Butter Chicken Soup with Naan Grilled Cheese
Butter chicken is one of the most delicious decadent dishes I love to get when I am eating Indian food, and this butter chicken soup with naan grilled cheese takes it to a whole different level! Think about when you use naan to eat butter chicken. Now imagine that same thing but with cheese! Tomato based soup and grilled cheese go together so well, so this is really a match made in heaven. Sometimes I find traditional tomato soup and grilled cheese slightly boring, so the addition of some indian spices and garlic naan really makes it special.
Where did I come u with this idea?
I was dipping naan into takeout butter chicken and immediately thought back to the tomato soup and grilled cheese I had eaten the night before. I decided to combine these two ideas into this butter chicken soup with naan grilled cheese. Most of my mash-up recipes require a lot of tinkering with the originals, but for this one all I really did was make a super simple version of butter chicken and thin it out with more liquid and some chicken stock. This is meant to be a mash-up so I dialed back the spices to be closer to tomato soup. I love making homemade naan but I think store bought works for this easy weeknight meal. A super comforting soup for these cold nights!
If you want an authentic version of butter chicken, be sure to check out this one.
Let’s make the butter chicken
First cook the chicken in the pan, then pull it out and add the butter and onion. Cook the onion a bit, then add the spices, along with a paste of the jalapeno, ginger, and garlic.
Since the idea behind this recipe is a mashup of tomato soup and butter chicken, I uses a little less spices than I normally would for just butter chicken. These are the spices in this recipe.
- garam masala
- coriander
- ground fenugreek
The next thing to add is the tomato and chicken stock.
Then finally the coconut milk!
Add the chicken back into the soup and let it simmer for about an hour to come together. I used chicken thighs so they wouldn’t dry out during this longer cooking period.
Making the naan grilled cheese
Provolone and mozzarella are great in this grilled cheese because they melt well and are fairly mild. I didn’t want to use paneer cheese cause it isn’t great for melting, but if you wanted to add a little crumbled paneer into the middle with the other two cheeses it would work.
I also used store bought naan which is a far cry from homemade naan, but I wanted this to be more approachable of a recipe that anyone could make on a weeknight.
The soup simmers for about an hour to come together before serving. The naan is just grilled with mozzarella and provolone inside.
I loved this soup. The butter chicken is a pretty straightforward version, but adding the cheese to the naan and stock to the chicken puts just enough of a twist to combine these two classic dishes.
Variations for Butter Chicken Soup with Naan Grilled Cheese
If you wanted you could base your soup on the more authentic version of butter chicken that I linked above. You could also do the grilled cheese with homemade naan and it would be really awesome.
If you are here for creative warming soups, check out my chorizo squash soup, and if you are here for creative twists on Indian dishes, check out my gnocchi gobi, or fried chicken paneer sandwich!
Butter Chicken Soup with Naan Grilled Cheese
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1.5 pounds chicken thighs chopped up
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 large onion diced
- 4 cloves garlic sliced
- 2 inches ginger sliced
- 2 jalapenos sliced
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon coriander
- 1/4 teaspoon ground fenugreek seed
- 48 ounces canned crushed tomato (2 large cans)
- 14 ounces can coconut milk (1 can)
- 2 cups chicken stock
- chopped cilantro
- 4 pieces garlic naan bread
- 4 slices mozzarella
- 4 slices provolone
- 1 tablespoon butter
Instructions
- Preheat a heavy bottom pot to high heat and add a little oil. Add the chicken, season with salt and pepper, and cook to brown, about 5 minutes, stirring often. Remove from pot.
- Turn heat to medium low and add the butter to the pot along with the onions. Season with salt and pepper. Scrape the pot to get all the browned bits from the chicken unstuck. Cook, stirring often, for about 8 minutes to lightly brown.
- Meanwhile blend the garlic, ginger, and jalapeno into a paste. Add them to the pot, along with the garam masala, coriander, and fenugreek. Cook 3 minutes.
- Add in the tomatoes, stock, and coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Return the chicken to the pot and cook on low heat for about an hour.
- Butter a frying pan and add a piece of naan. Top with a blend of mozzarella and provolone and another piece of naan. Cook on medium heat covered to brown on both sides and melt the cheese.
- Serve the soup with some chopped cilantro and the grilled cheese on the side.
Awesome soup, easy recipe, simple spices and ingredients. This was our first recipe from this site, we now have food in our beards!
Love to hear it, thank you!
Awesome! So glad you liked it. Do you need a napkin?
Haven’t tried yet but know I will be like it. I will be leaving the Chilli out as my tummy yells at me way to painful