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!!
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
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??
Thanks again Nagi. This was perfect meal for a cold Sydney evening. Best of all most of the work done in the morning. Was a breeze to finish cook after work. Made the flat breads too. Highly recommend. Will never get take out butter chicken again 😜✅
Woot! That’s great to hear Helena!
Hi Nagi, this looks fab. Can I replace the cup of cream with plain or greek yoghurt? x
Hi Jill, you could, it may alter the flavour a little but will still be delicious!
Nagi, you’ve nailed it again! I had a left over BBQ chicken so I broke it up and popped it in the Greek yoghurt for 10 mins with some salt and pepper. I fried the spices with some onion and butter, then made a sauce and put the chicken and yoghurt in to warm through. Served with Basmati, Coriander and home made tzatziki and cooked some frozen roti paratha in the pan.. WINNER! Thanks so much xx
Sounds like you nailed it Angela!!
Can I cook the chicken in the oven at 200 Degrees instead of pan frying it? I am doing a huge batch and trying to avoid pan frying 3kgs of chicken 🙂 thanks
Hi Anam, I’d cook under a grill so you get the beautiful colour on it, enjoy! – N x
AMAZING!!!!!!!!
Thanks Charlie!
By far the best and easiest butter chicken recipe I have ever come across! This has become a family favourite and the kids keep begging me to cook it over and over again. I’m still in awe of how authentic it tastes!!! I used only a pinch of chill power the second time around for the kids to keep it mild and it was still perfect. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe.
That’s great Annie!
So easy, so incredibly good! Fed 2 adults well but with the 4 pieces of naan made (also incredible), lunch the next day was bread and curry sauce. No changes to recipe but will say coriander really made it fresh.
I’m so happy you enjoyed it!
Hello, just wondering if this could be cooked in the slow cooker and if so how?
Yes, I’d also love to know!
I’d like to know too!
I’m about to start cooking, but I forgot to add the lemon juice, will this make a difference?
Hi Darren, it should be fine. I hope you enjoy it!
Another delicious recipe!! Absolutely loved it!
Great to hear Lauren – Thanks for letting me know – N x
You’ve done it again! Another restaurant classic perfected at home. I can’t go out to eat anymore. The whole family loved it. I have made it twice, once using ghee and once using butter. The ghee definitely made it more restaurant like but both versions were delicious. Thanks so much for your amazing website and recipes.
That’s great Frank! Thanks for letting me know what you think!- N x
loved this recipe! I just added a little hot sauce to my own bowl to up the flavor and heat
Thanks so much for letting me know Elissa, you could definitely add chilli if you prefer it spicy ☺️
How could you make this recipe dairy free?
replace the cream with coconut milk. I do it all the time and its delicious!
This sauce is just delicious, I’d happily eat it with a spoon. It’s shockingly easy to make, too. Tried it once with chicken, and a second time with paneer instead. Both worked fabulously, thanks for the recipe!
I could drink it on tap – I love it that much 😂
Second time making this. My family just loves it. Thank you for the delicious and easy recipe.
I’m so glad it’s a hit Karen!
This is the best butter chicken recipe that I’ve tried (and I’ve tried quite a few). Thanks very much.
Woah, awesome Kate!
I love this recipe! I hadn’t planened ahead the second time I made this and didn’t want to wait for the chicken to marinade, so I mixed all of the marinade and curry ingredients together to use as the sauce for the meal. It’s amazing!! I always do this now – just cook the chicken and throw everything together (I use tomato soup instead of the pureé because that’s what I have on hand) and then put over rice! SO GOOD
Sounds great Alyssa!
I have made this on two different occasions. This is a phenomenal recipe and is now my husband’s and my favorite Indian dish! I think it came out even better the second time I made it, if that’s possible, because I let it marinade for two days since I wasn’t able to cook it on the day that I had intended to. This dish is so full of flavor, and has a tremendous amount of delicious sauce for the rice and Naan to soak up. Because there is so much sauce, the next time I make it, I am going to add another half pound of chicken so we will have even more leftovers! Thank you Nagi for this wonderful recipe!
Hi Lisa, I’m so glad you loved it, I always like extra sauce for mopping up because is there such a thing as too much sauce??? 😂
So true! You can’t have enough sauce!
Hi just curious been trying to read it multiple times because butter is part of the ingredients but in the directions i can’t seem to find where you’ve included them in the recipe( as in when do you add the butter in ? At the end? Thank you
Hi Gil, it’s in the directions point 3 – you can use Ghee or butter. (ghee is just clarified butter anyway) – N x
delicious thank you! I used tomato paste. its all i had. and was fine. You covered all the bases too with bread and salads and different serving options!
Wahoo I’m so glad it worked for you!