Mozzarella-topped Indian butter chicken on a bed of noodles is the mash-up I didn't know I was missing. I’ve never gotten a better cheese pull from a microwave dinner, and that’s just one of the reasons why this Saffron Road butter chicken cavatappi earned a Taste of Home Award.
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The best part of my job here at Taste of Home is coming up with new recipes our readers will love to make and share. One source of inspiration I often turn to is comfort food mash-ups, where you combine two very different recipes into one dish—taking the flavors and ingredients of one and preparing it with the method or style of the other, or blending ingredients from two different cuisines. This is how you get masterpieces like cheeseburger soup and baked potato pizza.
So I get excited when I see mash-ups out in the wild and I usually snag them off the grocery store shelf to bring home and try myself. Most recently, I spotted butter chicken cavatappi from Crossroads, the line from Saffron Road that promises: “Two cultures, one plate, zero rules.” A popular Indian dish served over pasta and piled with cheese? I imagined the creamy, spiced, tomato-y sauce coating al dente noodles and swooned. As soon as I tried it, I knew this microwave meal deserved a Taste of Home Award.
Crossroads by Saffron Road Butter Chicken Cavatappi
Butter Chicken Is Pretty Perfect on Its Own
Butter chicken is one of the most well-known Indian chicken recipes. If you haven’t had it at an Indian restaurant or made it at home, the dish is made with tender yogurt-marinated chicken in a heavily spiced (and sometimes spicy), creamy tomato sauce, often eaten with basmati rice or naan. Ginger, cumin, coriander, fenugreek, turmeric, chili powder and spice blends like garam masala make the sauce so flavorful and dreamy that I catch myself enjoying spoonfuls of it even without chicken or rice, like soup.
I never thought classic butter chicken was missing anything, but I have to admit the heavy topper of shredded mozzarella cheese in the Saffron Road butter chicken cavatappi truly is genius. While the Wisconsinite in me thinks adding cheese makes everything better, this situation is especially smart because the butter chicken sits on top of a bed of pasta, instead of rice. Cheese and pasta are always meant to be together.
But Butter Chicken with Cheese Is the Combination I Didn’t Know I Needed
The Saffron Road dish made a good impression on me as soon as I opened the box. The sauce was on the bottom, with a layer of undressed noodles on top and then a healthy amount of shredded cheese. It gave me hope that after warming up the dish, I’d have a cheesy, saucy plate of pasta. And sure enough, after 5 minutes of microwaving, every bite had a crazy cheese pull. I think I even got one that was about 12 inches above my plate.
After it’s heated and mixed together, the color of the sauce looks like a slightly more orange mac and cheese. But don’t be fooled: It really tastes like a butter chicken recipe. You don’t have to wonder if all the ingredients you’d usually put in butter chicken, like tomato, garlic, onion, turmeric, ginger and fenugreek, are on the list. They announce their presence loudly in this little microwave tray. Saffron Road doesn’t skimp on the chicken, either—there are large pieces I have to cut in half, not skimpy baby bites like you sometimes find in these types of meals.
I’m always looking for ways to add more protein to dinner and this dish has 28 grams of protein and 3 grams of fiber, so I’m satisfied but not uncomfortably full (which is perfect, because I like to save room for dessert).
Where to Find Butter Chicken Cavatappi
Many of the grocery stores near me sell Saffron Road’s Crossroads dinners, so hopefully I’ll never have a problem finding butter chicken cavatappi when I’m craving it. I’ve seen it at Pick ‘n Save, Whole Foods and Metro Market. I know I said I’d only stock up on this particular microwave dinner, but the line includes other mash-ups, like cheesy Korean-inspired ravioli and lemon miso chicken Alfredo, that are quite yummy, too.
Genuinely, I would eat a tray of butter chicken cavatappi that’s twice as big. Next time, I’ll heat up two trays come suppertime—just for me.
