Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani) is one of the most popular curries in the world and yet happens to be one of the easiest! No hunting down hard to find ingredients, this chef recipe that makes the most incredible curry sauce.
This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!
Butter Chicken – a chef recipe!
As someone who loves food with big, BIG flavours, it’s no surprise that Indian is one of my favourite foods. A good curry and binge watching Netflix is pretty much my idea of a perfect Friday night. #NanaAlert! 😂
As much as I love making Indian food at home, sometimes I find the list of ingredients daunting. It’s easy enough to make once I gather all the ingredients, but that’s where I usually fall short because it requires a trip to an Indian grocery store – and my closest one is a fair drive away.
Butter Chicken is one of the few exceptions. I was elated when I discovered a Chef recipe for Butter Chicken and realised how easy it is. But more importantly, you can get all the ingredients from any supermarket. Yes!
Is Butter Chicken really Indian??
YES it is! It’s called Murgh Makhani and it hails from Northern India. It’s quite a mild curry compared to many Indian curries, and outside of India, it’s become just about everybody’s favourite curry!
How to make Butter Chicken – in 3 Simple Steps
Make Butter Chicken Marinade and marinate chicken for 3+ hours (overnight is best)
Cook chicken
Make sauce in the same skillet
The secret to the tender, flavour infused chicken is a spice infused yogurt marinade made with fresh ginger, garlic, lemon juice and spices. The spices in Butter Chicken are turmeric, garam masala, chilli powder and cumin.
Did you know….You don’t need copious amounts of butter for a great Butter Chicken!
The beautiful Butter Chicken Sauce mostly gets its richness from cream. While some restaurants take it over the top by stirring in a (very!) generous amount of butter into the sauce at the end, I find that it’s rich enough as it is. The Butter Chicken flavour and experience – but less oily than restaurant versions!
The sauce will initially be a pale orange colour but as it simmers and thickens, the colour will deepen to a rich orange colour.
What to serve with Butter Chicken
To make a proper Indian feast, sides and starters are essentials! Because every curry needs papadums for dunking and naan to scoop up the sauce with, right?
No-fry quick papadums – just microwave them! Place the papadums around the edge of the microwave turntable and cook on high for 45 seconds to 1 minute or until they are puffed up. They’ll be soft while warm but as soon as they cool down, they crisp up. They don’t expand as much as when deep fried, but neither will your thighs. 😂
Samosas! The ultimate Indian appetiser. Leftovers make great snacks or even lunch!
Proper naan – A recipe in the works for 5 years, I’m thrilled to finally share my proper naan recipe that can be easily made at home (no tandoor needed!)
Shortcut “naan” – For a simpler, no-yeast flatbread that’s just as good, my Easy No Yeast Flatbread looks and tastes very similar to real naan (except it’s much faster and easier!). Try telling me this doesn’t look like it belongs in this feast!
And it’s MADE for dunking in that creamy Butter Chicken Sauce!!
Sides for Butter Chicken
Readers have also asked for Vegetable Side options – to add some greens to a meal. Indian food doesn’t really have fresh side salads like in Western cuisine. Partly because so much Indian food is vegetarian, so you get plenty of veggies in your diet!
But here are some Vegetable Side Options you can add on the side of Butter Chicken:
Indian Tomato Salad – with a refreshing minted yogurt dressing;
Cucumber salad with lemon yogurt dressing – another great refreshing salad that goes perfectly with curries;
Just some sliced cucumber and wedges of tomato – not dressed. Nice cool, refreshing side
South Indian Thoran-style Cabbage and Carrot Salad with Coconut is fresh, crunchy and shot through with gentle spices and coconut!
For a simpler cabbage salad, try my Everyday Cabbage Salad
I hope this has inspired you to try your hand at making an Indian feast at home! You will honestly be amazed how much depth of flavour there is in the Butter Chicken despite how few ingredients are in it. – Nagi x
PS Don’t miss the new streamlined oven version: One-Pan Baked Butter Chicken. Readers are loving it!
Watch How To Make It
This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!
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Butter Chicken
Ingredients
Marinade
- 1/2 cup plain yoghurt , full fat
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp tumeric powder
- 2 tsp garam masala (Note 1)
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder or cayenne pepper powder (Note 2)
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp ginger, freshly grated
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1.5 lb / 750 g chicken thigh fillets, cut into bite size pieces
Curry
- 2 tbsp (30 g) ghee or butter, OR 1 tbsp vegetable oil (Note 3)
- 1 cup tomato passata (aka tomato puree) (Note 4)
- 1 cup heavy / thickened cream (Note 5)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 1/4 tsp salt
To serve – choose
- Basmati rice
- White rice
- Coriander/cilantro (optional)
Instructions
- Optional blitz: for an extra smooth sauce, combine the Marinade ingredients (except the chicken) in a food processor and blend until smooth. (I do not do this)
- Marinade: Combine the Marinade ingredients with the chicken in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or up to 24 hours (minimum 3 hrs).
- Cook chicken: Heat the ghee (butter or oil) over high heat in a large fry pan. Take the chicken out of the Marinade but do not wipe or shake off the marinade from the chicken (but don’t pour the Marinade left in the bowl into the fry pan).
