No-Butter Indian Butter Chicken

The first question that most of you may have is how can a dish not contain an ingredient mentioned in the title. The answer, I really don't need that many fat calories for a dish that really doesn't need that much fat. Butter is 100% fat. Each tablespoon of butter (one serving) contains 12 grams of fat. 7 of those grams are saturated fat which happens to be 35% of your daily requirement saturated fat. So any recipe that has the name butter in it is begging for a fat/caloric disaster. The evidence for this is clear in the original recipe for the sauce:

• 1 cup butter (for those of you hate math, that is 16 servings, 192 grams of fat and 112 grams of saturated fat)
• 1 onion
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 15 oz of Tomato Sauce
• 3 cups heavy cream (this adds 264 grams of fat, and 162 grams of saturated fat)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon garam masala

In grand total, that comes out to 456 grams of fat and 274 grams of saturated fat in 6 servings. This comes out to 76 grams of fat per serving with 45.6 grams of saturated fat per serving.  The daily recommended amount of fat is 65 total grams of fat and 20 grams of saturated fat. This recipe provides +100% of your daily fat intake and +200% of your daily saturated fat intake.

So why is fat so bad? The American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiologists jointly issued practice guidelines in late 2013 for dietary fat intake. They based these recommendations on a meta-analysis published by the journal Circulation in November, 2013. Key recommendations include eating a diet with no more than 5-6% of calories from saturated fat because of its strong link to heightened cardiovascular disease. They also recommend avoiding trans fats for the same reason. The Cleveland Clinic, the nation’s top cardiac hospital for 15 years running, quotes the American Heart Association guideline of no more than 25-35% of calories from all types of fat. The Mayo Clinic suggests a diet with monounsaturated fats for both cardiovascular health and reduced incidence of Type-II diabetes. This is in line with the Mediterranean Diet, which is the only diet shown to truly reduce cardiovascular disease. That diet has approximately 9-10% of calories from saturated fat and is high in monounsaturated fatty acids such as omega threes. If you want more information/scientific proof/reasons to change your diet, visit these websites:
American Heart Association

Cleveland Clinic
Mayo Clinic

In light of my goal to create tasty foods with less that 30% fat to follow current health guidelines; I had a very hard task reducing the fat content while maintaining the flavor of the dish. As mentioned in the Perogie post, Fat-Free Half and Half is a great substitute in many situations. In this recipe, I used the Half and Half in place of the heavy cream, eliminating the fat in the recipe from the heavy cream. This leaves reducing the fat from the butter. Indian spices tend to be powerful, so I surmised that the butter flavor wasn't important to the dish, that it only added creaminess to the texture. Therefore I added only 1 tablespoon of lower fat margarine (it only had 7 grams of fat per serving) in order to saute the onion and garlic. In summation, I reduced that fat from 76 grams per serving to less than 2 grams of fat per serving in the sauce.

Here is the recipe!!

No-Butter Indian Butter Chicken:

Sauce:

• 1 Tablespoon Margarine
• 1 Onion Minced
• 1 Tablespoon Minced Garlic
• 15 oz Tomato Sauce
• 3 cups Fat-Free Half and Half
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoon tandoori masala

 Mince the onion finely. Melt the margarine in a large saucepan. Add the onion and garlic and saute until the onion is soft. Add the tomato sauce, fat-free Half-and-half and all the seasonings. Simmer on the stove for 30 minutes. The sauce should look something like this:

Chicken:

• 1 1/2 pound chicken (Any chicken works, chicken breasts will have the least amount of fat)
• 2 tablespoons tandoori masala

Heat the oven to 375 degrees.  While the sauce is simmering, take the chicken and place in a baking dish. Cover with the tandoori masala and bake in the oven until done. Shred the chicken and place in the simmering sauce. Stir and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve with rice. Note: Chicken is the most common meat used in this dish. However, you can use seafood in it as well if you want something even more healthy than chicken.

So here comes the final verdict. My goal was to reduce the fat content in the sauce to below 30% calories from fat. For a comparison, I am providing the original recipe nutritional facts with the nutritional facts from the lower fat option. The results are staggering.

Original Recipe:

My recipe:

Note the differences in the fat and calories between the two recipes. My recipe come out to 18.2% calories from fat compared to 94.5% in the original recipe. My wife and I made the low fat recipe and loved it! The final calorie count is as follows:

This is the final caloric tally with the chicken added. The percent calorie count comes out to 18.1% calories from fat, which is a stunning improvement from the original recipe. If you want to try a simple Indian food recipe that is low calorie, this is a great option!

