What to have for dinner . . .

. . . when you forgot you were having guests, you need to bake 5 loaves of artisan bread and 10 lemon pound cakes, and you have 3 pounds of organic chicken thighs in the freezer.

Butter chicken!

How can you not want something named that?

I admit to being a very casual cook. That is the only advantage of cooking to a baker like me. You don't have to do all that weighing and measuring.

As in most instances where I forget I am entertaining, I did not have everything I needed for anything. Have you seen those McCormick spice commercials? They speak to me.

Unlike the Cambell's Beef Stew commercials, which also speak to me, but only to say Yuck!

I am a dedicated substituter. Even with Indian food, which is relatively new to my culinary skills.

So, it might not be super cool to call it butter chicken because I made some emergency substitutions, but I did use butter, and chicken, so I'm sticking with it

I will even tell you what I used as substitutions so you can see your options and be a cooking cheater like me.

This is what I did:

1. Dice 1 onion, and cook it with 1 tablespoon minced garlic in 2 tablespoons melted butter over medium low heat until golden brown. This will take about 15 minutes.

2. Melt 1/2 cup butter in a large pot (you will need a lid later) with about 1/4 cup tomato paste from the squirty tube (substituted for 1 can tomato sauce) 1 cup cream, 1 can evaporated (not sweetened condensed) milk (substituted for additional cream), 1 teaspoon curry powder (substituted for garam masala, see step 3), 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper.

Bring to a simmer, turn heat to medium low and cover. Cook for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Mixture will thicken slightly.

3. Once you get your sauce started, cut the boneless, skinless thighs (substituted for chicken breast) into bite sized pieces. Tossed them in a tablespoon of vegetable oil and three tablespoons of my tandoori masala 'like' mix of spices. I am going out on a very small limb here to say that you can go ahead and use curry powder if you don't have or want to mix tandoori masala.

Who knew all those Indian spice mixes that cost a fortune in the store are just a combination of all the expensive bottles of spice in my cupboard that I can never use completely? Google did, that's who! Valuable information from google once again.

4. Put the chicken on a baking sheet and bake at 375 F for 15 to 20 minutes or until baked through.

5. Drain fat, and add chicken to sauce with onion mixture for last 10 minutes of cooking time.

6. Start cooking basmati rice (or any other kind you have) about the time you put the chicken in the oven and everything will be done at the same time. More or less.

Serve this to your forgotten guests. Do not tell them they were forgotten. This is a very important step.

I can feel safe posting this because my forgotten guests were missionaries who cannot read blogs. Even mine.

They LOVED this. And, even though they are missionaries and not that picky, I wanted to share with you because I loved it too.

And I am very picky!

Easy plus yummy equals a lucky save.

The end.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Hull, Mass.