Along with Chicken Tikka Masala, Butter Chicken is without a doubt one of the most well known Indian dishes around the world. But unlike Chicken Tikka Masala, which is sometimes claimed as a national dish of the UK, Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani) is decidedly of North Indian provenance.
Maybe it's the name (can you think of a more decadent sounding name?), or perhaps it has a flavor profile that appeals across cultures. Whatever the reason, butter chicken has managed to find its way around the globe, showing up on menus from Toronto to Tokyo to Turin.
While I love butter chicken, I have a few problems with many restaurant versions. The first is that it's often sugary sweet. The second issue is that it's often made with leftover tandoori chicken, which by the time it makes it into the butter sauce, could make the cut for an NHL approved hockey puck.
If you take the time to caramelize the tomatoes (yes, tomatoes!) this dish has a natural sweetness that really doesn't need any added sugar. The sweetness along with the pleasant tang from the yogurt marinated chicken balances out the rich creaminess from the butter and cream. Also, if you're making this at home, you have the luxury of under-cooking the chicken on the grill, so that it doesn't end up overcooked in the sauce.
You might be wondering why you have to go through the effort of reducing the tomato puree since a bunch of liquid gets added back in at the end. Those of you who have made French Onion Soup in the past, probably know the magic that happens as the Maillard reaction transforms the pungent onion into a sweet and infinitely complex melange of flavors as the sugars reduce. But who ever said that onions were the only vegetable you could do this to? It's my secret to making this butter chicken recipe the best-tasting version you've ever eaten.
Once the tomatoes have reduced down to a glossy paste, I whisk in some cashew milk. This not only provides a creamy base which allows me to cut down on the amount of cream I add, it also gives the sauce body. Lastly, I like to strain the spices out of the sauce, making the finished butter chicken easier to eat (there's nothing worse than biting into a fibrous cardamom pod or a mouth numbing clove)
Butter Chicken should be served with basmati rice or naan to soak up all of that delicious sauce. And if you're planning to prepare an Indian feast, check out my other Indian recipes here.
📖 Recipe
Units
Ingredients
For chicken
- 30 grams garlic (~ 5 large cloves, peeled)
- 30 grams fresh ginger (~ 1-inch piece, peeled and sliced)
- 450 grams boneless skinless chicken thighs
- ⅓ cup plain yogurt
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon garam masala
- ¼ teaspoon saffron (threads crushed)
For curry
- 600 grams whole stewed tomatoes (1 ½ small cans)
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 3 tablespoons cultured unsalted butter
- 6 pods green cardamom
- 1 pod black cardamom
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 4 cloves
- 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
- 2 fresh chili peppers
- 40 grams raw cashew nuts (about ¼ cup)
- 1 teaspoon salt (to taste)
- 1 teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)
- 1 teaspoons garam masala
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Put the ginger and garlic into a small food processor and puree, you may need to add a bit of water to make it go. If you don't have a small food processor, you can grate by hand.
- In a small bowl, whisk the yogurt, vegetable oil, salt, garam masala, saffron, and 2 teaspoons of the garlic ginger mixture together. Save the remaining garlic ginger mixture for the sauce.
- Put the chicken in a freezer bag and pour the marinade all over it, rubbing it into the chicken. Squeeze all the air out of the bag and seal it. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or preferably overnight.
- For the sauce, puree the stewed tomatoes with their juices along with the tomato paste in a blender or food processor.
- Add the butter to a pot along with the green cardamom, black cardamom, cinnamon and cloves. Fry the mixture until the cloves are puffy.
- Add the fenugreek seeds, chili peppers, and remaining garlic ginger mixture and saute until browned, and very fragrant.
- Add the pureed stewed tomatoes and tomato paste and cook this mixture over medium heat until the tomatoes have become very thick and paste-like (about 45 minutes). Once the mixture starts sputtering you'll want to stir it pretty regularly to keep the sputtering under control while maintaining enough heat to reduce the liquid.
- While the tomatoes are reducing, grill the chicken. You can use either an outdoor grill or broiler, but in either case it needs to be very hot. You want to get the outside lightly charred, but you don't want to cook the chicken all the way through as it will finish cooking in the sauce. If you cook it completely now, it will get overcooked in the sauce.
