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”!
Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.
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??
Omg, this is just the best. Followed recipe exactly and i dished up best Butter Chicken ever. Whole family said it was better than restaurant meal. Thank you Nagi. I love all your recipes.
This recipe was easy and absolutely delicious!!
Hi Nagi,
I love this recipe and have made in lots of times. Its delicious and popular in my house.
Just wondering if I could adapt it to the slow cooker or is it not really for this type of curry? Any advice would be appreciated.
Megan
First time making “Butter Chicken”, it was amazing! Loved the creamy, flavorful sauce. So much flavor! I used jasmine rice, as that was what I had in the pantry.
Thanks for this fantastic recipe Nagi, it is delicious and even my fussy children wolf it down! I’ve taken it a step further by bulk-preparing and storing the marinade spices which saves me a lot of time in preparation each time I make it – and I’m making it a lot!
I made this over the weekend – OMG. Yum overload! I marinated the chicken but only used half of it so ended up freezing the rest for another meal. I used a tin of finely chopped tomatoes (to use in the sauce instead of the passata) so also froze the rest of the tin for the next time I make this “lip smacking” meal. Oh…and used roti bread to mop up all the juices. Have I praised this recipe enough?? Thanks Nagi xx (& Dozer)
Another delicious recipe. Will taste even better tomorrow.
Took about a year to develop my own butter chicken recipe which was very very good. Then lost the recipe so went on-line and tried this one. Great recipe and easier than mine. Use to go to Taste.com but now recipetineats has become my go to site.
Hi, Nagi..
I am marinating my chicken right now. Should I leave it without salt and sugar? Since in your recipe, sugar and salt are not in marinate
Hi Sani, the salt and sugar go into the curry when you’re making the sauce – not in the marinade. I hope you love it!! N x
Nailed it again Nagi! Perfect creaminess, spice (i was a little generous for our family palate). I use your recipes nearly every night. To the point where my husband asks “Are we having “tin ” food tonight?”. Lmao
Hi Nagi
What would you recommend using to make a vegetarian version? Tofu? Vegetable/s? Tofu & veg?
And would the process be the same…marinate overnight etc?
Thank you : ))
Hi Nagi, can I substitute the yogurt with something else?
Hi. Can the heavy cream be substituted with Santan (thick Coconut milk)?
What does one use the leftover marinade for?
Dozer …. you’re just gorgeous 😘
Hi Nagi, I love your recipes. I have made this butter chicken recipe a number of times and its seriously yummy. I am trying to lose my COVID weight so could I replace the cream with greek yoghurt?
Hi Linda, Greek Yogurt will change the flavour here and it will have a slight tang, try low fat cream 🙂 N x
Currently marinading the chicken, and I was hoping to add onions and potato when would I do so, and should I precook them being adding them in etc. Thanks !
***before adding them
This is the BEST homemade butter chicken I have ever tasted. The flavour is so rich and yum! I made this for my family and my partners family and they absolutely raved about it! Massive hit. 🙂
This was my latest lockdown 2.0 (Melbournite) cooking challenge, and while the flavour was spot on it was very runny and never really thickened at all, still basically soup even after simmering for close to 40 minutes. The rate it was going I reckon it would have taken an hour and a half. In the end I had to add cornstarch to get it to thicken to the proper consistency or I would have been eating very late at night!
That doesn’t bother me so much as I “cheat” in the kitchen a lot; I was more disappointed that the colour stayed quite pale and never got to the same classic bright orange like in your photos.
Not sure what I did wrong, I followed the recipe to the T and as I’m Aussie there aren’t any “ingredient translation” problems. The only thing I can think of was I used Woolies homebrand passata, maybe it’s not quite as thick as some of the pricier ones?
If I did simmer it for 1-2 hours would that be bad for the chicken, so better to take the chicken out and put it back at the end rather than just leave it in the whole time?
Still gonna keep the recipe as the flavour was great.
Thanks to all who had suggestions for me (I love the community on here!).
I made it again last night and this time it worked perfectly!
The things I did differently:
– Used a pan with a larger surface area. The pot I used last time was not a small one, but this time I used my extra wide saucepan. I think this helped because the chicken had more room, and also maybe larger surface area means more steam can escape when simmering?
– Before adding the cream/passata, I cooked off any of the liquid leftover from the chicken.
– Simmered at a much more vigorous bubble, closer to medium heat than low.
It took about half an hour for the sauce to turn deep orange and thicken.
It did still seem slightly too runny, but it thickened further after I removed it from the heat and was pretty much spot on by the time it was served. Maybe that’s something others with similar problems could keep in mind as well.
It sounds like you’ve gotten some great advice. I was just wondering if there is any chance you used frozen chicken? I always dry off chicken that’s been frozen before using in a recipe as there’s always way too much moisture otherwise.
Hi Alice,
Take a look at a comment made by FrancElle above on Sept 14th which Nagi replied to. It was about a watery sauce and what likely caused it.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the heads-up Katrina. Looking at the comment that might have been my problem – I do tend to get impatient and crowd the pan a little xD
Alice, yes, I would remove the chicken (especially if you used breast, thighs stand up better to longer cooking, but that may be TOO long)
Only things I can think of for the sauce not thickening is
1: having a lid on the pot – it’s best cooked uncovered or
2: not using heavy cream which also aids thickening..
A touch of paprika in the marinade will help with the colour.
Thanks for the tips Alimak.
Unfortunately I did have the lid off and used thickened cream (Australia’s version of heavy cream).
Must just be one of those cooking quirks of different kitchens, or as my mother used to say “you’re holding the spoon wrong” xD
Next time I’ll try adding a dash of paprika and cooking the sauce down longer without the chicken.
Maybe try using double cream instead?
Would I be able to add veg to this? Maybe at the end? Any recommendations? Would I have to make any changes?
What can I replace lemon with ?
Hi Allison, lime or even apple cider vinegar will be ok here. N x
I make this FREQUENTLY. Incredibly good. Always make the easy flat bread to go with it. Cannot be faulted!