Potato, Cheese, and Bacon Perogies

Growing up in Northeast Ohio, I was exposed to eastern European foods, specifically polish food. One of my favorites is Perogies. Basically, think stuffed dumpling. Typically, these dumplings are filled with mashed potatoes, sometimes with cheese as well. My first experience with these little stuffed dumpling occurred after a trip to the West Side Market in Cleveland. After that experience at a tender young age, I have looked for opportunities to have perogies ever since. Unfortunately, few opportunities presented themselves and were usually filled with disappointment (the ones in the freezer aisle......yeah, not very good). So I went looking for recipes and found one, made it, and adapted it. And here it is: Potato, Cheese, and Bacon Perogies!

Recipe: Potato, Cheese, and Bacon Perogies

The Dough:

• 2 1/2 Cups Flour
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp Oil (I used vegetable oil, low saturated fat content)
• 3/4 cup warm water (~100 F)

Combine the flour and salt together. Then add the egg, oil, and water. Mix until combined and a smooth, elastic dough is formed. Let stand until the filling is ready.

*If you mix the dough too much, the dough will become tough, hard, and dense. This happens because once all the ingredients are mixed, the gluten molecules in the flour bind together forming long chains throughout the dough. The more you knead the dough, the more of these long chains are formed, creating a "chewier" or tougher, harder, denser dough. So the next time you are kneading dough, remember the long you do it, the denser your dough will be. I will save you from the chemistry behind how the chains of gluten are made, because all you need to know that you generally don't want to make more chains.

I used a KitchenAid Stand mixer with a dough hook. This worked very, but it is easier with a stand mixer to over knead your dough. You can knead the dough by hand, this will significantly decrease your chances of over kneading the dough. You also can feel the dough better and judge when it is well mixed and very elastic.

The dough makes about 24 perogies. Below shows the nutritional facts for the dough required to make one perogie.

 The great thing about the dough is that it is low in fat, sodium, and cholesterol. At this point, you can fill the perogies with just about anything. But, I will follow with the filling that I made, a Potato, Cheese, and Bacon perogie.

The Filling:

• 2 Cups Mashed Potatoes
• 2 Tbsp Fat Free Half and Half
• 1 Cup Cheese (I used pepperjack, but you can use just about anything)
• 1 Tbsp Bacon Bits (use the real ones....please....)
• 1/2 tsp Onion Powder
• Salt and Pepper to taste

First, boil potatoes (I used 5 medium potatoes and had way too much, so I would suggest 3 medium potatoes) until a fork inserts effortlessly. *I usually cut my potatoes into small pieces after I peel them so that they will cook faster* Drain the potatoes and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix completely then place in fridge to cool. Here are the nutrition facts for 1 perogie's worth of filling:

The assembly process:

Once the dough and filling are ready, assembly process can begin. Put a large pot of water on the stove and bring to a rapid boil. While the water is heating up, roll out the dough on a floured surface. You want the dough fairly thin, think pie crust thin or slightly thinner. Use a large biscuit cutter or something similar to make dough rounds. Take the dough rounds and add a spoonful of filling in the center. Keep the edges of the dough free of filling. Pinch the edges of the dough together making sure that it is completely closed. Place each one on a paper towel or plate until they are cooked. Each perogie should look something like this:

Once all the perogies are formed, place 3-6 into the boiling water. The perogies are done cooking once they rise to the surface of the boiling water. Remove with a slotted spoon and place on a plate to cool. Once all are done, the perogies are ready to be served!!!

Now comes the final nutrition tally. My father refuses to eat anything that has 1/3 or more calories from fat. He prefers it to be close to 20% or less, but I have been able to convince him to eat food that has closer to 33%. Here are the final nutritional facts for each perogies:

The final fat percentage is 24% calories from fat. The original recipe contained more fat, but the butter in the filling was replaced with Non-Fat Half and Half. If you are looking to cut calories, especially fat calories, use Non-Fat Half and Half in place of heavy cream or regular Half and Half and in some places butter (like in mashed potatoes). It doesn't affect taste and is a healthy alternative.

All nutritional facts were calculated using the recipe analysis app found at the following website:
http://caloriecount.about.com/cc/recipe_analysis.php
This is a great tool that can quickly show you the nutritional content of any recipe that you have!