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”!
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??
Best butter chicken recipe I have come across. I didn’t have time to marinate for 3 hours but it was still delicious. The easy no yeast flatbread was a close substitue for Naan and was also a hit.
I offered to cook this recipe for a friend who was given your recipe book for Xmas & hadn’t had a chance to look through it. She & her husband are foster carers & short on time. I really enjoyed the way the recipe was written & how I could modify to suit. The dish turned out wonderfully & made enough for leftovers for another night’s meal for 2.
So so easy and delicious!
My second time making this recipe. I am slowly building my recipe repertoire and Nagi’s recipes are key! This was so delicious I wanted to drink the sauce. I added red and green bell peppers to give it some vegetables and color; otherwise made exactly as written. Scrumptious!
SO tasty!! I loved being able to prep it the day before and just throw it all together in the pan the next day. My sauce was quite runny, should I simmer it longer to thicken it or add cornstarch? Otherwise we may just drink it 😂
I made your naan to go with it. My dough turned out a little dry, so will try with the bread flour next time and maybe add a little extra milk!
Can I freeze once cooked and cooled
Made this recipe tonight and it was so easy and so delicious! Everyone loved it
I never leave comments but I had to for this because it’s just the best recipe ever. I’ve made it a million times. Now it’s best to make it exactly according to the recipe, but I’ve skipped the marinating and it’s been delicious. Tonight I was out of garam masala and I substituted curry powder – still delicious. It’s just always a win!
Made this today using buttermilk, no yoghurt, no cream, just buttermilk.
So YUM!
Nice and easy. Full flavour. Definitely making it again.
I’ve tried a few butter chicken recipes, but this has got to be my favourite by far. Thank you.
I made this for the first time tonight & it was really nice. The kids ate it including seconds!
My only issue is that I used extra chicken & the correct amount of passata & cream but it was still very watery. Why did this occur? And shall I reduce the liquids next time?
I’ve tried a few different butter chicken recipes and have to say this is by far my favourite! Thank you!
I would like to try this for a crowd of 30 people. Could the chicken be cooked in the oven instead of frying?
Made with ‘inner filet’ here in Sweden plus ‘curry base’ in place of tomatos (well its the same really just extra) and worried it would be a little mild but – added to the menu. Really nice and the naan as well. Partner 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.
I added 1 tsp of paprika and halved the sugar, it was just amazing. Miles better than restaurants lately. You can use condensed tomato soup if you dont have any passata!
Absolutely delicious. Better than those I’ve bought. Loved the flavourful, Creamy sauce
Thank you. This as delicious. I appreciated the notes and the flexibility in the ingredients. I didn’t have turmeric, so I added a bit of dried mustard powder and upped the cumin. I also used the lighter version with light cream and milk. It thickened perfectly.
Amazing recipe! Beautiful flavor! I ended up using all 400ml from the puréed canned tomatoes and 300ml of cream as I didn’t know what to do with the rest of the tomato. I added more spices to enrich the flavors! My kids were fighting for more!
Best Butter Chicken I have ever had. So delicious ❤️ easy recipe to follow. Thank you