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??
Hmm. I thought I accidentally made butter chicken but I guess not. I did chicken breasts seasoned with garlic powder, onion powder, salt, lots of paprika and cayenne. Cooked it in a pan with butter then cooked a bunch of mushrooms with the same seasonings and added heavy cream and ckn base served over rice. It was really good and certainly tasted indian but not butter chicken I guess.
Hi. This is really good. Was wondering if it freezes well?
I make a batch and freeze. Heated up in a pan is better I suppose but I have zapped it in the microwave and it’s still tender and yummy!
Yep, it freezes fine. You can nuke it from frozen or thaw it then heat in a pan.
I am trying to be a bit healthier but love your recipes. How would you think the full strength version of carnation milk (not light) would go to use in place of cream for your recipies? Have you ever experimented with that?
Light cooking cream works very well – it’s what I used and the sauce was still very rich!
This was so delicious and surprisingly easy to make. Made with light cream and you couldn’t tell. Can’t wait to make it again 🙂
Hi Nagi could you do Metric weights for us uk followers? A lot is in metric but the cups of yogurt, tomatoes etc confuse me ( not hard 😂 I’m also visually impaired )
I just made this recipie, and it’s fantastic!
The only thing I did differently, was substitute coconut milk for the heavy cream that was suggested in the recipie.
This is fantastic. My 5-year old loves it.
I add a bit a fenugreek powder (1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon) to the marinade and 1-2 tsp of MSG along with the pasata and cream..
you suck whats 0.17 off a cup
you suck what is 0.17 off a cup
We really enjoyed this recipe. I made it as is, except I did add a mix of approx 1.5 tbsp of cornstarch and approx 3 tbsp water (shake together) and added to sauce at the end of the 20 minutes of simmering….just to thicken a bit . I will make this again this week….and try the tip of putting in a bit of diced onion for flavor.. (but truly liked the recipe as is) . Thank you
This was fantastic! Only changes I made were adding more cayenne (I prefer a medium spice) and cooked down the sauce an extra 20mins to thicken it. Will definitely be making it again!
Adding my own comments to this recipe is probably a bit redundant at this point but I have used it so many times and filled so many happy bellies with it that I just had to thank you for sharing it with us! I find cooking personally satisfying but also nerve wracking when it’s for other people. I can’t overstate how much less stress there is in knowing that the outcome of one’s cooking will be almost universally enjoyed! Many thanks for keeping this freely available to us online 🙏.
Can you omit the sugar or if not use a sugar substitute
I have made this a few times now and it is fantastic. Is there anyway this can be done in the slow cooker?
Love this recipe. I did vary it a bit though. I didn’t have Passata and I used 4 small ripe tomatoes diced and added once the chicken was well seared. I cooked long enough to reduce the mix down. I’m in Australia and had a curry butter mixed powder but also added the turmeric and also used whole cumin seeds which I crushed with a pestle. Great flavour balance with thus recipe
AEEDFA
This recipe was so easy and good. Made this last night. Marinated it 5 hours because I didn’t plan for it. Tasted delicious 👍 I want to make it again already
If I was to cook the chicken separately on the bbq will there be enough flavour and volume to the sauce? what can I do to make sure there is still a good sauce once I’ve cooked the chicken?
Thank you for the wonderful recipe! Going to give it a try .
Made this again tonight, as I have many times before. To make it vegetarian, I used to make it with paneer and cream (which was absolutely sensational!), but recently I have been trying to reduce dairy consumption. So I have successfully made it with coconut cream and chickpeas (and sometimes cauliflower and peas). It doesn’t taste quite as “indulgent” as when made with dairy cream, but it is still extremely delicious.
As most tins of coconut cream are 400ml rather than 250ml, I like to keep powdered coconut milk in the pantry so that I can mix up the correct amount myself. But tonight I used a 400ml tin of coconut cream and 400ml of passata and increased the spices accordingly – extra sauce is not a bad thing! To go with the extra sauce tonight, I used two 400g tins of chickpeas, about half a cauliflower, and a couple of handfuls of baby spinach. I also had it with quinoa; I prefer white rice, but quinoa was a decent substitute!
I think I could also reduce the sauce down further and enjoy this on its own without any rice/quinoa. It would also be great just with vegies like cauliflower and broccoli, rather than chickpeas.
So basically, you made a completely different recipe. If people wanted a vegetarian butter chicken, they wouldnt be here.
Hi Jessica. I am sorry that my comment was not clear. As stated at the start, I have made this recipe many times before. If you would like to see my review of the chicken recipe (which I did not see a need to repeat in the current comment), please read my past comment, in which I say that it was sensational.
If you go back through all of the comments, you might be surprised to find that many people do ask how the recipe can be made vegetarian or vegan. This was my attempt to help such people by sharing my experience. Nagi’s recipe is so fantastic that it would be a shame if vegetarians or vegans missed out on tasting the flavours simply because they did not feel that they were allowed to ask for and receive advice in the comments.
Based on Nagi’s responses to other commenters, she has not seemed bothered when others have described how they have adapted the recipe to their needs and tastes or to the ingredients they have on hand. Additionally, she is known for innovating in her recipes and for providing options for people to choose from. Therefore, I did not think my comment would be out of place.
I figured that the purists would already be suitably catered for by Nagi’s excellent recipe, and that they would therefore simply scroll by any comment that referenced dietary restrictions that did not apply to them.
I hope you enjoyed this butter chicken recipe.