The Best and Easy Butter Chicken Recipe

This easy butter chicken recipe will soon become your go-to favorite for most occasions. It is creamy, spicy, rich, and flavorful. You won’t be able to keep your hands off.

This authentic butter chicken recipe is made with a creamy sauce that marinates the chicken. The flavors are bold, delicious, and spicy. It is a native Indian dish made by adding a lot of different Indian spices. Several restaurants bring in the buttery flavor by adding lots of butter. However, the cream added at the end does the trick in enhancing the flavor and elevating the richness of the sauce.

What’s more, this butter chicken recipe’s ingredients are readily available, and you can cook this delicious meal in one to two hours. For best results, a well-marinated chicken and a thick sauce are the way to go.

What is Butter Chicken?

Butter chicken or murgh makhani is a North Indian dish with origins in Mughlai cuisine. The dish consists of marinated to perfection boneless chicken in a butter-based curry, with tomatoes, yogurt and cream. Butter chicken is made by slowly simmering the chicken in a sauce of tomatoes, onions and spices. The sauce is finished off with butter and heavy cream. It is often served with naan and rice or with kulchas. It is finger licking, lip smacking good.

Butter chicken recipe is all about the magic of making the sauce for the chicken, merging all the flavors and getting a creamy texture, which is what makes it so very delicious.  An aromatic curry sauce and cream make this butter chicken recipe rich, and creamy. This butter chicken recipe is made from scratch, but the resulting dish is worth the effort. Once you try butter chicken at home, you’ll never have to order it out again.

How to make Butter Chicken

The first step is marinate the chicken with yogurt, ginger and spices and leave it in the refrigerator for a few hours. Then take a large pan and heat oil over medium heat. Cook marinated chicken pieces for about 2-3 minutes each side. Don’t overcrowd the pan. Once done, transfer to a plate and set aside.

Take the same pan and add butter and diced onion to it. Let it simmer for 5-6 minutes over medium heat until turns brown. Now add spices and cook for one minute to infuse spices flavor.

Then add tomato paste, salt, pepper, and chicken broth into the mix. Let it simmer until it turns into a thick sauce. You can also blend this sauce mixture in a blender to give a smooth consistency. Add water if necessary.

Once you have got the sauce right, add in the chicken you fried earlier and mix it well with the sauce. Now add the last ingredient, which is cream, and let the mixture simmer for 8-10 minutes.

Finally, chop some fresh cilantro over the meal for garnishing. You can also add slices of lemon for added aesthetics. Serve this with bread, rice, or salad for a hearty meal.

Pro Tips for the Best and Easy Butter Chicken

1. If you want to go easy on the fat content or make it less heavy overall, use ¾ of light cream instead of the amount mentioned of the heavy cream with ¼ cup milk. The milk can be either full fat or low fat.
2. Several brands of tomato puree or paste are available in the market, so you can save time by buying the premade version for a few bucks. But if you can’t find that in the market, you can blend a few tomatoes in the blender to make your own.
3. You may be tempted to discard the brown bits of chicken stuck on the pan, but they add more flavor. Make sure to keep them and mix them with the onions while frying.
4. Don’t replace or miss marinating the chicken with yogurt, as this step ensures the flavor seeps deep into the chicken.
5. If your sauce is turning out thin, this could be because you are adding butter and cream on a hot pan surface. Make sure to let the pan cool down a bit before adding these dairy ingredients. This will ensure the sauce turns out thick.

FAQs

What to Serve with Butter Chicken?

This creamy butter chicken recipe can be served alone without any side dishes. However, if you want to make it a complete meal, there are some great side dish options. You can serve boiled rice or garlic rice on the side. Or go with sides like potato curry, onion bhajis, or cabbage curry.

Another popular method of serving is with naan or roti, along with salad and raita. The salad and raita serve as complimentary dishes with the butter chicken, so you have to add something else, like roti.

Can you Make Butter Chicken Without Butter?

Yes, you can make this homemade butter chicken recipe without butter. While butter is one of the main ingredients, it’s not the only component responsible for the signature creamy, saucy taste. The tomato paste, various spices, cream, and other ingredients are sufficient to retain the spicy, creamy taste without you having to add lots of butter.

You can use the ingredients mentioned above to marinate and cook the chicken and skip the butter. The result will turn out just fine.

What is the best cut of meat to make quick and easy butter chicken at home?

The best cut of meat for butter chicken is deboned and cubed chicken breast. This cut is lean and has a mild flavor, which allows the flavors of the sauce to shine through. You could also use boneless, skinless chicken thighs, which are a little bit more flavorful and moist than breasts, but still work well in this dish.

Where Did Butter Chicken Originate?

There is no exact source on the origin of the butter chicken recipe, but it is famously known to have first come from somewhere in North India.

Amritsar is believed to be the exact location of origin of this buttery dish. It is believed that people in several areas of Punjab made chicken by adding lots of butter, topping it off with more butter, and calling it butter chicken. Butter is a popular ingredient in most Punjabi dishes, and so it was added to several dishes to retain the Punjabi taste.

Another tale is that a chef in a New Delhi restaurant was trying out different recipes with fried chicken and accidentally made a creamy sauce with butter which was so delicious that he ended up calling it Murg makhani or butter chicken.

How to avoid butter chicken from getting bland?

To ensure your butter chicken does not turn out bland, add ample yogurt and lime juice. Yogurt ensures nice, even marination of the chicken. Moreover, the tomatoes should be ripe and juicy to ensure the sauce turns out tasty. If the tomatoes are unripe and pale, the taste will be bland. You can swap these with canned tomatoes to strengthen the taste.

How to Thin Butter Chicken Sauce?

If your butter chicken sauce has turned out to be thicker than you originally intended, there are several ways to thin down the consistency. You can add water or more chicken broth at the end. Adding ghee or butter at the end and letting the meal simmer for a bit also does the trick.

Another way is to add some milk while making the sauce. Note that this also reduces the spiciness of the dish, so you might have to adjust accordingly.

Can you make butter chicken ahead of time?

You can definately make butter chicken for up to 2 days ahead of time if you desire or need to. Simply allow it to cool, store it in an airtight glass jar or container, and refrigerate.

How to store Butter Chicken?

You can easily store this butter chicken for a few days in the fridge, where the dish will last for 4-5 days or even a week. Or you can put the chicken in an airtight container and store it in the freezer. This way, you can make it last for more than a month. To have it again, take it out and reheat it on medium heat or in the oven.