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??
Could I double the recipe as is to feed more people? Or would some ingredients stay the same etc.?
I double it often. I only use 1 tin of pasata and 1 1/2 cups cream when I double the recipe and 1 1/2 tsp salt 🌸
If you’re doubling the chicken weight you’d definitely need to bump up the marinade ingredients, but I’d start with 1 and 1/2 times and then add as necessary. (If you do have to add more spice, make sure you fry it lightly in some extra ghee before adding to the liquid in your pan)
Adding watermelon in this makes it very nice. I tried it as well but I deep fried the chicken and it came out great!! 5 stars!!!
Very yummy. As a Indian me self. Butter Chicken is not a curry which is berry berry obbensive to my culture.
Love this dish so much, it’s a regular request among my x3 kiddos!
Quick question, is this freezable for leftovers?
How many does this recipe serve?
Beautiful ❤️🍛 thank you! I grew up eating Punjabi food and would definitely recommend spinach & potato curry (saag aloo) as a really nice vegetarian side or a really herb and cucumber loaded raita!
Is there a way to make this with a slow cooker??
Yes you can! As a very experienced indian I have some tips and tricks. You should slow cook the chicken fpour approx 4 hours then simmer in the sauce and dont forget your creamy cream for extra tastiness.
I’m going to try this in the slow cooker today! My plan is to brown the chicken then put it in the slow cooker for 2 hours while I take the kids to swimming.
How do you stop the marinade from splitting when first popped in the high heat pan, it’s going all grainy?
Very happy with this dish, the spice was perfect! Cooked the papadums in the air fryer for 2 minutes @ 180c. This dish will go into our monthly rotation for sure – thank you Nagi
Do you think you can put this recipe in the slow cooker?
This recipe was amazing! I was blown away at the amount of flavour in this dish! It’s so easy to make too! Wow! Thank you so much!
I only had time to marinade the chicken just over 2 hours but it was still amazingly flavourful and beautifully tender. Definitely will try marinading for 24 hours in advance next time too!
I used only 600g of chicken thighs (as that’s how it’s sold in the UK in most supermarkets. Would be awkward to have to buy more just for 750g) but I didn’t change any of the ingredient amounts at all and it still worked out amazingly.
The chicken releases quite a lot of liquid when frying so make sure not to overcrowd and use a a big pan! I was was worried that the sauce was a bit too liquidy but after simmering for 20 minutes (occasionally stirring) and just letting it sit there for a little bit – the sauce became much more saucy in consistency and still packed full of flavour!
Again thank you so much! Highly recommend to everyone!
Still one of my favourite recipes. Everyone loves it!
Made this a couple of times now and although the taste is amazing, both times when I fry the chicken in the marinade it splits/curdles and looks awful. Any ideas where I’m going wrong? I use full fat yoghurt.
Oh my lord, I’ve tried multiple butter chicken recipes before and I’ve finally found one that tastes like the restaurants do!! Thanks Nagi! Accidentally let the chicken marinate for nearly 48 hours, but it certainly hasn’t hurt!
Without a doubt this is my families favourite dish from all of your fantastic recipes. It is so full of flavour, you literally can’t stop eating it! Very easy to make and freezes really well. Your website is the first place I go to when I’m not sure what to cook for dinner. Thank you so much!
AMAZING! Took a chance based on all the great reviews and made this for the first time for guests. It was a huge hit. I cut back on the cayenne so that the 11-year-old would tolerate it, and it was perfect.
The only thing added was a some onion and green pepper fried up before adding the chicken for frying.
This is going into my dinner planning rotation for sure!
Delicious recipe!
Has anyone made a double batch and frozen half? Wondering how it defrosts?? Just trying to get ahead with bulk cooking….
omg it’s so delicious!! really make a difference with some cilantro/coriander at the end. i did add less sugar and salt. i also stirred in 1 tsp of kasuri methi and sprinkle of garam masala at the end. i used passata the first time. the second time i used a can of whole tomato and it works too but it’s less liquid n sauce will be thicker.
Fabulous recipe, couldn’t get enough of it! Just an FYI if people are wondering, I didn’t have tomato passata specifically so I used canned crushed tomatoes and it worked just great.