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??
Absolute heaven. Divine!! Best curry we have EVER had at home, and not far off best ever in our lives. Nagi, you’re a goddess.
I’ve cooked 6 of your recipes in the last week alone after discovering this website last week. The Turkey pot pie, chilli and cheese Mac, pavlova, this and a few others. All AMAZING.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I’ve followed you on Instagram too @ajaclare
I made this the other day for dinner and it is as wonderful as you said it would be…very easy too. The only thing I did not have was full fat yogurt so I used no fat and it came out just fine. I had lots of left overs as it is only two of us so decided to make a soup with what I had left. I sautéed onion, celery, carrots and mushrooms (I had some that needed to be used). I put the left over butter chicken into the pan with the sautéed veggies, added a box of chicken broth ( 4 cups) and the left over rice I had. I simmered it all of a little while and added some fresh spinach. It was just delicious and perfect for a cold day here on the east coast of the US. Thank you Nagi so much for this wonderful recipe and all of your wonderful recipes!! Best to you and Dozer in 2021!!
I’m in the UK, how much in ml is the cup of pasata/cream? Thank you Nagi, can’t wait to make this 🙂
Hi Nagi,
Whenever I make curries (or stews) they seem to end up runnier rather than silky gravy.
Any suggestions?
Hi Rachel, sounds like you just need to reduce them a little more to thicken them up 🙂 N x
I was looking for the qty of the chicken you used and how many people will it serve, I have a Christmas dinner and friends have requested for it…
Hi Neha – it’s all listed in the recipe card with the ingredients and instructions 🙂 N x
What about the leftover marinade? Do we throw it away or add it to the sauce?
First time I have had butter chicken and not the last. Recipetineats has been my go to for a while now as each and every recipe I have chosen has come out delicious. Looking forward to more successes, thanks Nagi.
Holy Moly! This is absolutely the best butter chicken I have made ever! All the flavors took the recipe to a completely different level. I did a little dance while taste testing, knowing that I kicked it out of the park! My family was extremely obsessed with this recipe!
Hi Nagi,
Could the cream be substituted with same of coconut cream?
Thank you
Hi Nancy, yes you can, the flavour will be slightly different but still delicious! N x
Thank you for a speedy reply!
I browse your site regularly, love it and have made many of your great recipes. 😊
Hi, we love this recipe. I’d like to prep some meals for xmas, wondering if the marinade chicken can be made up and frozen raw..cheers
Sure can Ada!! N x
Would this recipe be pressure cooker friendly?
Not as written sorry Erin! N x
Hi Nagi!
So I decided to try a pleasure cooker version anyway…I used your recipe but after the chicken was done marinating I broiled it to char it for some extra flavour. Then I added everything except the cream and cilantro to the pressure cooker and cooked under high pressure for 10 min with natural release. It worked! I added the cream and thickened it with some cornstarch (a bit too liquidy in the pressure cooker). But the flavour was good! 🙂
Thank you! My daughter loves Indian but is allergic to cardamom. You responded so fast and said just leave it out when making garam masala. Have now made twice! My husband says this butter chicken is better than the expensive restaurant. And she can eat with us!!! thank you so much!
Fantastic! You made me look great in front of my family tonight! Thank you talented chef!
I’m so glad it was a hit Sandra!! N x
Tried this a second time with half the quantity of cream and it turned out simply amazing. Excellent with soft naan bread. Thanks Nagi
Suggestion: use half the quantity of cream, mix and add more depending on the colour of your sauce. (Mine turned to be more white than reddish orange the first time around)
Your butter chicken was absolutely delicious.
Omg delicious absolutely spot on! My Husband loved it & it will definitely become a regular at our house. Thanks Nagi & if you ever come to Ireland my kitchen is your kitchen 😉
That’s absolutely delicious!!! I was very nervous before making this recipe, cause butter chicken is my boyfriend’s favourite indian recie and he always ordres this the first time we try a new indian restaurant ( and that sometimes results in us not going back to it). He LOVED it !!!!! Said it was one of the best ones he ever had !! Thank you so much for this !!!!!
I’m a big fan of your blog I can’t stop using it to impress family and friends. 🙂
And of course, I love Dozer too ! 😀
What yogurt does everyone use
Natural or greek Lianne. N x
This recipe was AMAZING!!! I have searched for years, trying various recipes for butter chicken, but this recipe just knocked it out of the park. I did add some cardamom and fenugreek powder to the marinade, but otherwise followed it to the letter, and it was FAB-U-LOUS!!!!
After having tried two of your recipes that were just simply perfect, I tried the butter chicken.
Though I reduced the amount of cream to 3/4 th of a cup it was a bit too creamy.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it Sahana! N x
Two for two, Nagi! I tried your orange cake first and now this. This recipe knocked it out of the park! It’s truly restaurant quality butter chicken! Thanks!!!