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??
Delicious. Tastes authentic. The hardest thing about this recipe is to remember to take chicken out of freezer a day ahead to marinate.
Absolutely amazing, my family loves this and have made it many times. I always add a lot more sugar though.
I am making this for my young kids (1,2 and 5) and I, so I omitted the chilli. I also accidentally used tbsp of cumin, tumeric and gram masala instead of tsp 😫 so I added a few dollops of extra yoghurt to the marinade. Hoping it will be ok and not too overpowering🤞
I literally always have cravings for butter chicken but I feel so silly just ordering it from an Indian restaurant along with some garlic naan and then waiting for delivery. I never knew it was so so easy to make an authentic butter chicken at home?! I used unsalted butter instead of ghee as directed in the instructions as I was on a budget. I also used lactose free cream to slightly save my lactose intolerant stomach but it really made no difference. I loved that I could make the marinate sauce all in one bowl and it required little effort/cleaning (only a grater for ginger & a garlic press). Even when cooking that night I didnt need to pull out any chopping boards at all. Delicious butter chicken, I will definitely be making it again and avoiding delivery fees (sorry local Indian restaurant!!).
Can I use tomato paste to substitute the puree? How much water would I have to add to it? Thank you!
I made it for my boyfriend and he is now ready to marry me.
This goes in my family’s favourites list! We live in Asia and yet we couldn’t find butter chicken nearby that beats this. Should I use young or old ginger for this?
This was so easy to make and tasted absolutely delicious. I think it would have been ever better with a longer marinade (I used the recommended minimum of three hours) but the family really enjoyed it nonetheless.
So good! And easy, I was amazed. Ate it for a week
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.
We make this constantly now and it always comes out excellent. Thank you for this, and your excellent baked mac recipe as well!
Been trying to make decent butter chicken & Vindaloo etc by using the jars & pre packaged mixes found in Supermarkets- couldn’t quite get the taste right! So decided to make my curries from scratch! What a great decision!
Followed the recipe & it’s brilliant!!
Great taste, not difficult to make – and won’t buy butter chicken again!
Also followed your Beef Vindaloo recipe – tasted fantastic! No need to buy when I can make it this good! These recipes are well explained & easy to follow giving excellent results! Thank you Nagi!!
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
Could I sub coconut yogurt in the marinade? I am making for a dairy free friend…..I make this regularly for my family and love it – I also add soaked red lentils to thicken, sauteed onion, celery, carrot, all blitzed up smoothly in sauce for extra nutrition 🙂
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?
Thank you both, and the original questioner, I had the exact same question.
Had the same issue too! Overall, recipe did not taste like butter chicken.
I had the same issue too. I assumed it was because I skipped tumeric, which wouldn’t affect taste, but might colour. There’s a lack of aromatics in the sauce as well. Didn’t really taste like butter chicken.
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?
Thank you for the advice, I did simmer exactly as required, still not a rich colour? Then I was advised to use Kashmiri chilli powder by my Indian neighbour, this gives the rich colour without the heat. It was a game changer!! Looked amazing and tasted incredible!
I am about to cook this butter chicken. Could I replace the cream for coconut cream?
Just wondering if you could it long enough. Mine had that colour once I added the passata, but after cooking for some time the orange colours came through… Maybe?
In other recipes, sometimes they use red food colouring to get that classic butter chicken colour.
Actually it’s turmeric that gives the color
Prob was msg that does it
Could be too much use of cream or not cooling out the tomato paste enough.
You haven’t let it simmer for long enough!
I’d try adding extra tumeric for more colour!
Probably due to both tomato puree and passata being quoted. They are very different, certainly here in the UK.
you may not be using enough turmeric and the cream to tomato ratio could be off!
It could be because of the tomatoes? I had that issue. I’ve switched to tomato paste instead of blitzing a tomato tin. Also I really found the colour was richer when it’s marinated for at least 3hrs and has the full 20min to simmer and gain colour. x
Hi! It’s possible you didn’t use the right chili powder. If you can find Kashmiri chili powder, you’ll get a more intense red. Kashmiri chili is more mild than most chili powders but deeply colourful and floral.
This is such a great family recipe and is surprisingly quick and easy for weekday workdays. Once the chicken has been marinated it’s a tasty doddle! A few ingredients thrown in the pan to bubble away and you end up with a really tasty, always well-received meal. I more often than not leave it bubbling away for longer than suggested until you end up with a rich, orangey tomato sauce. The chicken doesn’t seem to suffer, even if you’ve used breast, and it more closely resembles the butter chicken from a restaurant. If I’m feeling lazy, or don’t want to crack a whole bottle of passata, a good tip is to omit the sugar, salt and passata and throw in a tin of condensed tomato soup instead.
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.
I have 4 kids and they are my toughest critics. They loved this and kept dipping their finger into the pot to taste more. My 8 year old told me it was a delicious surprise. ☺️ So much flavour and a bit of tang. I could drink it out of the pan it’s so delicious.
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!