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??
hi Nagi
Having made butter chicken many times- from scratch and with ready made sauce , I must say that your simple recipe is the best ever. Thank you ‘!
Another tasty recipe to add to our rotation. Very easy to put together with detailed instructions!!
I love your recipes and the detail you go into . I tell everyone who is interested in cooking to go to your web site . Thank you
Hi, I cook this all the time and its a family fave. Just planning to make it over chrissy break and trying to get ahead start. Can I freeze the marinated chicken, ready to whip out on the day?
best butter chicken & really easy to make once the marinade is done,I make it often as it’s the best I’ve ever had.Thanks Nagi x
Hi
Can anyone please tell me if there should be onion in this recipe, all the other recipes call for onion. I’m just wondering if I can include an onion in this recipe, and at which step. Can anyone please help. Thanks.
Nagi I’m a long time fan and frequent flyer on the recipetineats website ! I’ve made this dish many a time now and it always leaves me craving more – tonight was one of those nights but since I had literally no meat options on hand I decided to try it with a can of chickpeas…why not right?!?! Turned out perfect 🙂
How do I stop the sauce appearing to be curdled ?
A lovely recipe I just can’t get the sauce to look as appetitsing as it is to eat
No expert … but maybe hold off on the cream and do a very gentle simmer. A nov of butter at end may help too …
Many thanks I will give that a go as it’s a lovely recipe
I mean hold off putting cream in until the end if possible
This dish was a show-stopper with company last night. Thanks for sharing!
We had this today for dinner and it was amazing!! My 9-year old daughter also loved it. The chicken was so tender and full of flavour.. thanks for the recipe!! Greetings form Belgium 🙂
Absolutely delish, my 15 year said it was the best butter chicken ever. Served with your no yeast flatbreads and raita made with Greek yoghurt, a grated cucumber (well squeezed), a bit of salt and lime juice, and lots of chopped mint. Would be good for an easy dinner party as a little goes a long way.
Absolutely delicious! And genuinely easy!
Hi Nagi!! Ive been cooking your recipe for many times by far the best butter chicken i ate!! Also family and friends love it!!
Hey Nagi! You are my go to for “what’s for dinner!” I wanted to make this tonight for dinner. Is the 24hr marinade essential?
Hi Nagi. I’m from the UK and most of your recipes have the metric measurements but this one doesn’t. I take it you always use Australian cup measurements and not American? I’m making this over the weekend and your carrot cake (best ever) x
In this recipe, Siobhan, it doesn’t matter if you use American cups or Australian. The metric is there on the chicken if you need it. The difference in cups comes into play more in baking, particularly cookies. N x
Thanks for your reply 🙂 Slightly starstruck haha! Okay so for future reference then, for your baking recipes if you don’t have the metric measurements, shall I convert to Aussy measurements? I use your recipes weekly, forgot to mention I am also making your mac and cheese this week too! In a couple of months I’m opening a Coffeehouse locally and will be using many of your recipes for my menu 🙂 x
I almost always have the metric option on baking recipes – I test them a lot to be sure they work both as weights and cups! Weight is always the more accurate way to bake!! And good luck with the coffeeshop! N x
Hi – once marinated could you put in a slow cooker?
Could you use coconut milk instead of the cream in this?
Not sure how helpful this is a month after you asked, but I have made this recipe many times and it is super delicious as written… However, I have used canned coconut milk in place of cream several times when I’m out of cream, and it still tastes super delicious.
I haven’t tried that Dee, sorry! N x
Hi Nagi,
We live in Regional Australia and you know there are no restaurants. We missed our usual butter chicken and naan bread. I made this and I cried tears on how good it came out. I will never walk into a restaurant for butter chicken ever again. You are truly a gift in my kitchen. Thank you.
I am so glad you enjoyed it!! N x
Another hit from recipetineats for my family. This was announced as “almost as good as your korma mum” (not in anyway authentic but closest to a British Korma).
This recipe is the BEST!!!!! Sooo delicious and easy! Marinate the chicken – I promise you won’t regret it! Delicious as always, Nagi! You’re an absolute superstar!