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??
Absolutely LOVED this recipe! Definitely going on the regular dinner rotation. Lots of praise from my hubby too xx
My cousin cooked this for us accompanied by coconut rice and my kids have given me 100/100 for making this! now this is our favourite butter chicken! thank you so much for sharing this amazing recipe!!!
Hi Nagi, some advice pls. I have cooked this dish twice and both times, the sauce is really thin. I’m using thickened cream and ghee. Should I simmer it for longer to reduce?
Tastes delish tho. Regards, Ann
This is, by far, the best butter chicken recipe. I have followed and used your recipes for years, and Nagi, you’re simply the best! We have picky eaters and all they ask for is your butter chicken, the lasagna, the Henry’s fried chicken, the spaghetti bolognese, the honey soy chicken, and simply anything from you! So thank you, thank you, thank you, for doing what you do! 💗
We have made this butter chicken recipe twice now. So simple to make and that taste! It is every bit as good as what we use to buy from our fave Indian restaurant. We live rural now so no restaurants close so I needed to find a great recipe – and yours is sensational. Thanks! I’m about to follow your stir fry beef recipe and fried rice. I love the simplicity and the great taste from your recipes. I’m not a good cook but your recipes make me look like a chef!
I sautéd some onions in butter and added a little extra spices. Tasted pretty good
Can I substitute the thickened cream with Coconut cream in the butter chicken recipe?
Thank you Kerri
I really like the method of marinating the chicken first. It makes the chicken tender and gives so much more flavour. I would use less cream (only 1/4 cup) next time, as the sauce was too pale, and needed extra passata to create the orange colour, and then I had to boil it down to reduce the volume of extra liquid. This recipe also needs black pepper – important to have black pepper to get the full benefits of turmeric 🙂
IMy family and I absolutely love this butter chicken it tastes like the one you can get in an Indian restaurant.
I make it milder by adjusting the quantity of Garam masala and cayenne pepper.
The BEST curry! My kids loved it. Big winner in my house. So much flavour but mild. Serve with delicious Naans and rice . Perfect!
Recipe sounded great until I got to the part of placing the marinade that the raw chicken sat in back into the pan. That is a major NO NO for food safety.
So delicious!! Better than any take-out I’ve ever had. Will definitely make it again and again.
I agree with you on this! I’ve made it twice and been disappointed both times. I reckon its missing onion as well as extra spice. Next time i will cook finely diced onion before adding the chicken plus more spices.
forgot the rating
Another amazing recipe, So easy to make and better than any other butter chicken I’ve had. Thank you Naji💋
I made this tonight and the flat bread too. Yum, so delicious, will definitely make this one again so easy to make, Was a winner with my guests
Thank you for this recipe! Turned out lovely. I added a little coconut flour to thicken it up a bit, and also some dried fenugreek towards the end.
AMAZING!! This is the easiest and yummiest butter chicken recipe and everyone eats it.
Wow! The flavor of this was spot on – rich, creamy, with a hint of spice (those who want more, add more cayenne). The sauce is plentiful so I think this could easily accommodate more protein than called for, but that just left more for us to sop up with Nagi’s amazing naan!
I have’nt actually cooked this yet but I just really want to know why you dont want us to use any of this marinade? the rest of the flavours added in later seem a little too plain? I also forget to buy a lemon today but plan to marinade the chicken tonight…