Dairy Free Butter Chicken


Ever since my first taste of butter chicken while in Bible College I have been sold. There's something about the butter, curry, chicken that absolutely melts in my mouth and has me craving more.

When I became a big family mom I longed to find a budget friendly way to continue enjoying butter curry without busting the bank ordering it from restaurants. So after researching, testing and tweaking I have created my own recipe. But then the unthinkable happened.

My oldest daughter developed lactose intolerance!  This was our first encounter with food aversion so on top of dealing with the logistics of adapting our usually dairy heavy meals we were also dealing with the emotions.  The idea of missing favourite family meals hit her hard. My heart ached for her as only a mothers can. For the love of my daughter I asked myself, "is there a way to make butter free butter chicken?" Challenge accepted.  The short answer is yes. By switching out the butter for unrefined coconut oil and the heavy cream for coconut milk I found a perfectly suitable dairy free butter chicken recipe that feeds the whole family and is still easy on the big family budget.  Score!

I make this at least twice a month in cooler weather.  Different meats can be switched out such as pork, beef, shrimp or lamb. You could just go vegetarian by omitting the meat and adding more vegetables of your choice.

I save time by preparing everything in the crockpot the night before then cook it slowly the next day. Dinner is a cinch to put on the table with a pot of rice and warmed naan bread. Anyone going easy on carbs can opt out of those dishes and enjoy this curry straight up in a bowl.

I'd love to hear if you try out this family favourite in your own home! Feel free to pop into my Big Family Moms community to share what you think and find more resources, encouragement and practical advice to simplify your big family home & life. You can join here!

Crockpot Dairy Free Butter chicken

An adapted recipe to make one of our family favorites accesible for our daily free children.

  • Crockpot
  • 2 medium onions
  • ½ c refined coconut oil
  • 1 head cauliflower
  • 1 medium zucchini
  • 1 396 mL can tomato paste
  • 1 can coconut milk
  • 1 tsp pink Himalayan salt
  • 1 tbsp curry powder
  • 2 tsp garam masala
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 2 c chicken stock or water
  • 6 chicken thighs (bone in with skin or other)
  • ½ tsp gluccomannan powder (or xanthum gum as a thickener)
  1. Dice onions while coconut oil is heating in a skillet.
  2. Cook onions over med-low heat until browning lightly around edges.
  3. Chop cauliflower & zucchini into bite sized pieces.
  4. Add everything but chicken and thickener to crockpot. Stir.
  5. Layer meat over top of everything.
  6. Cook on Low for 8 hours.
  7. Take out the cooked chicken pieces. Remove bones, shred meat with fork and return to crockpot. Stir.
  8. Optional - Serve over rice with warmed up naan bread.

TIME SAVING TIP

  1. This can easily be prepped the night before then turn the crockpot on in the morning.

Popular posts from this blog

Fear of Dying & The Big Family Mom

Image
One of my greatest fears as a big family mom is parental death. If my husband is a little late coming home on icy roads it can take only seconds before I’m already imagining myself at the funeral, trying to comfort devastated children while spending the long years ahead weeping alone in our bed. But, what if it’s me who goes first? I have walked a tender road with ten c-sections under my belt, each one carrying its own very real risks of maternal death.  Then there’s always the things no human could predict or really prepare for.  Rather than stay locked in helplessness and pre-emptive grief, I have found there are steps I can take to ease my mind in the face of the one guarantee in this life (next to taxes). 1 - Make Arrangements  We made our first will and purchased life insurance when I was pregnant with baby number four.  The peace of mind this one action alone gave me was worth many nights’ sleep (which is a precious commodity for any mom of many!).  Plann...
Read more

Feed Your Family for Less: Tips for Saving BIG on Groceries

Image
When the normally cheap chicken hot dogs hit four dollars for a dozen I knew we were going to be feeling it in our big family grocery bill real soon. With 11 children to feed the effects of inflation are felt on every front, especially in the grocery bill. I’ll admit that I’ve had a few moments where I’ve simply stopped to pray these past few months. It takes faith, courage and spending savvy to face inflation like a Provers 31 woman and smile. One thing that’s helped me is knowing that I’ve learned a thing of two over the years from other big families who were just a little further ahead on the road of life than me. I knew my many littles would soon include fast-growing young adults who would need more calories. I’m glad I did some research and began implementing money-saving tips on large family groceries then. It’s helping us go through these tighter times with more calm confidence. Since there appears to be a recession on a rise, I’m sharing a few tips that I’ve learned to help...
Read more

Helping Baby into a Sleep Routine

Image
When we got home from the hospital with our firstborn daughter I quickly realized I had no clue how to take care of a baby.  Sleep became one of my most precious commodities as my whole life turned into a 24 hour series of naps. In between feedings & naps I scoured the few how-to books I had to find some magic formula that would work.  My favorite was found in Tracy Hogg’s bestselling book, The Baby Whisperer . Her simple, common sense no-extremes approach resonated with me and gave me light in the surreal fog of the newborn days.  Here are the highlights I used with all 10 of my babies to help them get into a healthy sleep routine. Babies Give Sleep Signals When babies get tired they give some telltale cues such as rubbing eyes, yawning and mild fussing.  If the window of opportunity is missed it can be harder to get them to sleep once they become overtired. As soon as you see those it’s time to bundle them up to sleep. Babies Like To Be Swaddled All but one of ...
Read more