Butter Chicken is an easy recipe that’s full of savory flavor with warm spices. This mild curry has tender chunks of chicken simmered in a creamy spiced curry sauce. It’s quick to make with chicken, tomato sauce, cream, and handful of pantry spices.
Serve over rice with a side of naan bread for sopping up the delicious sauce!
Butter Chicken
In Indian cuisine makhani is a butter chicken sauce. It’s basically a gravy the chicken is cooked in with plenty of warm spices, a hint of tomato and some cream.
Like curry-style chicken or curried chickpeas, it’s both rich and light and best served with rice and topped with cilantro.
Marinating the chicken in yogurt makes it incredibly tender, this can be done the night before if time allows.
How To Make Butter Chicken
It’s super easy to make this rich and tasty dish!
- Marinate chicken at least 30 minutes, but preferably overnight.
- Saute onions in butter and spices until soft and fragrant (per recipe below).
- Add all other ingredients to the onions and cook until sauce thickens.
- Add cream and continue cooking.
Serve over rice topped with cilantro. Yummy!
What to Serve with It
Butter chicken goes with everything because it has such a savory and mild flavor! Here are some favorite sides, salads, and bread to inspire you!
- This garlic butter kale rice is a perfect side dish for butter chicken!
- How about a Caprese salad to perfectly complement butter chicken?
- Try this delicious homemade garlic bread or cheesy garlic breadsticks.
Can You Freeze Butter Chicken?
Butter chicken can be frozen. Make sure it is chilled before freezing. Just place it in a zippered bag or and airtight container and label with the date on it. Butter chicken should keep about two months.
Favorite Chicken Recipes
- Chicken Curry – rich & aromatic
- Chicken Cacciatore – serve over pasta!
- Oven Baked Chicken Breasts
- Easy Chicken Marsala – 30 min meal!
- Creamy Chicken and Mushrooms
- Slow Cooker Butter Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 1 onion diced
- 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon turmeric
- 1 cinnamon stick
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt or to taste
- ¼ cup chicken broth
- 14 ounces crushed tomatoes 1 can
- 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
Marinade
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons garam masala
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1 cup plain yogurt
Instructions
- Marinate chicken in the marinade, 30 min or overnight.
- Remove chicken from marinade allowing excess to drip off. Brown chicken in 1 tablespoon olive oil or vegetable oil until browned on both sides, about 6 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.
- Melt butter over medium heat, cook onions until tender. Add the ginger, garlic, and spices and cook 1 minute or until fragrant.
- Add chicken broth, browned chicken, crushed tomatoes and sugar. Simmer 10 minutes or until slightly thickened. Add cream and cook an additional 5-10 minutes. Discard cinnamon stick.
- Top with cilantro and serve over rice.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Chicken, Main Course
Cuisine Indian© SpendWithPennies.com. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited. Please view my photo use policy here.
Sounds wonderful. Any idea what I can subfor the cumin? Two of my bunch have a sensitivity to cumin and just stay away from it completely
You can try subbing in coriander, garam masala, or caraway seeds. I would love to hear how it turns out!
delicious. my only complaint is the indian restaurants in my area must blend it because i didn’t like the texture of the onions. i definitely plan on making this again and will use the immersion blender then combining with the chicken
I just made this butter chicken recipe to take up to the lake for supper tonight. It is soooo good. I have tried a few other butter chicken recipes and didn’t like any of them very much. Thank you so much for this great recipe and I will be purchasing your cookbook once it on the shelves here.
Karen
This was a delicious recipe! It was fun to cook. Lots of flavor and not spicy.
Just an FYI for anyone using bone in chicken breasts, I have browned 6 minutes and cooked with the lid on for 25 min and my chicken still isn’t cooked. It must be different for thighs but I’m confused about simmering it for 25 min with the lid off when the chicken isn’t cooked.
Thank you for sharing your tips, Jill!
For browning the chicken is it 6 min on each side or 6 min all together?
About 6 minutes total, until the chicken is golden on all sides. It may take a minute or so more or less.
Hi, is the chicken suppose to simmer with the lid on or off? It doesn’t say which I would usually do off but how is the chicken supposed to cook through if it’s off? Surprised this question hasn’t been asked yet. Tia!
It is simmered uncovered, the thighs are thin so they cook through fairly quickly after being browned. Enjoy!
Making tonight …..wondering if adding some red curry paste would add a bit of spice to it …fingers xd
I have not personally tried but it sounds like a delicious option.
AMAZINGLY good!!!
When do I add the chicken? After the onions?
The browned chicken is added in step 4.
I am going to make this tomorrow. Do you throw the yogurt marinade away or incorporate it into the sauce? Thanks,
The marinade should be discarded.
this was so delicious and easy. It was perfect on this cold new years eve night!
so easy and delicious!!
My husband’s exact words: “oh my god!” With eyes rolling back. I made this with some homemade sourdough discard naan. Absolutely delicious!
I loved this recipe with its warm spices. It was an easy recipe to follow and my husband is still raving about it and devouring the leftovers. I served it with garlic and herb naan. Looking forward to making this during the fall and winter months when it’s chilly and we want delicious warm comfort food. Thank you for the recipe.
it was ok. I had to tweak the recipe just so it could have more taste. added more Cinemon and sugar and a little Nutmeg. I also added cut mushrooms
First things first, they have not included the ginger or garlic in the recipe directions. There was nothing special about the final product, the flavors were serviceable but far from mind blowing. I’m assuming you add the garlic and ginger after the onions cook for a few minutes.
Hi Garrett, thanks for trying this recipe! We add the ginger and garlic in step 3 when it read “add spices” but you could also add afterthe onions and cook for a few minutes.
You don’t mention cutting the chicken into bite-sized pieces, but it looks as if you did. Should I have cut it up before marinating?
Hi Linda, we do not cut the chicken up before marinating or cooking. If you’d like to, we would recommend doing it once cooked.
is it possible to use chicken (boneless) breast??
Thank you!!
Yes you can. Chicken breasts can dry out easier so you’ll want to be sure they don’t overcook.
Well, I’ve made this 3 times in 3 weeks….that says it all. Absolutely delicious!!! Compliments every time. I make a double batch so there’s plenty of leftovers. One tip *follow directs exactly but allow to simmer on lowest setting for about 2 hours for the best most flavorful gravy/sauce. Well worth the patience.
Thanks for sharing your tips Kathleen! ❤️ So happy your family is loving it.
Simmering for 2 hrs doesn’t dry the chicken out?