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??
I had never ate a lot of butter chicken before, now I eat it all the time lol! I make this for all my company and always get complimented on it. It is easy and fast to prepare and tastes like a five star meal! I have always made Nagi’s Flatbread along with it, which also gets a lot of compliments! Thanks so much Nagi for making me look like I know what I am doing in the kitchen xx
AMAZING recipe! Only had 25 minutes to turn a leftover roast chicken into something interesting, so I turned to this recipe. Not gonna lie — I didn’t have time to marinade, so I just added it to the sauce and it was DELICIOUS! Thank you so much for spicing up tonight’s dinner!
I have made this several times. Super easy for something soooo tasty. Thankyou!
Can this be made ahead and reheated? How’s the best way to reheat? I would love to be able to reheat in low oven if possible in serving dish with lid on so that I can simply put straight on the table. Has anyone tried this?
Great taste to effort ratio, just need to remember to marinate the chicken. I paired it with the No Yeast Flatbread which was sooo easy to make and I never work with dough. Spread some salted butter on it and it was the best quick alternative to a store-bought naan. Toddler ate it up.
I used 5% greek yogurt (do I need to use 10% for even creamier next time?) and omitted the chilli/cayenne as I didn’t have it and didn’t want it to be spicy anyway. Forgot the garlic in the marinade. Still very flavorful.
The amount of ginger made it a tad spicy and I was worried my toddler wouldn’t like it but he ended up asking for more! I used organic ginger, which I find is more intense than non-organic. Still, I’ll use 3/4 the amount next time.
Partner said “it wasn’t like the restaurants” – meaning it’s not as creamy and too gingery for his tastes. I agree, but still a great, easy recipe.
What will happen if you let it marinate for like 30 hours? Our dinner plans have changed, now I’m concerned.
Great recipe, I’ve made it tonight and my family loves it so much, even my daughter who is not fun of spicy food. Definitely going to make it again very soon. Thank you ☺️
Help ! Tasted delicious but my sauce curdled and did not look very appealing… what did I do wrong ?!
Cause of the lemon juice! Whyyy is there lemon juice in this recipe!????
Mine did as well, I would love to learn how to prevent it from happening!
Lemon juice, cream, and high heat are a dangerous combination that can result in curdling. Either replace the lemon juice with a generous teaspoon of cornstarch or make sure the temp is low and remains low before adding lemon juice.
I’ve unexpectedly had to freeze a 16 serve portion of this butter chicken recipe. Is there anything I can do when reheating to stop the cream separating? Otherwise, it’s an absolutely delicious recipe! We make large servings often for picnics and family events!
And once again I received high praise for my cooking from hubby. Husband’s first time for butter chicken and no doubt it won’t be the last. Thank you so much for another amazing recipe and making me look good.
I have been making this recipe on repeat for the past year. Today I decided to make your naan recipe to pair the dish with instead of rice. Wow! It’s officially my favorite meal! Everyone at our house LOVED it!
I decided not to blend the marinade this time and, I agree with you, it’s not necessary. (Cheers to one less step!). There’s nothing not to like about this recipe. It’s easy, quick and full of flavour. Thank you, Nagi!
Ordered Passata on line and it came as the kind “With Basil.” will this work with these flavors, or should I return it?
Just made this tonight for the first time- absolutely delicious!
Hey Nagi,
I love your recipes!
One tiny request… Could you please add marinating time to the info at the top of the recipe?? I am constantly being caught out thinking something will be quick and easy only to get to the instructions a half hour before meal time to find that I needed an extra several hours to a day prep time 😖 Somehow I never learn 😞😒
Much love to Dozer x
Cooked this for dinner tonight and it was beyond delicious, everyone loved it. Used chicken breast instead of thigh and was only able to marinated for about 1.5hrs, but the chicken was still so tender. We served it with the Naan, which was also delicious. Will definitely make this meal again.
A massive favourite in this household. I am allergic to paprika so it was a great find this recipe. I have two sons and cooked this because I was ahem slightly hung over after the Christmas work party. Let’s just say I now cook 2 kilos of this because my boys loved this so much they forgot to leave some for their mother 🥰
Delicious, both myself and my brother enjoyed this recipe, will definitely make it again 💖
I was very surprised that the curry sauce didn’t include any seasonings. I gave it a shot thinking that maybe the residual marinade on the chicken would season the sauce but it didn’t at all. It just tasted like tomato soup to be honest. .As my family is used to a much more authentic tasting dish, I decided to try to save it by adding the same ratio of seasonings that go in the marinade to the curry. This was a major improvement! Over the few times I’ve have made it, I tinkered with the amounts of seasoning to suit our taste best. So I use this as the base recipe but adapt it to our liking
This was amazing.
Also added a teaspoon of tomato paste and a little more of each marinade spice. I think gaver is key (easy to make with normal butter) and i added a few tablespoons of cold butter at the end when it was done simmering (do this!).
Agree! I found the flavour bland and found it needed an extra hit of the spices in the sauce. I also pulverised a medium onion (cooked that down), added Jaggery instead of sugar, along with about 200g finely crushed cashews.
what is GAVER that you mention in your comment?
I’ve commented on this recipe before, but it’s worth a second YUM! Made it again tonight (having marinated chicken for 24 hrs) and it’s so utterly delicious. I do use coconut milk instead of cream as it gives it an extra layer of flavour, but apart from that follow recipe exactly. Topped with toasted flaked almonds and coriander, plus an extra dollop of plain yoghurt, it’s out of this world. Love how rich and orange the sauce ends up x
Pretty sure that I’ve commented on this recipe before, but it’s worth a second YUM! Made it again tonight (having marinated chicken for 24 hrs) and it’s so utterly delicious. I do use coconut milk instead of cream as it gives it an extra layer of flavour, but apart from that follow recipe exactly. Topped with toasted flaked almonds and coriander, plus an extra dollop of plain yoghurt, it’s out of this world. Love how rich and orange the sauce ends up x
Yum! I used chicken breast instead of thigh, which worked well. I also simmered the sauce for an extra 15 minutes because mine looked a bit thin. Will make again.
I am watching my 8yo niece for the week, and she was missing her mom. I asked what her favorite meal was, and she said her mom made Butter Chicken and it was so good. I searched for recipes and chose this one – honestly because I had 95% of the ingredients on hand. She said it was JUST LIKE MOM’S, and my 9yo daughter LOVED it too. I’ll be adding this to our regular rotation as I think my steps will love it too!
What a lovely comment!
Our three year old granddaughter actually likes spicy food – the 20 month old eats everything- and I will give her this soon.
Making it tonight, again, love it.