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??
Absolutely delicious! I’m so happy, I made this recipe with reservations as in the past I’ve failed at any attempts at making Indian food at home, but this I’ve made twice in a row it turned out so nicely! Lots of sauce leftover, I actually love to eat just that with the rice…I could drink it like a soup it’s so good! This is going in my favorite recipes file- thank you!
Tried this recipe for my daughter to try and widen the things she eats (6). It was a hit. I did use paprika rather than chilli powder – she ate it no fuss… Definitely one for the family food regulars.
First ever only four stars (it’s actually 4 1/2 stars but I don’t know how to do that). The reason is I followed the recipe very closely but my gravy was a bit to thin. Any ideas what went wrong or how to fix next time. Otherwise another brilliant recipe.
Normally I would say use less water but as that’s not in the ingredients, next option is to cook the sauce for longer – I would do 10 minutes on low to avoid splattering curry sauce everywhere when using higher heat. Last option is to add 1/2-1tbsp cornflour/cornstarch slurry (mix flour with equal quantity cold water for no lumps) at the end. Don’t forget to boil to activate the starch!
Eek! I’m marinating this now as my contribution to a last minute curry night at a friends. I’m not going to have time to marinade for long maybe 2.5 hrs only. Has anyone marinated using this short time frame successfully?
Hi Nagi I’m marinating this as I write and instead of the usual cream I’m going to use the coconut version so should be nice. Don’t get too upset at these keyboard warriors, I wonder if she would’ve said it to your face. Anyhoo looking fwd to trying the butter chook.
This was pretty great for how simple it is. Wow. Everyone loved it & will be used regularly. The teens will even manage this for my late ones home. Will add a little more of each spice next time. Being cautious this time but certainly can ramp it up. Used Greek yoghurt if there is any difference for others that use another plain one. Sauce was quite runny at the end but perfect with the rice to soak it up.
Really can’t go wrong.
My nearly 2 toddler loves this curry (minus cayenne / chilli) and we throw in frozen spinach for some ‘green’. It’s a hearty family fav and ever so easy. Another winner.
I’m not sure what the last comment leaver did but the other reviews speak for themselves. My sister and I make this all the time and it is astonishingly simple to do yet better tasting than any restaurant version I’ve had in a few years, whether it marinated for an afternoon or overnight. My family really loves eating it too. The marinated chicken thigh meat always becomes very tender, especially if I let it simmer for longer. Delicious. Thank you, Nagi.
Followed this recipe to a tee and after tasting it lacked the vibrancy in colour of your recipe and flavour was so / so. After adding extra half portion of spice items to the mix after being quickly dry roasted, the flavour amped up way better. Perhaps my supermarket spices (that aren’t that old, I have to top up every 3 months at least) might already be stale!
I never get the rich colour like in the photo, it’s always insipid looking, is a filter being used?. Tastes great though.
I have just spent 2 days prepping, marinading and cooking this dish. It was tasteless. I reduced the sauce it was tastleless. Very very disappointing. Look at Mowgli butter chciken – so much better. not the first time I have been disappointed. Think Nagi is is more impressed with the limelight as the recipes
I’ll check out your recommendation because this recipe was disappointing to say the least.
Making this tonight and I can’t wait!! We have made so many of Nagi’s recipes now and they have all turned out amazing . Thank you for sharing your amazing cooking talents so generously with us !
delish have been making your recipes for a bit now easy and tasty ty
I made this for my son and he loved it but then a friend that had some said they’d never had spicy butter chicken before. I followed the recipe does anyone else find it spicy? Maybe I did something wrong? I used spicy chilli powder I found in the international section of my grocery store, maybe I should use regular? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Yes. Do not use spicy chili powder if you do not want it spicy.
Best butter chicken recipe. And so simple
Want to make this got my adult children, I have never had Butte Chicken but would like to try it also. The problem is that I can’t have dairy. Any suggestions for substitutes?
You can find non-dairy cream now (flora and oatly) at most major supermarkets in Australia, at least. Or I suspect coconut cream might also work.
This was FANTASTIC. The whole family loved it!! I recommend keeping the exact ingredients and amounts according to the recipe. 🙂
Omg, yet another amazing easy recipe, hubby again loved it, definitely a regular. Made with breast of chicken, added some red pepper, as didn’t have quite enough chicken l.
This is the easiest and yummiest recipe. I make this every three months or so.
It was so delicious! I have been wanting to make this for awhile and when I saw you had a recipe for it, I was so excited! I’ve never made one of your recipes I didn’t like! So glad I bought your cookbook and I never buy cookbooks!
I live s of your recipes – SO glad I found you! I have scrolled through pages and images of the comments but can’t find an answer , so here’s my insane question ; IF I substitute all the dairy with oat /almond whatever substitutes, do you think it’ll taste like kak ? Don’t be shy to say ‘Lady , it’s called BUTTER chicken for a reason ‘🤣
Made this last week for dinner just to try something different! Delicious. So good in fact that my daughter- who is not usually a big eater – ate multiple serves including the leftovers that I was planning to take for lunch!