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??
Making this tonight for our daughter and son in law who welcomed their first baby last month! I use this on a regular basis and it’s so easy to put together and then simmer while doing other things. We love it!
Could I double the recipe as is to feed more people? Or would some ingredients stay the same etc.?
If you’re doubling the chicken weight you’d definitely need to bump up the marinade ingredients, but I’d start with 1 and 1/2 times and then add as necessary. (If you do have to add more spice, make sure you fry it lightly in some extra ghee before adding to the liquid in your pan)
Is there a way to make this with a slow cooker??
Still one of my favourite recipes. Everyone loves it!
Easy to follow recipe that the whole family loved. I made the recipe without any chilli then added chilli flakes for the adults when serving. Served with coconut rice and was definitely a big tick from everyone.
Love this recipe! Made it for my girlfriends & they loved it!
Thankyou so much for this recipe Nagi. This and all of your recipes are amazing and taste so good. My only complaint is it’s hard to NOT eat too much.
The first time I made this it was fantastic. Easy! I was out of cream so used 2% milk, it’s what I had. The dish was still creamy and good from the marinade. I’m making it again tonight with the cream and I can’t wait to taste it.
Made this tonight after being fed up of crappy store bought spice packs. Great hit with me and my husband. He told me to make sure I thanked you. Will be trying more indian recipes from you. Thank you
I don’t understand why mine did not have that deep orangey colour when finished cooking?? It was an incipid pale pinkish? Can someone pleeeese advise?
I know this is an old comment, but thought I’d reply. When it first starts cooking it’s quite pale. As you let it simmer, the colour changes. Perhaps you didn’t let it simmer long enough?
In other recipes, sometimes they use red food colouring to get that classic butter chicken colour.
Cooked this wonderful recipe tonight – OMG how delicious was it!!! Definitely will cook it next time I have guests as it was sooooo easy and sooooo good!! Another amazing meal – thanks Nagi!!!!! xoxo
A family favourite weekly, husband can’t have cream so I take his out before adding cream and use Greek yoghurt instead.
OMG I made this last night with your naan and it was absolutely AMAZING!!! We don’t have any Indian restaurants near where we live and now I don’t care because this was as good if not better than any resturant butter chicken. Will be a recurring stable. So easy to make as well.
I came across this beauty of a recipe last month and have made it atleast 4 times since!
It’s become a weekly dinner in our household which the kids adore!
I often peel and Grate a Zuchini and chuck in sliced mushrooms if I have them.
THANK YOU!
I love anything where you can prep the majority before you actually start cooking, and this really hit the spot for me on a rare evening-in to myself. I substituted the chicken for paneer – prob in hindsight would have used around 400-450g of paneer as really what you want is to taste the delicious sauce, and I felt the ratio of sauce to paneer was a bit off (my fault). Used greek yoghurt as it was the only thing I had, Didn’t find that it jarred in terms of taste (couldn’t taste it). Fail-safe, tip top recipe that I can see being a winner with a big group as well as perfect for my chilled night-in. Thanks Nagi!
I have made this so many times that I thought I should rate it.
5 for sure, don’t bother buying it when i go out or any supermarket packets and jars. So good.
Best butter chicken recipe ever. Tastes as good as any Indian restaurant.
We cook the chicken then put under the grill to char before returning to the sauce.
Absolutely delicious. We also make enough to freeze and once thawed we heat in a wok gently. You would never know that it was frozen.
Thank you for this recipe. Your site is the best!
My friends very much liked this. I cooked for 100,253,537,843,937,814,925 many people they were all saying very good recipe.
Is it possible to freeze this when the chicken is in the marinade, rather than once it’s cooked?
I made this tonight and it was fantastic! My husband is lactose intolerant so I used unsweetened coconut cream. I also carmelized some onion and garlic before I put the chicken in. All the spices were perfect. Thank you!
This was the comment I was looking for, thank you!