Butter Chicken Recipe
We are here to show and teach you how to make creamy delicious Butter Chicken at home. Butter Chicken is one of the favorite non-veg dishes among the North Indian who are crazy about its rich flavor taste. Now, this dish has become worldwide famous because of its lip finger licking taste. In India, most people love to have Butter chicken with Naan or Tandoori Roti.

What is Butter Chicken?
When small pieces of Tandoori Chicken (Grilled Chicken) cooked in a creamy tomato based gravy and butter is known as Butter Chicken or Murgh Makhani. Butter Chicken was invented by three Indian Kundan Lal Jaggi, Thakur Dass, Kundan Lal Gujral in 1950s. These were also the founder of the famous Moti Mahal Restaurant in Delhi.
Complete Butter Chicken Recipe
First to need to grill the chicken pieces to make an authentic Butter Chicken. We can grill the chicken in tandoor, oven or pan and then cook it tomato based gravy. This recipe is especially for home so we are using pan here you can grill them in tandoor or oven if you have. So the ingredients of this whole recipe are given below.
Butter Chicken Ingredients
First step marination
- 500gm Chicken
- 3/4 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon red chili powder
Second step marination
- 1/8 teaspoon of Haldi or turmeric
- 3/4 teaspoon of Kasuri methi crushed or dried powder fenugreek leaves
- 3/4 teaspoon garam masala powder
- 1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
- 3/4 tablespoon oil
- 1/2 little bowl or cup thick yogurt or curd
Ingredients for butter chicken gravy (curry)
- 2 tablespoon butter
- 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
- 2 pinch of dalchini (cinnamon)
- 2 laung (clove)
- 2/3 elaichi (green cardamoms)
- 2 green chili slit
- Pinch of Methi Powder (fenugreek seeds powder) optional
- 4 large tomatoes (crushed in the blender after remove skin and seeds)
- 1 teaspoon red chili powder or paprika powder ( according to suit your taste and color)
- 10 Kaju nuts (cashew) or soaked almonds blanched
- 1/2 tablespoon of Kasuri methi crushed or dried powder fenugreek leaves
- 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon garam masala powder
- 1/4 tablespoon sugar
- salt as needed
- 80 to 100ml chilled cream
- Coriander leaves for garnishing
Complete preparation for butter chicken
1. First wash your chicken good in running water and make it pat dry.
2. Then marinate chicken with lemon juice, salt and chili powder for 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Then marinate chicken again with curd or yogurt, turmeric, kasuri methi, ginger garlic paste, oil, and garam masala powder.
4. Refrigerate the chicken for 3 to 4 hours at least or overnight refrigeration is best.
5. Soak Kaju (cashew) or almonds for 1 hour then peel off the skin and make a paste with little water.
6. Crush and blend the tomatoes and keep it aside and make ginger garlic paste again.
Process for making butter chicken
1. Now grill the chicken in tandoori, oven or pan. For pan method, add 1 teaspoon butter in it and then add the marinade.
2. To evaporate the moisture fry the chicken on high flames. You have to keep stirring the mixture to avoid burning. Now cook the chicken mixture till it cooked and then put it into a plate and keep it aside.
3. If you are using an oven to grill the chicken, preheat the oven to 240c for minimum 20minutes. After that grill, the chicken until it cooked well. Chicken can take 20 to 30 minutes to grill depends on your size of pieces.
4. Now take a pan and heat it with butter and add cinnamon, cardamoms, and cloves and fry for 2 min.
5. Then add garlic ginger paste and green chilies, fry them till it becomes fragrant.
6. Now pour the blended tomatoes and add red chili powder, salt, and sugar.
7. Now mix it well and cook it until the tomato puree turns thick.
8. Next, pour 1 cup water and add methi powder, almond or kaju (cashew) paste. Take more or less water according to your desired consistency.
9. Put all the mixture to a bowl and sim it for 3 to 5 mins.
10. Now add garam masala and Kasuri methi or you can add them at a later step for best aroma.
11. Now the main thing add grilled chicken and mix it with the mixture and leave it on sim for 5 to 7 mins. So the chicken gets soft and tender.
12. Again add kasuri methi and garam masala.
13. Stir it and again leave on sim for 2 to 3 mins.
14. Now add the chilled cream and switch off the gas.
15. Now the final step garnishes butter chicken with extra cream and coriander leaves. And Serve the delicious finger licking butter chicken with long grain rice or chapati or naan or tandoori roti or paratha.
Butter Chicken Recipe Tips (Notes)
- If you don’t have greek yogurt or hung curd then you can use thick yogurt in butter chicken but it will take a little longer to cook.
- Add the chilled cream into the gravy and turn off the pan otherwise gravy will look curdled.
- You can take a small amount of hot gravy in a separate bowl and then add cream into it then stir well. If all is fine then add cream into the pan. This will help you to avoid curdling the cream.
Butter Chicken Nutrition Table | Daily Value %* |
---|---|
Per Serving Amount | |
Total Fat 37g | 57% |
Saturated Fat 15g | 75% |
Sodium 301mg | 13% |
Cholesterol 137mg | 46% |
Potassium 620mg | 18% |
Protein 24g | 48% |
Total Carbohydrates 10g | 3% |
dietary Fiber 2g | 8% |
sugar 6g | 0% |
Vitamin A | 42.8% |
Vitamin C | 23.9% |
Iron | 10.8% |
Calcium | 7.8% |
* Daily Value % are based on a 2000 Calorie diet. |
Nice recipe and delicious tatse owsam
Thank you so much for your precious review. We will keep posting amazing and delicious recipes like this more.