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 is a Chef recipe that makes the most incredible curry sauce.
The chicken is incredibly tender and injected with flavour from a yogurt marinade, and the Butter Chicken sauce is so ridiculously delicious, you’ll want it on tap!
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
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Make Butter Chicken Marinade and marinate chicken for 3+ hours (overnight is best)
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Cook chicken
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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?
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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. 😂
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Samosas! The ultimate Indian appetiser. Leftovers make great snacks or even lunch!
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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!)
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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!!
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:
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Indian Tomato Salad – with a refreshing minted yogurt dressing;
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Cucumber salad with lemon yogurt dressing – another great refreshing salad that goes perfectly with curries;
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Just some sliced cucumber and wedges of tomato – not dressed. Nice cool, refreshing side
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South Indian Thoran-style Cabbage and Carrot Salad with Coconut is fresh, crunchy and shot through with gentle spices and coconut!
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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
Butter Chicken Recipe
Watch How To Make It
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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
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Chicken Tikka Masala – kind of like Butter Chicken on steroids!
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Palak Paneer – Indian cottage cheese and spinach curry
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Rogan Josh – fall apart lamb in a rich creamy sauce!
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Dal – the highest and best use of lentils, ever. Period.
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Biryani – the world’s best Chicken & Rice. Full stop!
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Qeema: Curried Ground Beef (Mince) – the fastest way ever to get a real Indian curry fix
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Curry lovers, head here -> Curry Collection
Life of Dozer
Flashback: Dozer’s first time in water. Look at those wild eyes!!! 😂 Fear? Excitement??
Absolutely delicious and very easy to make. Personally I like a thick textured butter chicken sauce so I simply added some corn flour and that just did it for me! Thank you for the wonderful recipe! The videos are very helpful too.
Hi Nagi, made this recipie many times and luuvvvv it…. jus wondering if you have any tips on how it could be done in a slow cooker? thanks!!!
I never write reviews but this is such an easy and tasty recipe, how could I not?! I’ve just finished eating the 3rd rendition of this and added in hald a small cauliflower and a punnet of cherry tomatoes and just upped the sauce mixed ever so slightly (think heavy handed with measurements) and was still so good! Thanks Nagi!
Great butter chicken. Easy to follow the instruction. Tasty. Only, my sauce was a bit curdled. Maybe the heat was too high?
Hi Yumiko, sounds like is was a little too high, if the sauce boils, the cream will split. You can rescue it by making a cornflour slurry with 2 tsp cornflour and 2 tablespoon of water, mix to combine then stir through the sauce 🙂 N x
It started out as butter chicken but I didn’t read the recipe properly and added a whole can of crushed tomatoes (400g) it tasted like nice rich tomato soup. I tried to spice it up with chilli sauces (Nandos hot and Sriracha). To cut a long story short, it was still really delicious we had it over spaghetti and everyone went back for seconds, I will try the butter chicken recipe another time. Nagi your recipes are amazing, keep them coming!
I loved it, butter chicken. But my family was blase. oh well cant please them allll!
More for you then Jill 😉 N x
I just love every recipe I have tried, and I cooking does not come easy for me! Thank you!
I just realized after marinating my butter chicken for almost 24 hours, that I do not have heavy cream. Should I use half & Half or coconut milk? I also have evaporated milk…
Many years ago my new years resolution was to make traditional butter chicken from scratch – it took ages and really just wasn’t worth the effort. This recipe is significantly less effort, and 1000 times tastier. Thanks for the awesome recipe!
Made this last night was a huge hit, even with my son who so called hates curry!! 😜 loved how easy it was to make and after marinating was on the table super quick. Thanks you xx
Have made your butter chicken recipe several times. Family loves it. Thank you for sharing your thorough recipes. Such a delight to see your ideas!
Why have I ever bought pre-prepared sauce? This is so easy and absolutely delicious , plus I have all the ingredients in my kitchen. My new fave recipe-thanks!! Now to try the flat b readrecipe……
And sooooo much better than anything in a packet!
Why have I ever bought pre-prepared sauce? This is so easy and absolutely delicious , plus I have all the ingredients in my kitchen. My new fave recipe-thanks!! Now to try the naan recipe……
Hi Nagi.
We have been making this curry now for a few months, it never disappoints. I want to make this for family, but one is a veggie… What can I sub in place of the chicken? Would quorn work? Or anything better you can recommend? Would I have to make any amendments? I think I’d do her just a little veggie batch and cook chicken for us meat eaters?. Thanks for your fab recipes! I also would like to ask if you have a good onion ring recipe? 😋
Hi Carys, sorry I haven’t tried a vegetarian option here! I don’t have a recipe for onion rings but pop a request on my recipe request page – I feel this needs to go on the list! N x
FOR A VEGGIE OPTION I LIKE TO ADD PANEER ( IT’S LIKE A CHEESE THAT DOESN’T MELT)THAT HAS BEEN CUBED. IT TASTES GREAT AND IS VERY RICH.
for my vege option I just add chickpeas to the sauce instead of the chicken. Tastes delicious!
Thanks for the veggie ideas ladies! Much appreciated.
Such a great recipe, thank you! I only had time to marinate for 1.5 hours and added small chunks of pumpkin (that ‘melt’ into the sauce) along with carrot. I also added the extra marinade once the other wet ingredients were added (didn’t want the flavour going to waste!). Despite being short on time and my rouge method, this turned out beautifully. I served with your naan (delicious), turmeric rice and shredded baby spinach. Thank you!
Hi Nagi, I was so excited to cook your butter chicken as we love eating butter chicken. I normally use store jar ones. From now on will be using this recipe as my family enjoyed it so much except for my grandkids as it was a touch spicy for them. I made with cheese & garlic naan bread. Definitely a keeper for us. Thank you for another fantastic meal. Never buying store jar ones again.
This was the best marinade I EVER made. I added some spicy ketchup and it gave it the best flavour, added less sugar also. I could eat this FOREVER. I knew Nagi was an excellent cook since I tried the lentil soup recipe, but this completely blew me away. Everyone in my family loved it, I don’t cook very often so this was a shock for everyone how good it tasted. Please try this!! Nagi is the ONLY person I trust from now on with recipes, everything is so good.
Can I substitute coconut cream for the cream due to dairy intolerance?
Hi Linda, sure can! N x
This was so delicious. My son said it was better than the Butter Chicken he had in our local Indian restaurant. Made it with cauliflower rice for extra veg. I will definitely be making this again.
I’m so glad it was a hit Ann! N x
Ah-maze-ing! So good and so easy. I cut up the chicken and marinaded it overnight. My husband went back for 3rds! 😁 thank you, looking forward to trying your other recipes!
Curious as to why you dont use the Marinade in the recipe, lot of nice stuff in there, shame to waste it ?
Good point. I did also wonder this but looked at the video. If you look at the video the left-over marinade is returned to the pan after all other ingredients are used.
Awesome recipe! I used ‘American’ tomato sauce instead of passata and it turned out great. Thanks for the recipe 🙂