- Place chicken in the fry pan and cook for around 3 minutes, or until the chicken is white all over (it doesn’t really brown because of the Marinade).
- Sauce: Add the tomato passata, cream, sugar and salt. Also add any remaining marinade left in the bowl. Turn down to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Do a taste test to see if it needs more salt.
- Garnish with coriander/cilantro leaves if using. Serve with basmati rice.
- The Butter Chicken is pictured with my very easy No Yeast Flatbread and no-fry papadums (Note 5).
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published July 2015. Updated for housekeeping matters and a new video added January 2019. But most importantly, Life of Dozer section added!
For Indian Curry Lovers
- Chicken Tikka Masala – kind of like Butter Chicken on steroids!
- Palak Paneer – Indian cottage cheese and spinach curry
- Rogan Josh – fall apart lamb in a rich creamy sauce!
- Dal – the highest and best use of lentils, ever. Period.
- Biryani – the world’s best Chicken & Rice. Full stop!
- Qeema: Curried Ground Beef (Mince) – the fastest way ever to get a real Indian curry fix
- Curry lovers, head here -> Curry Collection
Life of Dozer
Flashback: Dozer’s first time in water. Look at those wild eyes!!! 😂 Fear? Excitement??
This recipe was a little lacklustre for me. It was missing some depth. It was also quite runny. I followed the recipe to the letter & was hopeful due to all the positive reviews. None of my family were particularly enthused by it either. I suspect this might be due to our preference for a good hit of spice rather than a failing of the recipe given so many others seem to love it. I will attempt it again & probably tweak the spice + maybe sub the thickened cream for coconut cream and simmer it longer to thicken.
I agree. I have only made this once and although my family loved it, I too thought it was missing depth. I have made so many of the recipes and this is the only one I won’t make regularly.
I agree with you on this! I’ve made it twice and been disappointed both times. I reckon its missing onion as well as extra spice. Next time i will cook finely diced onion before adding the chicken plus more spices.
Butter chicken marinating, about to make your New York style tomato sauce (love it) for a family pizza party tomorrow. Your great pizza base recipe currently proofing.
❤️🇬🇧👍
Absolutely delicious! My family love this dish. It is so tasty and so easy to make. I have yet to find a recipe from Nagi that hasn’t been a success!
Nagi I have just made this again for dinner tonight. Absolutely delicious. I could eat it straight out of the pot with a spoon 😋 better wait for hubby to get home. Thank you. Love all your recipes and you are my go to for a delicious dinner every single time. Love you and Dozer. You are awesome xx
One of my most requested staple meals. Thank you so much for this easy delicious recipe!
do you use the marinate in the final sauce?
Awesome butter chicken, they usually aren’t for me as they can be too sweet. Coupled with the Naan’s, perfect for the family. I like to add a tsp of fenugreek, either in the marinade, or stir it through at the end.
Hi, can I freeze the raw chicken in the marinade and cook it up another day? Appreciate your response as the chicken is marinating atm! Thanks alot
I only marinated it for about an hour and it still turned out delicious!! Thank you for your easy to follow recipes Nagi. OUr family make at least 3 of your recipes a week!
Delish! Easy. Everyone in the family ate it- even my fussy 7 year old! Thanks Nagi.
Great recipe, very tasty and easy to make.
This is the easiest butter chicken I have ever made, but it is so delicious! This is the recipe I will use from now on.
Served with basmati rice and homemade naan, it was like like a restaurant meal
Has anyone ever substituted chickpeas in this recipe instead of the chicken? I’ve recently gone off meat and wanted to give this recipe a try without the chicken. I’ve made it before and LOVED it! Just want to recreate that same lovely flavor without the meat.
I’ve tried a lot of different butter chicken recipes and always found they came no where near close to what you get at an Indian restaurant. Until I found this recipe…! It is hands down the BEST butter chicken recipe – my kids even told me it was better than their favourite Indian restaurant!
Cooked this tonight and was blown away with how easy it was and how well it turned out. Also cooked the naan to serve with it and they were delicious as well. Will definitely be making this again. So much better than what we used to get from our local Indian restaurant. Love your work Nagi 💜
Such a beautiful flavor – the chilli powder makes it quite spicy! I might skip that one next time, but apart from that taste absolutely beautiful!
I tried this tonight as I’ve been craving indian in forever and it was the best butter chicken I’ve had. Served with white rice and garlic naan bread.
I doubled the recipe because I used 1kg of chicken and we love sauce.
We love the Butter chicken recipe and was hoping we can make it with fish like kingfish or other firm fish. We have a friend that can’t eat meat but can eat seafood and we would like to cook it for her.
This was my first time making this at home and it was delicious and super easy! My one “issue” is that it came out a bit too spicy. I followed the recipe and notes exactly. The taste is perfect, I just need to turn down the heat a bit but I can’t pinpoint what ingredient needs to adjusted or added…any suggestions?
We eat Nagis recipes every week but this butter chicken is just delicious! We love it so much! It’s a weekly dinner in our house. Yum!
Thankyou Nagi (and Dozer!) 🥰
Perfect