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 butter chicken I’ve ever tried. Thanks Nagi
Nagi, I make your recipes all the time. I actually read your blog between patients at work as morale improvement. This recipe was MIND BOGGLINGLY GOOD! My teenager had third servings. Both toddlers ate some! My husband wiped up the sauce with flatbread. I fiercely guarded the tiny pile of leftovers for my next day lunch. Thanks 🙂
I’ve made this with chicken thighs and a vegetarian version with Jack Fruit. Both delicious! We do cook it for a lot longer than suggested though, so the chicken is practically falling apart. It is amazing with the easy flat bread recipe too! Thanks!
Sounds great Bell, I’ve never tried with jackfruit before! N x
Hi Nagi, absolutely love your recipes. So clear, precise and beautifully presented on your site. My one concern is the use of cups (I’m used to grams and ml). How do I convert your recipe to weights that I understand? Also, this lovely recipe states 1.67 teaspoon – how precise is this? Thank you in advance.
There’s no standard answer. Cups and spoons are a VOLUME measurement. So it really depends on what you’re using. Like 1 cup of water is not the same weight as 1 cup of flour. You can google the basic ingredients writing something like “1 cup flour in grams” and it’ll convert it for you. There are probably websites with some ingredients conversions as well.
However I STRONGLY recommend you to buy a set of measurement cups and spoons online. I bought mine in AliExpress, later I even found them in a supermarket in my country. Hope this helps, good luck!
Fantastic recipe can’t wait to make it again.
Don’t substitute the ghee for butter the ghee is so much nicer and tastes better.
I let mine slow simmer for around 60 minutes, it incorporates all the ingredients, chicken practically falls apart.
We use this recipe with lamb shanks but if you use lamb shanks it’ll take about 5 hours on a slow simmer. We don’t use slow cookers as it’s a completely different taste than a stove top.
Fantastic, works every time recipe – this has become a regular in our house – a big thank you for posting it – it tastes DELICIOUS!
If you were making this recipe for someone else would they simply reheat in a pan over the stovetop or in the microwave?
Cooked this for my family and we all LOVED it. It’s easy to make and absolutely delicious. Thank you for sharing!
I made this and my Indian bf loves it!!! He can’t believe I can pull it off! Thanks to you, Nagi!
Hi Nagi,
My husband wants a smokey element, is there any way to incorporate this?
(By the way, I love this recipe!)
Hi Elizabeth, smokes paprika and a touch of liquid smoke will to the trick here 🙂 N x
今日わ！I cooked this recipe with your cucumber salad and flat bread for my mother in law and my husband.They love them!大好評でしたよ。I live in Canada I love your recipe.おおきにです。
Thanks so much Shinobu!! N x
I cooked this recipe for the first time tonight and it was a winner. It was super delicious and the sauce was silky smooth, better than what i had eaten in some Indian restaurants. Thanks, Nagi for sharing easy to cook but simply yummy recipes.
Hi Nagi.
I have tried a few of your recipes and they have turned out great, i am going to try this butter chicken tonight. Can I just ask how many mls of cream to use for this recipe (us europeans don’t use cups and I find a lot of the online converters give different answers)
Also do you have any print recipe books for sale that I can buy?
Thanks and keep us the amazing work 🙂
Hi Alan – you’ll need 250ml here (a little more or a little less wont make too much of a difference). I do have a recipe book on the cards – stay tuned! N x
This was the best curry ever
Wahoo, thanks Rochelle! N x
Thank you once again Nagi, The instructions were simple to follow and it turned out perfect. My daughter was all over it. Can you use tomato paste, for this dish.
So easy and so yummy! A big hit with all the family!
This was an absolute hit with even my fussiest eater. Nagi, you are to be commended as everything I’ve cooked from your website turns out exactly like the photos and tastes amazing! Followed this to the letter and the only thing my kids said was more sauce! So next time I’ll go 1.5 times the sauce. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Didn’t have yogurt.. used sour cream. Didn’t have passata.. used crushed tomatoes. Didn’t have cream.. used whole milk. This recipe STILL turned out incredible. Let’s just say.. my husband isn’t going anywhere 😂
That’s great to hear Tamara!! N x
I make this quite often and my family loves it!
As a side note, I’ve never marinated the chicken as I never plan ahead and have until now only used chicken breast meat and it’s still a 5/5 from me!
Perfect Mareli! N x
Hi Nagi! I only have chicken breast at the moment. Would it be okay to use it instead of the thigh? Do I need to make any adjustments to the other ingredients or method?
Hi Mila, i prefer thigh here as breast tends to dry out unfortunately. N x
I just made this with chicken breast using Nagi’s chicken velveting technique. It turned out absolutely amazing. The chicken breast withstood the cooking time for this!
This dish is so easy to make and is the first one that turned out exactly as it should the first time. It has changed my mind about Indian food and the spices. Everyone loved it and I will be making it again.
WOOT!!! N x