Butter chicken done right can be an incredible curry. Rich. Creamy. Well-spiced. Just really tasty. Big, big tastes.
Done poorly, it tastes like a can of Campbells cream of tomato soup with a little garam masala. Like curried tomato soup with chicken. Who wants that?
Butter chicken does not have to be bland
I don’t know why people think condensed soup and garam masala is Indian. Or butter chicken. Or even worth eating. I just don’t get it. And yet there are lots of recipes out there that claim butter chicken is just that.
If that’s your thing it’s easy. Literally. Can of tomato soup. A teaspoon of garam masala. A little extra sugar. Some boneless, skinless chicken. And a whack of cream and butter. Cook it up all together. Add the cream and butter at the end. Done.
I’m not saying that’s wrong. Not judging. But I am thinking it. Be sure of that. If you want to make curry for 6 year olds, that’s how you do it.
Unless the 6 year old is Indian. Then they want something tasty. And soup with garam masala doesn’t cut it. Trust me. I was 6 once…
Murgh makhani is why this recipe works
It’s when you start looking for murgh makhani that you start to see what it’s really about. Murgh makhani is the Indian name for butter chicken.
And it’s good. Really good. Goodbye canned soup. Hello flavour. Hello murgh makhani.
This murgh makhani is done restaurant style. Like they do in restaurants. Not like people say tastes like something close. And then tells you to open a can of soup. Or add a ton of pureed tomatoes. Or a gallon of cream.
Restaurant style with extra flavour
This is restaurant technique. Real restaurant technique. And the results are as good or better than you can get in a restaurant.
I’m not even that fussed on this dish in a lot of Indian restaurants. It’s kind of close to the soup version. This is butter chicken like it should be served. Comes with flavour. Comes with heat. Murgh makhani really. For when flavour matters.
I know I rant a lot about how boring Indian restaurants have become. How they all serve the same 20 dishes. No variety. No representation of what a billion people call dinner.
This is a different rant. I know they have butter chicken on the menu. Let’s make them make good butter chicken. Next time you are out at an Indian restaurant demand better. Say you want murgh makhani like they make in India.
butter chicken
Ingredients
Tandoori seasoned chicken
- 10 oz boneless, skinless chicken - thighs or breasts. 3 thighs or one large breast
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp tandoori masala - available in Indian grocery stores
Spice mix
- 1 1/2 tsp indian restaurant spice mix - recipe link below
- 3/4 tsp tandoori masala
- 1/2 tsp kashmiri chili powder - or more to taste
- 1 tsp kasoor methi - dried fenugreek leaves
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt or 1/3 tsp table salt
Butter chicken
- 2 tbsp onion finely diced
- 1 green chili cut into strips plus more for garnish
- 1 tsp garlic ginger paste - recipe link in notes
- 1 1/2 tbsp tomato paste diluted with 3 tbsp water
- 15 oz curry base - recipe link in notes
- 1 tbsp almond flour
- 2 tsp sugar - jaggery is a nice touch if you can get it
- 2-3 tbsp heavy cream
- 2 tbsp butter (optional)
Instructions
Do your prep.
- Make the spice mix.
- Dilute the tomato paste with enough water to get to the consistency of passata.
- Have everything ready to go. Onions chopped. Chilies cut. Garlic ginger paste standing by. Curry base pre-heated. Ingredients at hand. Be ready. It's going to go fast from here.
Cook the tandoori seasoned chicken
- Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces
- Heat your frying pan (don't use non-stick) briefly over medium low heat. Add the oil and then 1 tsp tandoori masala.
- Add the chicken and fry until it's all evenly coloured and partially cooked. This takes about 5 minutes. Don't worry. It will finish cooking in the curry.
- Remove the chicken and set aside. Return the pan with the now seasoned oil to the stove over medium low heat.
Make the butter chicken
- Add the onion and cook until well softened.
- Turn the heat to medium. Add the garlic ginger paste and the green chili and cook, stirring constantly, until it stops sputtering.
- Turn down the heat and add the spice mix. This is the critical step. Stir it constantly for 30 seconds. If it starts to darken lift the pan off the heat. You want the spice mix to cook in the oil but not burn.
- Turn the heat up to medium high. This is important. The heat is what caramelizes the onion in the curry base and gives the curry it's Indian restaurant flavour. As you become more comfortable with this technique try pushing it. Add the diluted tomato paste and stir until bubbles form (the oil will likely separate). This takes around 30 seconds to one minute depending on the heat.
