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”!
Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.
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??
If you are looking for an introductory curry for kids, this is it! My 9 & 10 year olds loved it and hubby was blown away by the flavours. No leftovers this time but this recipe will be added to our favourites for sure.
1 of 5 dishes I made for family birthday last night. Huge hit with everyone including husband who apparently doesn’t like butter chicken, I just called this Nagi Chicken, he had 2 serves!!!
Hi, can I substitute lemon juice with vinegar?
AIR FRYER GAME CHANGER….Love love love this recipe. Have made quite a few times now…. I always use 1kg (2.2 lbs) of chicken and keep the rest of the recipe pretty much the same as published above…with a few increases of spice or salt etc as needed. There’s so much curry sauce anyway you don’t need to increase what’s written. The game changer for me is I now cook the chicken in 2 batches in the air fryer and grill on both sides…much more flavour from the browned chicken… I then add the juices from the bottom of the air fryer and the grilled bits remaining in the air fryer….super yummy. Takes a tiny bit more time but so worth it!!
This was very delicious but we found it very salty (might just be our taste buds though as we don’t add salt to many things!). Will hold off on the additional salt in the future but the spice mix is perfect!
Most definitely will be adding this to our rotation. My family of five thoroughly enjoyed this dish….as we have all the recipe tin eats recipes. Feeling thankful for stumbling upon the Facebook page during the dreaded “lock down.”
I usually don’t have plain yogurt but I always have full fat sour cream, so I use that as my marinade base. I aways broil the chicken before sauteeing–I like the extra layer of ‘brown’ flavourful. Otherwise delightful. I have made this many times and it’s always a hit.
Hi Nagi
I made butter chicken & after mixing all ingredients the sauce split. I’m wondering if the lemon juice has a reaction with the dairy of the cream?any ideas?I did my wife a dairy free version & it was fine
Thanks
Your recipes never cease to amaze me. Another winner❤
I follow your recipes daily. You are just so creative and whenever I make them it always comes out right. I couldn’t wait to try your Butter Chicken recipe one of my favorite Indian recipes. I made it for dinner anc it was SOOO good.
Made this butter chicken for the fam and it was absolutely positively delicious! It was a win by all including the kids which truly makes me feel like a chef haha! Love your recipes! Keep them coming!
Delicious! We replaced the cream with coconut milk (just because we had it) and it worked really too. Not sure whether it’s better or worse health wise.
My teenage daughter found your recipe and asked if she could make it. It was absolutely delicious and probably the best home made Butter Chicken I’ve had. This will definitely be on repeat in our home
Great flavour but a bit too spicy for us! Will halve the chilly powder next time and maybe the garam masala? Very easy recipe to make.
Haiii Yaaaa why you like this? Why you scare spicy? White people hate flavour haii yaa just eat chilly it good for you
using the word White isn’t racist? White is a racial construct term used to describe the Caucasian population in the scientific community and general public sphere. BTW totally valid to either hate spice or to love spice Lol (I love spice and I’m white)
😅 yeah we are all made different. I don’t refer to myself as a white …..I don’t like racism. But thanks for your opinion🤗 let’s keep this forum food orientated.
Can this meal be frozen?
I’m after dishes that can be frozen as my partner and I are shift workers. Any suggestions welcomed
this is a great dish for freezing! I have done so 50+times. Just reheat gently so as not to have too much separation of the cream.
I made a double batch and froze some single servings in freezer ziplock bags.
I had one a few days ago and it was perfect.
I’ve been making this for over 3 years now but I’d love to see it adapted for the slow cooker please 🙏 I’ve tried throwing everything into the slow cooker after browning off the marinated chicken but it just doesn’t thicken up as well as it does on the stove top 🙄
Could you add a cornstarch/cornflour slurry or turn up heat and let simmer with cover off before serving? In my experience, this is usually the instructions for thickening recipes in slow cookers that have been converted from stovetop.
Hi I’ve found that everything I do in the slow cooker ends up with too much liquid. I just strain the liquid into a saucepan and boil to reduce
I am not sure that Indian is suited to the slow cooker. Curries are usually about high heat and mise en place. The spices would not get cooked at a high enough heat in the slow cooker. Enjoy other braises this way but not curries. Best!
Yum! Great recipe. Added some dried fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi) to the final simmer. Next time will add some puréed spinach for a saag
I know this is hard to believe, but I’m in my late fifties and have never eaten Butter Chicken.
I love Nagi’s recipes and thought I’d give it a try. HOLY MOLY this recipe is so freaking good!! I made it exactly as written and it’s perfect.
Thank you Nagi for expanding my world ❤️
That’s awesome!
Such an easy but delicious recipe!
Hi Nagi, Thought you’d like this comment from my daughter on our family chat page…
“Community Service announcement!!! Make the butter chicken and naan bread in Recipetineats cookbook now! It’s so delicious we ate it all up without taking a picture!” I think they liked it 😉 😊