Indian Creamy-fragrant Butter chicken(Indian chicken makhani).

A step-by-step recipe guide showing you how easy it is to create this restaurant-worthy popular curry.

A delicious dish for any occasion from lunch to dinner or a gathering of friends. 

Chicken marinated in spices, mixed with yoghurt and left to sponge up all the flavours, then oven grilled until they turn golden brown later added into this heavy fragrant, thick creamy sauce.

Are you drooling yet?

If your answer is yes, then you need to make this gorgeous Indian butter chicken aka murgh makhani.

Now, you might have noticed the excessive use of adjectives I’m using to describe what you may think a simple chicken dish, I apologize, I simply can’t get over how good butter chicken tastes, especially when it’s homemade.

What to serve with butter chicken

• Serve with any of the following rice recipes.
  • BASMATI COCONUT RICE(Indian rice recipe)
  • Easy lemon rice recipe.
  • HOW TO COOK RICE ON THE STOVE
  • SRI LANKAN YELLOW RICE(TURMERIC RICE)
• Serve butter chicken with Garlic Naan recipe without yeast. or Stovetop Naan bread( Indian Naan bread)

• Why not make a wrap?
  • Add less gravy, more chicken and extra raw onions, tomatoes, and cucumber to balance the meal in a tortilla or paratha wrap.

And once you’ve finished with the meals and there’s still gravy left, you can mop that off with a few slices of bread in the morning. 

TIPS TO MAKE THE INDIAN BUTTER CHICKEN RECIPE

• Please read the recipe instructions carefully, gather all the ingredients before you begin and follow the steps given.
• You might have to adjust the seasoning to suit your taste but cooking up a pot of butter chicken is not difficult.
• Keep in mind and remember that butter chicken comes together in three stages.
  • The marinade is so important to get the chicken pieces to absorb the flavour, marinating can run to 6 hours overnight(no less).
  • Once the chicken is marinated, grill them until they turn golden brown.
  • gradually building the creamy sauce and then including the chicken in it are the steps to make a good restaurant-worthy butter chicken.
  • Keep tasting while you make the dish, this doesn’t apply to just this dish but every other dish, even the marinade. I’ve come to understand that by tasting, I am not only using my taste buds to get the flavours right(obviously) but also familiarizing how each ingredient plays its part in building up a dish.

FAQ: Indian butter chicken recipe

• Can I use any other parts for the Butter chicken instead of boneless?
  • Buying boneless chicken is always expensive, especially if you are going to be feeding a crowd.
  • Since I know boneless chicken works for the recipe, I used a chicken breast, cut to include fleshy parts and parts with bone and in my opinion, it still tastes great.

• How long does it take to make the dish?
  • Not counting the time it takes to marinate the chicken, I would say close to two hours.

SAVE THE RECIPE TO PINTEREST BOARD

More Indian chicken recipes to try

MUGHLAI CHICKEN KORMA(North Indian chicken curry).

chicken vindaloo

CHICKEN KORMA CURRY(Hyderabadi).

recipe difficulty-little care needed

Ingredients to cook Indian butter chicken

Ingredients mentioned below use standard measuring cups and spoons.

700g chicken(can be boneless or a chicken breast, read above post)

To marinade the butter chicken

2 tablespoons of lime juice

1 tablespoon chilli powder

1 teaspoon  salt 

2 tablespoons of butter

1/2 cup yogurt

1 tablespoon of ginger paste

1 tablespoon of garlic paste

2 teaspoons of garam masala

To make the butter chicken gravy

Butter 2 tablespoons

5 green cardamoms slightly bruised

3 cardamom pods

4-6 black peppercorns

1 teaspoon ginger paste

1 teaspoon garlic paste

1/2 cup tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

Salt to season

1/2 cup of water

2 tablespoons of  sugar or honey

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 cup fresh cream

A handful of coriander leaves

Creamy Butter chicken( Indian murgh makhani).

Please make sure to read the recipe instructions carefully to avoid mistakes.

Before you begin with the recipe, gather all the ingredients needed to make the dish.

For the marinade use a bowl large enough to hold the chicken and fit it into the fridge.

Place chicken in the bowl, add salt, butter, lime juice, yoghurt, ginger-garlic paste, chilli powder and garam masala.

Combine all the ingredients with the chicken, spend a few seconds on this so the chicken is coated with all the spices evenly.

Refrigerate the chicken for at least 6 hours or overnight(no less), the longer the chicken marinates the better it tastes.

Grilling for the butter chicken

Once the chicken is marinated, take the bowl out and leave it out to reach room temperature, for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, cover a baking dish with foil and place the chicken pieces on the baking dish, brush them with oil.

Preheat oven to 200C and grill chicken on one side for 25 minutes and then turn the chicken and grill the chicken for a further 25 minutes(see notes above).

Making the Butter chicken gravy

While the chicken grills, you can start with the gravy.

Place a large pan over medium heat, add butter and leave it to heat for a few seconds.

Reduce heat to low, add Cinnamon, cardamoms, cloves, peppercorns, ginger, and garlic and sauté for  2-3 minutes or until they release their aroma.

Add tomato paste to the pan, increase heat and cook the paste until it turns a deep red, 2-3 minutes.

Add the chilli powder, and salt to season and pour in the water.

Let the gravy simmer over low-medium heat, for 10-12 minutes.

Add the sugar or honey followed by nutmeg, taste and add salt if necessary, let the curry simmer for a further two minutes.

You can shut the heat off if the chicken is still grilling by the time you are almost done with the gravy.

Once the chicken is grilled, heat the gravy over a low fire and add them to the gravy.

Let the gravy with grilled chicken simmer over 5 minutes, then add fresh cream and stir it into the gravy, the end result should be an aromatic thick sauce-like consistency that coats the chicken well.

Remove from fire, add the coriander leaves, mix and serve warm.

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