- Add 3 oz of curry base. Stir until bubbles form (little craters really), around 30 seconds. Think lively boil. Watch the edges of the pan. The curry can stick here. Sticking is OK. Just scrape it back into the base. Burning is bad.
- Now add 6 oz of curry base and stir briefly. Let it cook until the bubbles form again. This takes 1-2 minutes.
- Add the rest of the curry base and let cook until the bubbles form.
- Turn the heat down to low. Add the chicken, almond flour and sugar. Stir and simmer until the chicken is just done. This takes about another 5-6 minutes depending on how much you pre-cooked the chicken. Sneak a peek if you need to. Cut into a piece to see if it's done.
- Let the curry simmer for about 5 minutes. If it gets too thick add a bit more curry base. Don't add water.
- Remove from heat. Add the cream and butter if using.
- Garnish with a bit of chopped fresh cilantro and green chili if you like. Serve.
So tasty!!! As are all your recipes !
Than you so much for saying! I’m delighted you are enjoying the recipes.
I’ve tried, unsuccessfully, to replicate restaurant-style butter chicken for years. This recipe does it! The flavors in this recipe were distinct and delicious compared to the many other recipes I’ve tried. This is the second recipe from Glebe Kitchen I’ve tried that has been wonderful. I’m fast becoming a believer.
Glad you liked it. I’m working on a hotel version of butter chicken right now (it is literally on the stove as I type this).
Hope you find lots more inspiration here!!!
Just had the butter chicken (slightly increased the Kashmiri and chillies). Tasted superb.
Last week was Rao’s Meatballs following the recipe to the letter. Fantastic meal and now addicted to the San Marzano tomatoes which is unfortunate as they are about 3x normal tinned tomatoes. Each meatball at 3″ diameter weighed in at circa 8oz – so moist and tasty. Definitely making them again.
Glad you liked it. I pushed the spice in the butter chicken about as far as I thought I could get away with in the recipe but a little more suits my palate better as well.
Those meatballs are one of my wife’s favourite thing ever:-)
I know we’re going back a few years on this post – but after 3 YEARS of trying to replicate butter chicken at home, Glebekitchen has cracked the secret for me.
The prep? Insane. You have to WANT this dish to be right. No just passable or “sort of like”.
Correct as an Indian Chicken Mahkni dish.
The payoff? A pantry stocked with already mixed Indian seasonings, a freezer stocked with curry base and an endless amount of opportunity (thanks Glebe for continuing to share 😋)
This was my first attempt with Geleb but will absolutely be back.
Ha! It is a lot of prep. But you have enough for a bunch of curries now and once you hit your groove it’s easy. And addictive:-). Delighted to hear the secret is cracked!
Wow. I found out about your website because of the Montreal smoked meat. I’ve made this 4 times now and everyone loves it. My neighbors are hooked. I figured I’d try something else from your website so I started reading about Indian style curry and this recipe. It’s been two weeks of planning and ingredient gathering but wow was it worth it. I need to work on the techniques but I have a pretty good idea now what I need to achieve. Thank you very much for the detailed instructions and videos. I have curry base for days so I will be trying something else very soon.
Come for the smoked meat. Stay for the butter chicken. Love it! It is a a fair bit of of work a lot to get your head around but once you’ve done it two or three times it becomes easy.
I’ll be making this for my family with 3 smaller kids who don’t handle heat very well. Can you make a recommendation on how to turn this into a milder version?
Easy enough to do. Leave out the green chili and the kashmiri chili powder. Make sure your tandoori marinade isn’t too spicy. Have them taste that. If it’s still too much add the optional butter. Butter tends to blunt/soften all the flavours – which is why I don’t typically add it myself…
Thank you!! advice noted
hi Romain,
well I took on quite a challenge and tried a dinner for 8 using your recipes….I made veg samosas (not your recipe)with your mint cilantro chutney and my own tamarind chutney…then the fun began…lamb vindaloo restaurant style (perfection Romain) Eggplant curry hotel style ( i couldn’t get the peanuts quite smooth enough would be my criteria… but tasted awesome) I used Prawns for the Hariyali….very good option..thanks for the advice…butter chicken (this particular time i made it, my thoughts were it was too tomatoey…and not enough spice (I think I want to use serrano instead of jalapeño as we don’t get jalwa pepper here) but I’m still such a newby and have no deep instinct about this food, the first time I made it with less tomato paste as i was using 2x concentrate and i thought maybe i should use less…this time i used 1 for 1 and I felt it was too much..but still very delicious thank you, then ceylon chicken curry…lacked the fresh curry leaves because here in Mexico they don’t exist sadly…all in all every dish you created on this website has been an overwhelming hit..thank you…I was literally spent by the time I doubled each of those recipes but as people gobbled up the food that was reason alone to be happy….have another 11 items being shipped to mexico to add more to the menu…man, my kitchen was a mess …a good mess…keep all those recipes coming…now I’m interested in learning a more in-depth knowledge about how indian spices are related and what does what..for now I can only follow and hope you never take this blog down..again, thank you …any more words of advice and I’m all ears.
