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Butter Chicken - easy and authentic Indian butter chicken recipe that tastes just like your favorite restaurant. The creamy sauce is great with basmati rice and naan bread.
Murgh Makhani (Butter Chicken)
Butter chicken is a creamy, tomato-based and spice-laden chicken curry and it’s probably one of the most popular Indian curry recipes, other than Indian chicken curry and chicken tikka masala.
The best and most authentic butter chicken is made with tandoori chicken, butter, with tomatoes, whipping cream and various Indian spices.
You can make homemade butter chicken on a stove top, or you can also make Instant Pot Butter Chicken, or using a pressure cooker.
Butter Chicken Curry Sauce
The creamy sauce calls for ingredients such as tomatoes, whipping cream and various spices like red chili powder, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, etc.
The rich and creamy flavors come from the tomatoes and the cream, making the taste absolutely delightful to the palate. The butter chicken sauce is amazing with steamed basmati rice or naan.
Adding Vegetables To Butter Chicken
Authentic butter chicken has no vegetables and if you want authentic flavors, do not add vegetables. The creamy sauce is made with fresh tomatoes so it’s loaded with nutrition.
How Do You Cook Indian Butter Chicken
First, you prepare the chicken by marinating the chicken with ginger, garlic, chili powder and lime juice. Cook or grill the marinated chicken until the chicken turns brown on the surface.
To make the butter chicken sauce, use fresh tomatoes and cook until they break down, about 5-7 minutes. Add the spices (cardamom, cloves cinnamon), ketchup, sugar, chili powder, butter and heavy cream. Remove the butter chicken from the heat, top with chopped cilantro.
Frequently Asked Questions
This recipe is only 506 calories per serving.
What To Serve With Butter Chicken
For a wholesome meal and easy weeknight dinner, I recommend the following recipes.
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Butter Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken
- 2 lbs (1kg) chicken, preferably thigh meat, boneless and skinless, cut into 2-3 inch (5cm-7cm)pieces
- 2 teaspoons ginger paste
- 1 1/2 tablespoons garlic paste
- 1-2 teaspoons red chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- Salt to taste
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 2 teaspoons lime juice, or lemon juice
- 2 pinches food color, deep orange, optional
Creamy Tomato Sauce
- 4 large tomatoes, quartered
- 1 1/2 tablespoons garlic paste
- 2 teaspoons ginger paste
- 1 jalapeno
- 2 inch (5cm) cinnamon piece
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 cloves
- 2 green cardamom
- 6 whole black pepper
- 2 tablespoons ketchup
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon red chili powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves
- Salt to taste
- 2 tablespoons oil
- 2 tablespoon butter
- 1 cup water
Garnishing
- Chopped cilantro
- Heavy cream
Instructions
Chicken
- Wash and pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Transfer it to a large bowl. Add all the chicken ingredients and stir to mix well. Cover and marinate the chicken for 30 minutes, or preferably overnight in the refrigerator.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large wok or pan. Transfer the chicken and marinade to the wok or pan. Cook on medium-high heat until the liquid has evaporated and the chicken is browned on the surface, about 10–15 minutes. You can also grill the chicken if preferred.
- Transfer the chicken to a clean platter. The chicken can be cooked a day in advance.
Sauce
- In a large pan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil and add the green cardamom pods, cloves, black peppercorns, bay leaf, and cinnamon. Sauté the spices for 30–40 seconds. Add the ginger and garlic paste, and stir-fry for a minute. Then, add the tomatoes and jalapeño along with ½ cup of water. Cover the pan, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 5–7 minutes, or until the tomatoes are soft and start to break down. Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool.
- Remove all the whole spices (cardamom, bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cloves, and black pepper) and discard them. Transfer the tomato mixture to a blender and puree it to create a smooth sauce.
- Transfer the sauce to a clean pan and add the ketchup, sugar, red chili powder, salt, dried fenugreek leaves, and the remaining water. Let it simmer for 2–3 minutes over low heat, stirring occasionally. Then, add the butter, stir, and simmer on the lowest heat for 5–7 minutes, or until the sauce starts to bubble. If the sauce is too thick, add a little more water.
- Add the cooked chicken and let it simmer for another 5 minutes. Remove the butter chicken from the heat and top with chopped cilantro and heavy cream. Serve immediately with naan bread or rice.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
if i add 15x the ammount of ingredients. how long will it take for the chicken to cook? (im serving a lot of people)
Just cook until the chicken is tender. For this recipe, I don’t think it’s a x15 times for the same ingredients if you want to feed more people. Use your best judgment, I can’t tell you for sure. Sorry.
Hi there, just wanted to point out an error, ‘murgh’ does not mean butter; it means chicken. Makhani means butter.
Ooops thank you!
thanx for sharing this Butter Chicken recipe, my family is crazy for recipe , this is so easy n looks delicious
http://www.rakhiinindia.in/
Noooo, you changed the recipe!? I thought it was perfect, but I forgot to save the recipe and now it’s different… Without yoghurt and grilling :(
This butter chicken recipe is great, trust me and easier.
I will try this, but I have to say, your old Butter Chicken recipe was absolutely perfect. I don’t see it available anywhere on your site now, so I’m very glad I saved it.
Looks really nice. My family favourite food. Will try to cook them. Its hard to get Jalapeño any subsitute for this?
Just get green chilies.
I failed to pin your recipe for Indian butter chicken because the photo , as per Pinterest is small
Thank you
Haven’t worked with green cardamon or fenugreek leaves before. Are they easy to find and does the,green cardamon come in a powder or do you buy it in pods?
Green cardamom comes as pod and powder both.. For this recipe the pod is use!!
Also you can find fenugreek leaves (dried) easily in an Indian/Asian store.. If you cannot find them just leave them out. Butter chicken will still taste amazing!!
Butter chicken’s one of my favourite dishes to go with naan especially with that thick creamy sauce! This one looks fantastic! Craving for some now!
Thanks Fern. You have to try my friend Reem’s recipe, it’s very good and easy to make!
In order to avoid the chicken being over-cooked, I added the marinaded chicken to the already softened onions, garlic and ginger then cooked until it was just about done. I made the sauce with the residue of the spice mix, chopped tomatoes and chicken stock in a different pan. It was just outstanding. Thanks a lot for the recipe.
This is so beautiful! I love the creamy drizzle on top. I haven’t had butter chicken in ages! I need to try this!