and stack them for this ooey-gooey indulgence. There’s the mac & cheese, of course. You can make whatever version you like. But Patel recommends a quick, easy non-casserole form, which at the same time is not overly saucy. Just enough cheese to stick the pasta together.
Then there’s the star of the show: Butter Chicken. It’s one of the top takeaways in the Asain-crazy UK, and it’s known everywhere Asian food is popular. It may not be such a stretch to say Butter Chicken – along with Vindaloo, Korma, Tikka Masala and Biryani have become pretty much universal…
The trick is you put the Butter Chicken Sauce IN with the mac & cheese! You can play with the amount of BCS you use, to suit your own preference. And you serve the sliced Tandoori Chicken on top. That, Patel remins us, is one of the joys of creating a mashup like this. Speaking of which…
Tips and hacks…
Patel says to go ahead and marinate the chicken in an inexpensive, store-bought tandoori spice mix. But use fresh spices for the sauce. She provides a streamlined, ‘lighter’ yet authentic recipe in the article.
The sauce recipe calls for coconut milk, rather than the more traditional coconut cream or yogurt. That’s a nod to healthier eating. You can use whatever creamy base you like.
Also… Almond butter is crazy expensive and sometimes hard to find, You can use almond flavouring, or even ground almond ‘flour’ if you like. It will effect the thickness of the sauce, whichever way you go, so add cautiously.
One fun way to ‘play’ with this dish is to try different pastas. I would use Penne Rigate or Orecchiette rather than boring old elbow macaroni. Or even ‘long’ pasta like Fettuccine or Spaghetti, in a pinch. Your preference, entirely. But ‘short’ pasta is easier to eat and seems more ‘natural’ in this dish…
My take
I said this dish has personal connections for me. Now, it’s time to share… One of my first real dates, in my late teens, took me to a Thai restaurant right in my childhood hometown – a back-door sort of eatery I had hitherto been unaware of. That’s where I first had Thai Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani) over noodles, and fell in love with REAL Asian food. I don’t even remember the name of the guy who brought me to the Sumatra Kitchen for dinner that night. But I’ll never forget the food!
~ Maggie J.