Pumpkin Butter Chicken Recipe

Pumpkin Butter Chicken
The Ultimate Hidden Veg

As promised – this is my Pumpkin Butter Chicken recipe. I should probably put “butter chicken” in quotation marks at this point because I feel like I’ve altered this so much that it doesn’t exactly resemble the traditional dish.

HOWEVER as long as I continue to call it Butter Chicken my super fussy kid will continue to eat it – so that is a big win for me! My super fussy kid doesn’t really eat vegetables. He also doesn’t really eat meat either. I’m not entirely sure how he’s still alive.

BUT he will eat butter chicken! Which at first I was just excited about the fact he was eating the chicken. And figured that also the tomatoes, onion, garlic and spices probably added some nutrition that he wasn’t normally getting. It was so exciting! Also that he’s trying food with actual flavour! Not just plain, bland, nothingness. It gives me hope that maybe one day he might be able to eat normally.

So I also I started to wonder if I could capitalise on his new favourite dish. I’ve really given up on trying to get him to knowingly eat vegetables, so I’ve become a bit of an expert in hiding them.

Pumpkin is Perfect

Pumpkin seemed like an obvious choice. Colour, texture and taste wise it does blend in effortlessly into Butter Chicken. So I told the kid that I was trying a different recipe – didn’t tell him any of the specifics – and he ate it! All of it! No drama!

After the second time he’d eaten it I did fess up and tell him the truth about the pumpkin. Which he’s okay with. I do also want him to learn that vegetables can be delicious and aren’t at all scary. So I’m feeling like we have some serious progress here!!!

The Original Recipe

So for anyone who’s not wanting to load up their Butter Chicken with pumpkin, or you’re looking for what I believe is the easier butter chicken recipe EVER – then check out my Ultimate Butter Chicken Recipe, that was based on this thermomix recipe.

The pumpkin version is actually really similar. I just doubled all the spices and threw in some pumpkin. Too easy. But to save anyone from having to do maths I’ve worked it out for you here.

The Pumpkin Butter Chicken Recipe

You Will Need

• 1kg of pumpkin (total weight before peeling and seeding)
• 600-900g of boneless chicken (thigh or breast – I used whichever is cheapest at the time)
• 1 large onion
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 50 grams of butter
• 1 cup of cream
• 350grams of Passata (half a jar)
• A little extra butter or oil to grease a pan

Spices

• 3 teaspoons of salt
• 4 teaspoons of paprika
• 4 teaspoons of ground coriander
• 4 teaspoons of cumin
• 2 teaspoon of ground ginger
• 2 teaspoon of turmeric
• 2 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 2 teaspoon of garam masala
• And chilli powder or chilli flakes to taste.

NOTE : If you are planning to serve your butter chicken on rice start boiling the water before you start cooking. I forget to do this every time and we end up waiting on the rice at the end!

Step One

Peel, seed and chop the pumpkin. Then steam until soft and mashable.

Step Two

Gather and measure all the spices into a bowl to set aside for later.

Step Three

Chop and saute the onion and garlic with the butter in a reasonably deep frying pan until the onion is soft. Then toss the spices in and gently saute everything over a low heat for a couple of minutes.

Step Four

And the cooked pumpkin, cream and passata into the onion and spice mix. Then puree until smooth with a stick blender.

Step Five

Dice and fry the chicken in a separate pan until cooked through, then add them into the sauce. Continue to simmer over a low heat for about 5 minutes – stirring occasionally. It’s a good idea to pop a lid on the pan, because the sauce has a tendency to splatter everywhere.

Step Six

SERVE! And smugly watch your children “Pumpkin Butter Chicken” without suspecting they’re been merrily eating vegetables! 

What do you think of my Pumpkin Butter Chicken recipe? Will you give it a go with your family?