Butter Chicken
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
This restaurant quality Butter Chicken will blow your mind! Never have you been able to replicate this favorite classic dish so accurately before. With a few secret ingredients and simple step-by-step instructions, your family will be begging to have this recipe added to the weekly rotation.
The Best Butter Chicken Recipe
As I’m sure you’re painfully aware, there are many variations of butter chicken. Hunting for a version that will replicate the restaurant flavor you’re craving can be a challenge. I’ve tried to make it many times, and many times I didn’t quite get the flavor I was looking for. Until now!
Butter chicken must be cooked with tons of butter, right? Think again! Contrary to its title, there’s not much butter in it after all. Some chefs will even nix the ingredient all together. There are a few ideas of where the name butter chicken came from and the most popular seems to stem from the silkiness of the sauce, comparable to butter.
Why You’ll Love This Butter Chicken
- Easy Recipe! This dish is actually pretty simple to make with my step-by-step process that I’ve outlined for you. Even the most novice cook can successfully make this recipe.
- Authentic Indian Flavor! With my perfect mixture of spices and secret ingredients you can have addictively good restaurant quality Indian butter chicken curry at home.
- Make Ahead Meal! This is an Indian dish that keeps really well in both the fridge and freezer, which makes it a perfect make ahead meal.
- Aroma – Fresh ginger and garlic. You can use canned if you’d like but fresh is always best.
- Chicken – I used breast, but dark meat will work here as well.
- Spices – Ground coriander, chili powder, garam masala, and cumin seeds.
- Salt – Season to taste.
- Oil – I used vegetable oil. Since we’re sautéing, other types of oil that will work are olive, grapeseed, sunflower, safflower, canola, or avocado.
- Onion – Any type you like.
- Water
- Cashews – This will help you get a beautiful, creamy sauce. Use unsalted if possible.
- Chili – I used a jalapeño. Use any type of pepper you can handle for heat, or none at all.
- Tomatoes – I used 3 medium-sized tomatoes, about, 2 cups.
- Butter – I always use unsalted to have full control over the sodium.
- Ketchup – A secret ingredient for many Indian restaurants! Just a bit will help with color, extra tomato flavor, and a bit of sweetness.
- Sugar – Use more or less to taste.
- Half and half – Half milk and half cream, 10%MF. You can use heavy cream instead.
- Parsley – Freshly chopped for garnish.
- Red Food coloring – Completely optional. This is how restaurants get that nice red color for the sauce. Completely optional but realize you won’t get that red color otherwise, the tomatoes alone won’t create that rich red color.
This recipe looks more complicated than it is and produces amazing flavor that transports your taste buds to India! The only real work is pureeing the sauce, which you do need a blender or immersion blender for but takes just seconds. However, if you don’t have a blender, don’t worry! Check out my Instant Pot Butter Chicken recipe for another amazing way to make this dish!
Season The Chicken
To begin, prep the chicken pieces to cook by patting them dry with paper towels to remove any excess moisture and then put them in a large bowl. Then add half of the garlic and half of the ginger to the chicken along with 1 tablespoon of the coriander powder, ½ tablespoon of the chili powder, and salt to taste. Now, mix it all together until the chicken is fully coated in the spice marinade.
Cook The Chicken
Once the chicken is seasoned, heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Now, add the chicken pieces to the pan and cook them for about 5 minutes or until it’s no longer pink and fully cooked. Then remove it from the skillet and set it aside for a later step.
Begin The Sauce
To make the sauce, you need to use the same skillet that you cooked your chicken. First, add the cumin seeds and onion to the pan along with the remaining garlic and ginger. Then saute the mixture for about 2 to 3 minutes or until the onion is transparent.
Now, add a couple cups of water to the skillet and stir. Finally, stir in the cashews, jalapeno, tomatoes, and the rest of the coriander and chili powder. Then cover the skillet with a lid and cook the sauce over medium low heat for about 20 minutes.
Blend The Sauce
Now that all the flavors have had time to meld, remove the sauce from the heat and let it cool for about 5 minutes. Then put it into a blender and puree it until it’s nice and smooth. Now, pour the sauce back into the skillet and then stir in another cup of water, the butter, ketchup, and sugar. Then taste and add salt if needed.
Finish The Sauce
To complete the recipe, add the heavy cream and garam masala to the skillet along with the cooked chicken that you set aside. Then mix everything together well and cook the sauce with the chicken for another 10 minutes. For a dairy-free version you can use full-fat coconut milk if you prefer.
