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??
Love this butter chicken I have to make double the recipe cause it’s just delicious and the naan is so easy to make as well
Everyone please try this reciepe!! It’s so easy to make and tastes like an authentic butter chicken.
I’m so glad you loved it LeShaye! Thanks so much for the great feedback 🙂 N x
Wow! absolutely delicious. My sons in between gobbling said this is better than heaps of indian restaurant butter chicken we’ve had! Licked their plates clean. Thank you Nagi, I tried Rick Stein’s recipe and although it’s good, it takes 2 days to make it and yours is better! So easy and quick. Thanks again!
If you are perusing this recipe you just have to make it!
Heavenly!
Nagi, guess what? My husband reckons you deserve a sainthood! I totally agree.
I currently have my chicken marinating and even though this is my third time making this DELICIOUS recipe, I just realized I haven’t rated it yet. Butter chicken is one of my favorite Indian dishes and I was so excited to come across this recipe. It has forever cemented my devotion to Nagi! My husband actually requests this recipe as he loves it just as much as I do. The first time I made it I sent a picture to my dad and he made it the very next day. He was raving about the results and says it’s better than he’s ever gotten at a restaurant. I have seen comments that people are having trouble with the consistency of their sauce. My only recommendation is to make sure you dry off your chicken very well if you’re using chicken that’s been frozen.
Made this last night for dinner. OMG! So flavour packed and can’t believe how easy it is. It made so much beautiful sauce that we ran out of dipping bread. Der!. Thanks Nagi – you are amazing!
This recipe has hands down set the bar for butter chicken in term is ease and flavour. Oh my, the leftover sauce! I just guzzle it like a soup! I’ve made this over and over again. Loooove!
Hi Nagi, my boss and I often talk about ‘what’s for dinner tonight’. He put me onto you! Your easy to follow recipes & explanations of why you use certain products has re-invented my cooking. From my 70 yo husband and myself – THANK YOU for our amazing meals and making me love getting back into the kitchen
Could I use a vertical rotisserie to cook instead of oven or would it dry out?
I’ve been vegetarian for 13 years, and hadn’t discovered indian food before I turned, therefore I’ve never had butter chicken. Today I absolutely love indian food, but don’t get it very often, because I’m always so intimidated by the amount of ingredients and cooking times (and eating out where I live is very expensive). I keep hearing everyone praising butter chicken and today I will figure out what all the fuss is about. So I’ll be attempting to make this recipe, but with “fake chicken” (I’m using two types, quorn and soy based and after going through multiple butter chicken recipes, decided to try to marinate them for some time as well). As I’m not vegan, I sometimes have dairy products depending where I go shopping, and as I now had butter and cream in my fridge, I used these in this recipe as well. I’m also making the flatbread and that I made with leftover soy milk. I shall report the results.
Your recipes are awesome!! Can you please tell me if it would be possible to adapt this to the slow cooker. I was thinking about marinating the chicken overnight and then searing it before adding all the sauce items. Would that work?? Thank you!
Followed this recipe and had the most amazing dinner. Ridiculously flavorful and bright sauce, chicken was juicy, and perfect with a side of rice and/or paratha.
If it was up to my husband and son I would be making this everyday, which I HAVE!! You would not know how simple it was because it is truly flavorful. My super picky 4 yr old can’t get enough of it. Some basmati rice and I am rocking and rolling. Give this recipe a try it is sure to please every taste palate.
I treasured the recipe verifiably. I will must undertaking it at my home. Thankful to you for such kind of exciting sharing.
Your butter chicken is simply delicious. My family and I love it. It is easy to make and so tasty. Thank you for another great recipe.
Hi Nagi! Another delicious recipe of yours! However, I had a bit of a hiccup with this one. When I added the chicken to the frying pan a whole lot of moisture began to form. When the whole recipe was complete the flavour was delicious but the sauce was quite runny! Should I have poured the watery moisture out of the pan before adding the passata/cream etc? Or is there something I could do with the chicken to avoid this (such as towel dry it before marinating or something)? If you or any of your other lovely fans here could comment with some help that’d be hugely appreciated! Cheers.
Hi FrancElle, sounds like the chicken was stewing rather than frying. When you add too much chicken into a hot pan, the temperature of the pan drops dramatically and your protein won’t sear like it should. To avoid this, cook the chicken in smaller batches so that the pan stays hot and your meat sears rather than stews. 🙂 N x
I am so honoured by your reply! I feel like i’ve just heard from a celebrity (at least you are in our household due to your amazing recipes!) Thank you so much for the tip! 🙂
I unfortunately have done this and while it is simmering away now, I was thinking it is way too runny. I should have checked the comments first. Taste is amazing though. 2nd attempt will be much better. Thanks
I followed the recipe exactly and it was delicious!
Nagi, oh so delicious! Loved it and will definitely make it again!
Hey Nagi! I’ve cooked this dish more times than I can count and have loved it every time! However, recently I’ve become vegetarian and was wondering if you have any advice on using tofu in place of the chicken? Would you recommed marinating in the spices and then baking? thanks!
Hi do you use skinless chicken, or do you leave the skin on?
Hi Lexi – skinless here 🙂 N x