Wow. That is one epic dinner party! I would have been excited to be at that table.
When I’m cooking butter chicken for myself I am heavier handed on the spice. It is a pretty mild curry and I spiced this one up as much as I thought I could get away with. Double the kashmiri chili powder and go from there I would say.
And I won’t take the blog down. Don’t worry about that:-)
I honestly don’t know how, you get ALL your dishes so authentic. I go to India every year (well not last year!) and as you know I have done many of your dishes now, and yet again it’s absolutely delicious. I’ve been unsuccessfully trying to do the (English style tikka masala – for the kids) so I decided to give this a go, and I can tell you, I thought I was sitting in Goa eating my butter chicken. I was going to add the cream and butter so the kids would like it. Well after tasting it sod the kids it’s all mine!! Thank you once again Romain.
Haha. What a great comment. Thank you for putting a smile on my face. As always – delighted you liked it!
Would it be possible to adjust this recipe to a slow cooker / crockpot version?
I’m afraid not. It relies on high heat to fry the curry base as do all the restaurant style curries here on glebekitchen. Sorry I can’t be more help…
Hi there,
Is the tandoori masala a dry mix or is it a paste?
Thanks
Andrew
Tandoori masala is a mixture of dry spices. Try to get one that isn’t all salt.
hi this recipe is for 2 i see , too make it for 4 is it just a matter of doubling the quantities as it never taste’s the same when i do that .
BTW love your curries
From an ingredient perspective yes. From a technique perspective no and I suspect that’s why it never works as well for you. Unless you have a very large pan (high surface area) and a stove that can drive it you won’t be able to get the curry base to fry as hard as it should. And that frying is critical to the development of the flavours in restaurant style curries. I do double recipes on very rare occasions with a 12 inch skillet and a 20K BTU burner running flat out and it’s still not quite as good. Usually I just do the recipe twice (or make two different curries for variety).
Any thoughts on butter chicken with hotel style gravy?
The hotel style gravy is a pretty highly flavoured gravy for delicate curries. I have a makhani gravy on the list. Once I get that one out, I will do butter chicken, dal makhani and start doing recipes that cross over (use two gravies together).
Man! I’ve tried just about every recipe on the internet for this dish, and it was always disappointing, I’ve pretty much given up on making it at home. I’ve known about Indian restaurant technique for a while but never felt like taking it on, it just seemed so fussy. And frankly, it is. But after this one, I’m a convert! I just bought myself one of these: Souper Cubes freezer trays.
Can’t wait to try the more adventurous curries you have here. I will say, though, that brands really matter. I ordered the Tandoori Masala that you use, and it’s nothing like the ones available locally. If I had tried it with those, it would not have been a success. I’m so glad I found this website and gave it a go. Thanks so much Romain!
You are very, very welcome. I’m glad you jumped in!
Indian restaurant style is a lot of work to get started but once you get going and have the curry base and other bits made it gets way easier.
Sorry I overwrote your Souper Cube link. I can’t maintain all the external links and when they move/go away it causes problems. But it’s a great idea. 1 cup freezer trays (like for ice cubes for those that have no idea) would be super handy.
Having tried this at home, I cooked it, together with your Bombay Potatoes, for the British Superbike medical team … 16 people (tripled the recipe and made it three times). It was cooked a few days beforehand and frozen, then reheated and served on a campsite – and despite that mistreatment, still tasted fantastic. Lots of people wanted to know the recipe, so you’ll have some more followers of your website from the UK. Thank you.
Thank you Heike! Great to hear it worked out and delighted to have more followers. Greatly appreciated!
Hi, just discovered your site and made the curry base and palak without the cheese yesterday, came out great. And want to make this today. I got a box of tandoori masala at my local Indian store. For your recipe do I just use it as a powder or do I mix it with yogurt as it says on the box to make a paste?
Thanks
Awesome! Just use the spice as described in the recipe. No yoghurt required.