Butter chicken or tikka masala will never taste “right” if they aren’t finished with a little kasuri methi at the end (dried fenugreek leaves).
Aside from that, this recipe cooks the chicken like a basic curry, which it is not – for both butter chicken or tikka masala, the chicken is marinated and grilled separately, and added to the sauce only to finish. The char from that adds to the flavor.
I looked at the other NYT recipes for variations on the theme, and none of them are much better. Try Maunika Gowardhan.
(Fwiw, the best butter chicken I ever made was using homemade vodka sauce that I doctored with more aromatics and spices and finished with cashews and cream, lol.)
