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??
Really good recipe. Add some fenugreek at the end instead of coriander, perfect.
are you saying to add the remaining marinade and only simmering and not bringing to a boil? I am not clear on this and any marinade that had raw meat in it must be brought back to a boil to kill pathogens.
You’re over thinking things.
Boiling temperature must be 100 Celcius right? Active boiling with bubble bubbles everywhere will split the cream for a 20 min boil. I just do a medium to low simmer 20 minutes. Chicken pieces- and it is pieces and not massive whole thighs- will be done in 20 minutes. You wouldn’t get raw chicken. Or undercooked chicken that causes gastro.
I made this tonight. So delicious! Thanks. Everyone loved it. A definite repeat!
I love this recipe and have made it several times but I really feel like it shouldn’t say to cook the marinated chicken over high heat because the splits the yoghurt in the marinade. It works much better when I cook the chicken over a lower heat for a longer time.
Can I use coconut cream in the butter chicken recipe instead of heavy cream?
Delicious!! I’ve made this several times and it never disappoints. Even when I don’t have time to marinate the chicken for more than an hour, adding the remaining marinade during cooking and with the strong flavors in the marinade you can’t really tell if the chicken itself is ‘underseasoned’ or ‘undermarinated’
I like to simmer the sauce for a bit longer, as I like it to be super thick, so I usually end up simmering for around 30 minutes, which lines up perfectly with cooking basmati rice in my rice cooker 🙂
I also like to add a few handfuls (maybe 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup?) of frozen green peas in the last 5-ish minutes of simmering. My local takeout place adds peas to their butter chicken and it adds a nice pop of flavor along with adding some veggies to such a rich and comforting meal!! Definitely worth trying if you’re making this absolute winner of a dish for the second, third, or twelfth time 🙂
I tried your butter chicken recipe, as written, and it turned out great! Definitely adding to my dinner rotation.
This was the most simple to cook and tasty to eat butter chicken I’ve ever had. 10 out of 10!
Nagi, this is a great recipe and it is in my top #3. I have modified, replacing cream with oat milk, and yoghurt for lactose free natural Greek Yoghurt. Works just as well but better for my gut health! Thanks you are a legend. S
Making this tonight for our daughter and son in law who welcomed their first baby last month! I use this on a regular basis and it’s so easy to put together and then simmer while doing other things. We love it!
Massive hit – so easy and super tasty. I’ve made twice now, once with coconut milk and again with thickened cream – both were amazing! Didn;t have passata – just used diluted tomato paste. Worked a treat!
I was skeptical this wouldn’t taste like butter chicken you buy at Indian restaurant but it’s just as good and so much easier than I expected! My partner and I love it!
Some recipes include ground cashews. Has anyone tried this, and what impact does it have on the flavour ?
Can this be done in the slow cooker??
Could this be done in a slow cooker?! Has anyone attempted this and if so how long for?
Oh wow this turned out so good 👍 I used about 1.5kg of chicken and adjusted the spices and it turned out so well.
I love this recipe so much! Sometimes I make it just as written, and the sauce is so yummy I sometimes double it to use as more of a curry with tofu/veggies by just adding all the marinade ingredients to the sauce. Have used green beans, red pepper, spinach. Cannot go wrong!
Rarely attempt curries due to the long list of ingredients but gave this one a go and was really happy with it. I cheated with jar garlic & ginger and I only marinated for 1.5hours 🙊 also used light cream. And it was still delicious! I wouldn’t usually stray from Nagi’s recipes but I promise to make it again properly and imagine it will be even better. Ps 1/2 tsp chilli powder actually packed a punch
Nagi, thank you for all your wonderful recipes. The option to change the number of portions is invaluable.
Anyway my question is, when you say add pepper it generally means black pepper doesn’t it? Being a fan of white pepper I sometimes add that too 😁
In sauce, switched cream for coconut milk (small tin), and added 5 cardamon pods.
Tinned tomatoes whole and just roughly broke them up.
Garlic and ginger combined jar, used 3 teaspoons, as didn’t have fresh.
Seriously delightful.