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??
Best home made butter chicken ever! Indian restaurant quality at a fraction of the price – and easy too!
Sorry – forgot to add 5stars!
Made this tonight and everybody loved it stated it was restaurant quality Thank you Nagi
Absolutely delicious and very easy to cook! Will be making this again for my family
The best recipe ever for butter chicken and so easy! Everyone who has eaten it has told me it’s the best they’ve had (other than a proper Indian restaurant). My go to recipe!
This was perfect! It was soooo good…better than I expected, and I expected it to be amazing! My husband told me “well, we’re officially never using a jar again”, and he’s right. This was so easy, and so delicious!
Hh
Loved this version as there were no ‘oil slicks’ that can occur when using store bought curry paste/sauce. I would like to know if I can cook this recipe in a slow cooker??? Thank you again.
This butter chicken is the business, easy to prep and full of flavour, have tried more complicated versions in the past
My family of food critics say, that’s another one off the take away list thanks to Nagi.
I love this recipe – I just wanted to know how long it can keep in the fridge, and if it can be frozen?
I make and freeze this all the time as I live alone. After thawing it in the fridge (& even not thawed), I simply reheat it in the microwave oven and it tastes as good as if it had just been made.
OMG, just made this for Father’s Day dinner & it was so deliciously amazing. The family were very impressed. All agreed that it tasted like restaurant quality. High praise indeed. I used lactose free yoghurt & Zymil’s lactose free cream as I have recently been diagnosed as lactose intolerant. No one in the family could tell or taste the difference so win win for me, yay😊 Thanks soooo much for creating such an amazing recipe & easy to follow instructions. Wishing everyone a wonderful day. Cheers Donna
Thanks for writing this Donna, I’ve been told I need to cut out gluten and dairy at the moment and I was hoping to substitute for lactose free yoghurt & zymil cream & now I will!!
Was so good! I forgot to get yoghurt so ended up using a tin of coconut cream and it worked really well!
Good to know!
I just want to know to do it
Another winner! This has been a fam. fave since you shared it with us! Super tasty, quick, minimal ingredients/cookware. Thank you once more….you’re making my time in the kitchen a little more enjoyable.
Very bland. There was spice on the chicken but none in the tomato puree mixture. Did I miss the part of the recipe where spice was added to the puree?
Use a good quality garam masala and kashmiri chilli powder. It will make a huge difference.
Did you add the remaining marinade from the bowl into the pan in Step 5?
The couple of tablespoons of the mixture left went in with the chicken. Not enough to spice it all up.
Kristen – I simmer the chicken in the sauces for longer than 20 mins – closer to an hour. I find that helps intensify the flavour and makes it a bit richer. You might also want to try a different brand of garam masala – I have found they can be quite different and really impacts the strength of flavour.
I second this! I simmered mine for about 45 minutes. Also wanna add that making sure you’re not opting out of any ingredients (sugar, salt, etc) is sooo important for the flavor!
i take it you did not add the marinade into the curry
Kristan, I’ve made this recipe but subbed in extra firm tofu in place of the chicken. Nothing else changes in the directions, and it’s still super delicious!!
How would you adapt this for vegetarians?
I just make it the same way, but instead of chicken I put lots of vegetables, like cauliflower, broccoli, carrot etc., and only add half the cream so it’s not too runny. it’s very yummy 🙂 just cook a little longer, to have the vegetables cooked to your desired texture.
Jo, I’ve made this recipe but subbed in extra firm tofu in place of the chicken. Nothing else changes in the directions, and it’s still super delicious!!
Jo, I’ve made this recipe but subbed in extra firm tofu in place of the chicken. Nothing else changes in the directions, and it’s still super delicious!!
Sorry my comment was meant for Jo but accidentally posted on Kristan’s
Use paneer pieces in place of chicken. Grill or fry the paneer pieces so they get a little colour before adding to the sauce.
You could probably substitute the chicken with paneer (Indian cheese)
Can I use rest tomatoes from my garden? Would I just put them in a food processor?
This is fantastic really tasty my husband loved it….. I added chilly paste as hubby likes it hot…. Had a real fab flavour…. Thank you
Fantastic and easy! Def will make again!
This was the best. Easy to make flavorful. Turned out Great!!
Thanks Nagi, the family loved this one. I will definitely be making this again!