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??
I cooked this several times and my kids have always been happy with it.
My 2 cents about the runny sauce. I thickened it with some cornflour and water. Eww….
Never again. Its now thick and gluggy. It doesn’t soak cleanly into the rice and I now have a starchy sticky mess with my rice.
Leave it runny I say. I am an Asian who can cook many different curries but not butter chicken because its not spicy enough for me. I couldn’t understand the fascination with butter chicken especially for children. So I cooked it just for the children even though we can eat spicy food.
So my opinion- follow the recipe. Runny sauce or not. If you cook it 20- 25 min and use a Greek style marinade- the recipe is fine as it is. With no variations.
Was amazing but now im wondering would I be able to prepare double then divide the chicken post marinading as while I love this dish i get tired of waiting
My son loves butter chicken and has been pleading with me to make one from scratch. I finally agreed and used this recipe. I think this is the best butter chicken I’ve ever had. I’ll never use a premade sauce again.
I am so shocked at how amazing and low effort this is. I was skeptical because of how simple it is, but it’s easily the best homemade butter chicken we’ve had and comes together so quickly!
As my wife is lactose intolerant I had to use coconut milk instead of yogurt. I did a 24 hr marinade and was amazed at how good it was . Thank for sharing your recipe.
Made it for my family!! And it was SO GOOD!! we all pigged out on seconds XD
I don’t usually comment on recipes or leave reviews but I had to for this recipe. My friend recently took me to an Indian restaurant for the first time. Since then I have been craving Butter Chicken. I have never made Indian food before. This recipe was absolutely delicious! Recipe was easy to follow and so so good!
Wow, this butter chicken is INCREDIBLE!! Hands down the best homemade curry we have ever had at our table. 100% recommend and will definitely be making again!
Forgot to leave a star rating
We are planning an Indian dinner with friends who have a 4 yr old over and I’ve been struggling to work out what I could make the 4 yr old that is not too spicy. I came across this recipe and thought I’d try it before the Indian dinner evening. My husband was appalled at having to eat it, he has tried butter chicken a few times and didn’t like it at all. I made it regardless. He couldn’t stop saying how delicious it was and said this recipe belongs to our favourite list. I knew I could count on Nagi
Hi Nagi,
today it’s butter chicken, it’s marinating in the fridge. Made it lots of times before. Always delicious.
Yesterday it was mushroom sauce. Had some beef roast left over. Tasted divine. Is it the wine or the parmesan cheese? We must have the same tastebuds! Have not found one of your recipes that I did not like. So, when I see your face I click on it and I know the recipe will turn out well and we’ll like it. It’s a challenge to find something to cook every day, but your recipes are a great help. Well done you!
This is my go-to butter chicken recipe. Hands down, the best!
I have made this into pies in the piemaker (thicken the sauce with cornflour) and it is on rotate for work lunches in my house. I used supermarket shortcrust pastry for best result, it microwaves really well.
This is one of my all time fave from Nagi! I want to make it in a slow cooker. Do I change anything, has anyone tried it??
I made Butter Chicken this week and found I was out of ground cumin! Oh noooo! I checked out my spices and I had cumin seed so ground it up and what a difference! The aroma of the freshly ground cumin was amazing. The best Butter Chicken ever!
Thank you Nagi!
I make this often. Sometimes I forget to marinade the meat and just make it as followed adding the spices with the ghee and it turns out delicious every time, either way.
I’m making this for a group of 8 adults! Should I double or triple the recipe?
The butter chicken recipe was a real winner last night. Best one ever.
Can I make this recipe with paneer? Assume just to make the sauce and add towards end? Any thoughts? 🙂
Can’t say anything but amazing! Marinated over night as per recipe and my husband, who dislikes curries and chicken has had two helpings. This will be made again