Garnish And Serve
Transfer the butter chicken to your favorite dish and then garnish it with fresh chopped parsley. Then serve it with hot steamed basmati rice and warm homemade naan or roti.
What Is Butter Chicken?
Indian Butter Chicken is basically pieces of tandoori chicken cooked in a tangy, tomato cream sauce. Despite its name, butter chicken doesn’t have a lot of butter in it.
Can I Double The Recipe?
Absolutely! If you double it, just double all the ingredients, not just the chicken!
Do I Have To Use Red Full Coloring?
No, you don’t. It’s completely optional. Sometimes restaurants will use it to get that gorgeous red color in our butter chicken that we all know and love. Instead of red food coloring you can use Kashmiri chili powder and that’s going to give the butter chicken a nice red color as well.
Expert Tips
- While the ingredient list may look long, this butter chicken is quite simple to make. The trick is to get all your ingredients prepped first, this always makes cooking any dish a breeze.
- For a dairy free option that’s still equally rich and delicious, substitute the cream with coconut milk.
- Don’t skip adding the butter, it’s what gives the sauce that nice glossy color and great flavor.
Leftovers
Transfer any leftover butter chicken to an airtight container and store in the fridge for 3-4 days.
It’ll be easiest to reheat in the microwave, giving the sauce a stir evert 30 seconds or so. You can also reheat on the stovetop. Add the butter chicken to a skillet or saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring often, until completely heated through.
Freezing
This butter chicken will last 4-6 months frozen. Let the chicken completely cool down to room temperature before transferring to an airtight container and freezing.
Let the butter chicken thaw overnight in the fridge before following the reheating instructions detailed above. While you can reheat straight from the freezer, it will be much easier to work with if it’s thawed first.
Other Delicious Recipes To Try
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Butter Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken
- 6 cloves garlic (minced)
- 2 teaspoon ginger paste
- 2 pound chicken breast (boneless and skinless, cut into small pieces)
- 2 tablespoon coriander (ground)
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- 3 tablespoon vegetable oil
Sauce
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 large onion (chopped)
- 3 cups water
- ¼ cup cashews
- 1 jalapeno (diced)
- 3 tomatoes (cut into small pieces)
- 4 tablespoon butter (unsalted)
- 1 tablespoon ketchup
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ½ cup half and half
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- ¼ cup parsley (chopped for garnish)
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Instructions
- Season chicken: Add half the garlic and ginger to the chicken, 1 tbsp of the coriander powder, 1/2 tbsp chili powder and salt. Mix everything until all the chicken is fully coated.
- Cook chicken: Heat up the oil in a large skillet to which you will add the prepared chicken. Cook the chicken for about 5 minutes then remove it from the skillet.
- Start sauce: In the same skillet add the cumin seeds, onion and remaining garlic and ginger and saute for a couple minutes, until the onion is transparent. Add a couple cups of water to the skillet and stir. Add the cashew nuts, the remaining coriander powder, remaining red chili powder, jalapeno, the tomatoes and stir well.
- Blend: Let the sauce cook slowly over medium low heat, covered for about 20 minutes. Let the sauce cool for about 5 minutes before pouring it in a blender and blend it until it's nice and smooth. Pour the sauce back in the skillet. Add another cup of water, the butter and stir. Stir in the ketchup and sugar as well. Taste for seasoning and adjust with salt as needed.
- Finish: Stir in the cream, the chicken and garam masala. Cook the sauce with the chicken for another 10 minutes.
- Serve: Garnish with fresh parsley and serve over rice.
Equipment
Notes
- Half and half is a simple blend of equal parts whole milk and light cream. It averages 12% fat.
- Nutritional information does not include rice.
- While the ingredient list may look long, this butter chicken is quite simple to make. The trick is to get all your ingredients prepped first, this always makes cooking any dish a breeze.
- For a dairy free option that’s still equally rich and delicious, substitute the cream with coconut milk.
- Don’t skip adding the butter, it’s what gives the sauce that nice glossy color and great flavor.
- Red Food coloring – Completely optional. This is how restaurants get that nice red color for the sauce. Completely optional but realize you won’t get that red color otherwise, the tomatoes alone won’t create that rich red color.
- Transfer leftovers to an airtight container and store in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Nutrition Information
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
Originally Shared November 2011. Updated with new pictures and process shots.
Recipe adapted from vahrehvah.com.
How much food colouring and when to add?
