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??
Another fabulous recipe which was a total success (best curry ever declared hubby, again – he said this about your chicken tikka Masala recipe too!!) At this rate, takeaway will be a thing of the past. Can we have a dhansak recipe please??
Woah what a great compliment Alyson! I’ll have to add dhansak to my list!
Super taste and super easy to make – a definite winner! Thanks Nagi, you have just got another fan!
Thanks so much Jill!
Absolutely love this! Didn’t think I’d be able to make a decent curry but now I can! Thank you! Do you think adding veggies would work? If so, at what stage and which veggies?
Hi Cat, traditional butter chicken doesn’t contain veggies but you could definitely add them if you like!
Just curious about why we don’t use the excess marinade. It seems to be a waste of extra flavour. Also, can we add a few veges…onion at least?
Hi Lexie, you don’t want to add the marinade when cooking the chicken as the chicken will stew rather than get that golden colour, you could always add the remained of the marinade to the sauce when bringing it to a simmer. Traditionally butter chicken doesn’t contain any veggies but you could definitely add them if you like! – N x
I am just curious about why we don’t add the excess marinade to the pan. Seems like we’re throwing out a lot of flavour. Also can we add veges?
Soooo very tasty Nagi!
Thank you for very special launch.
I eat it with Indian Tomato Salad !
I love your recipes.
Hello from Athens Greece.
I’m so glad you love it Anastasia!
Could I make this in the crock pot?
Hi Judy, You’s still need to brown the chicken in a pan and you’d need to reduce the sauce so I don’t think a crockpot will work unfortunately – N x
Delicious! Easy to follow recipe and very tasty indeed thank you Nagi I look forward to trying out more of your recipes!
I’m so glad you loved it Becki, I hope you try more recipes – N x
I’m super proud that I cooked this meal! It was delicious and super easy. My toddler and my hubby were impressed 🙂
Wahoo, sounds like you nailed it Jackie!
I’ve made this twice in three weeks. Love, love, love. It’s so easy and it tastes like my favorite carry out. I let the chicken marinate overnight and make the recipe pretty much as written. I froze a test batch the first time and I was very pleased with the results- I have some of my second batch in my freezer now and I’m looking forward to eating it for lunch.
Thanks so much for letting me know what you think !
Hi I made this Butter Chicken recipe a few weeks ago, I marinated the chicken in the yughurt with all the spices for 2 hours before cooking it I was a little disappointed as it turned out a bit running did I do something wrong while preparing it?
Mine was super funny as well
Hi this looks great. Can you use tomato puree what is not tinned and in the tubed tomato puree
Hi Joel, I’m not sure what you are referring too. You can use pureed tomato, just not the concentrate tomato paste – N x
Just made this for dinner and it was AMAZING. We had a favourite butter chicken recipe, but it’s a lot of work and takes hours to make. Hubs is very happy to have this as our new go to! I didn’t have yoghurt or cream, so used sour cream and a bit of coconut cream instead and it still was delicious. I also added fenugreek at the end because we’ve found that gives it that ‘restaurant’ flavour. We made the flatbreads to go with it – our 2 year old loved helping. Delicious dinner, thank you!
Awesome Freya, I’m so glad you loved it!!
Another amazing recipe! This was the easiest and most delicious butter chicken I’ve ever made. Rich, creamy, and SO flavourful. Thanks Nagi!
Awesome Monique, I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I love Indian food. And this is the best and the most easy recipe I ever try. I made it tonight with the Naan bread. No more bought store bread. Thank you for sharing this awesome recipe.
I’m so happy you enjoyed it Nadya!
Super easy to make and so full of flavour! My husband loves when I make this dish.
Fantastic Julia, it’s one of my favourites!
Hi Nagi, are your tablespoon measures 15g or 20g? Thanks!
Hi Ann, 15ml – N x
Put in the slow cooker over night, seems to have split. Why did this happen and is there anyway to fix it? Thank you.
Made a double recipe for family dinner night tonight. Followed the recipe but for the spices I ended up using (for 2 recipes) 1 tsp of my garam masala (which I got in an Indian shop in NYC, its a house blend really hot so I’m afraid of using too much of it) and in place of the remaining garam masala that is called for I used 3 tsp of plain old curry powder, no cayenne, 2 tsp tumeric and 2 tsp cumin. With all the tampering it still ended up delicious. Everyone, even my 90 year old mom and my mother-in-law loved it. Also served it with your flat bread recipe. Thank you so much for the wonderful recipe. I never heard of butter chicken before but all the great reviews inspired me to try it.
I’m so glad you gave it a go Marianne!
Gravy was delicious but I used tomato sauce and it was a little thick. Do you think adding water would ruin the taste?