It really depends on what kind of food coloring you and how deep a color you want. I would add it right after you puree everything.
Easy as ABC. Tastes amazing. I used coriander as a garnish. Cashews enhances the flavor. Roti goes well with it as a wrap.
So glad you enjoyed it!
Absolutely delicious will be a go to recipe from now on.
So happy to hear this!
this was so delicious! My sister said it was better than any restaurant butter chicken she had tasted (the last one was frozen takeout in the age of covid, but still!) I didn’t use onions because I didn’t have any and supplemented my lack of tomatoes with tomato paste. I also use a bit of lowfat milk instead of cream and it tasted great still. Would make again 🙂
I made this, my first attempt at Butter Chicken and it was delicious! Used half pouring cream and half milk as we do not get half and half Downunder. Also used a can of Italian whole tomatoes as suggested in one of the comments. Omitted the last cup of water. Will definitely make this again!
Hi Jo,
Can I use coconut cream instead of heavy/half and half cream? Thanks! 🙂
Yes, absolutely!
A couple of questions before I make this enticing recipe!
1. Is the cumin seed whole or ground and is either ok to use?
2. What to substitute if good fresh tomatoes aren’t available? I can’t bear to buy the tasteless, mealy, awful ones in the grocery store.
1. I used whole, because you’ll blend it anyway but yeah if you only have ground that would work too.
2. How about a can of whole tomatoes? Those should work just fine.
Hi Jo.
I’ve alway loved Butter Chicken since I first tried it. I’ve also tried making it many times, sometimes successfully, sometimes not so much. I usually buy the pre-made sauces/packs and add my own flavours, but it’s very hit & miss.
I’ve not tried using garam masala, although I do have some. I have some questions; Why do you add garam masala at the end of the cooking cycle? Does it become overpowering?
If I wanted to add heat, would I add chili or red curry and when is best to add it?
Love your recipes.
Kind regards,
Phil.
Hi Phil! We add the garam masala at the end of cooking usually to heighten the flavors and it’s used more as a finishing spice. To add more heat I’d add more chili powder. Have you tried the instant pot butter chicken? So easy to make and really yummy!
It’s butter chicken 🙂 <3 . I loved it! So delicious non veg recipe with step-wise making process. Thank you so much for sharing it.
This dish looks absolutely delicious! We eat with our eyes 1st but my tummy is dying for a taste! I will most definitely be trying this! Thank you for posting.
Made this at the weekend and cannot recommend this recipe enough to anyone who searches recipes to attempt to make authentic tasting Indian food. I’ve made various versions of Butter Chicken over the years and whilst some are okay, this recipe will be the only one I use from now on. If you’ve not made it yet, do it now!
This is the third recipe that I’ve now made from ‘JoCooks’ and they have all been a fantastic success. I will definitely be browsing through the rest of the blog with the confidence to make more recipes.
Thank you so much Barbara 🙂
Thank you for the review! I have never made Butter Chicken but will make it tonight.
Hiya, recipe looks good. I’m assuming the coriander powder is infact ground coriander seed rather than powdered dry leaves? Also probably worth mentioning that blending hot liquids mixes air with the liquid very rapidly causing the air to expand extremely fast, explosively pushing the top off and splattering the walls, as well as potentially burning the user.. A trick however is to open the tamper hole in the lid and cover it loosely with the cap and a tea towel – this will let the hot air escape, but will stop the lid from blowing off, keeping the hot contents in the jar and saving yourself from a burn.
Hi Phill, thanks for the tips. You are correct, the coriander powder is ground coriander seed. 🙂
add a tsp -a tbsp of crushed kasuri methi available in a box in indian stores…that will perfect this and of the comment before about marinating with tandoori spices
Thanks Sarika, I’ll have to find some. 🙂
Wow…. Butter chicken! I am very excited to give this a try. I love Indian food. But I have never made them and I am scared to try. I always think there would be many kind of spices that I can’t get or some kind of secret ingredients. After checking out this recipe, it doesn’t seem to be that mysterious or hard. I would definitely make it.
Quick question. Is this recipe spicy at all? Or are the spices only there for flavors? I don’t like spicy food and I can’t really take it. I just want to make sure. Thanks!
This chicken is not spicy, the spices are mostly for flavor, so don’t worry, you’ll be fine. I’m not one for food that’s too spicy either.
Love the color and you’ve got it perfectly right!Beautiful and delicious!
Thank you. 🙂