- Transfer the chicken to a cutting board and let it rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting.
- In a blender or food processor, add the raw cashew nuts along with 2 cups of water. Puree until smooth and milk-like in color.
- When the tomato mixture is done caramelizing turn off the heat and add the cashew nut milk, whisking it together.
- Pass the sauce through a wire strainer into a saucepan, pressing on the solids with a silicone spatula to get as much sauce through as you can.
- Cut the chicken into large chunks and add it to the pot with the sauce along with the salt, fenugreek leaves and garam masala. Simmer this for 6-8 minutes over medium heat until the chicken is cooked through.
- Add the cream and stir together and then turn the heat off. Plate the butter chicken and drizzle a little extra cream on top. Garnish with some cilantro leaves.
pratz love says
Great recipe .
pratz love says
Great recipe ?? Tried it , tasted it & the family loved it. Did not add tomato paste coz we don't get it in our city. Straining the recipe is a great tip coz of which the gravy turned out really smooth just like the one you get in d restaurants. I used ready made tandoori chicken to save some time.
pratz love says
Wow this is the 3rd time I am writing the same comment :/ some how I am unable to post the comment. Great recipe ?? Tried it , tasted it & the family loved it. Did not add tomato paste coz it's hard to find in my city. Used ready made tandoori chicken to save some time. Straining the gravy is an awesome tip and it gives a smooth texture to the gravy same like the one you get in the restaurants.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Pratz, I'm sorry to hear you were having troubles submitting a comment, but I'm glad you enjoyed this! Can you send me an email (contact link above) with some more information about the problems you had with the comments (i.e. it wouldn't submit, it gave you an error, it submitted but disappeared, etc), along with the browser and OS you're using?
Sally says
Made this for dinner tonight wow so worth making it from scratch it was delicious such a depth of flavour from the marinated chicken and creamy tomato sauce, happy to say there's a bit left over for lunch tomorrow! Thanks Marc will keep this in my recipe book for future use
Sally says
Made the butter chicken recipe for dinner tonight, wow it was delicious so worth making it from scratch, there was so much flavour in both the marinated chicken and the creamy tomato sauce. I'm happy to say that there was a bit left for lunch tomorrow! Thanks Marc I will definitely keep this in my recipe collection for the next time I want to make a beautiful dish ??
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Sally, I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed this!
Premal Desai says
Great, recipe. My daughter and I made it together. I really like the way you strain the spices out and add the cashew milk. its really makes it smooth and creamy.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Premal, I'm glad to hear you and your daughter were able to make this together and enjoyed it! Thanks for leaving a comment and letting me know!
Eva Christine Kuløy says
Instant new favourite. Well worth the time it took to make it. Will definitely make again! Thank you for a great recipe.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Eva, you're welcome! I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it!
Han says
I tried this recipe last weekend using chicken breast, and it still turned out so tender and soft. My Indian friends said it taste better than the butter chicken at the restaurants. Thank you for an amazing recipe Marc. I’m excited to try out your other recipes.
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Han, I'm so glad to hear you enjoyed this. Thanks so much for stopping by to let me know!
Michael P Shea says
Love your recipes. I'm making this tonight and just noticed the garam masala is added in BOTH step 2 and step 13. Are we supposed to use 1 tsp in each step or split the 1 tsp in half for each step?
Marc Matsumoto says
Thanks Michael! There's actually 2 additions of Garam Masala in this recipe. First for the marinade and then for the curry. I've added headings to to the ingredients to make it a little clearer.
Michael P Shea says
Thanks!
Joseph Higgins says
This is the best recipe for butter chicken - hands down. The first time I tasted Murgh Makhani was in 2013. I was one of a group of people on an accounting course and one of the lads was from India. He made this and we ate it with some naan bread and it was so goos that I scoured the internet to find the recipe. THIS IS the recipe because I remembered the taste and was delighted to find it! This has become my favourite food to cook and my oldest daughter swears by it. though she tells me constantly to let up on the garlic & chilis a bit because I tend to like it a bit spicier! Thank you for sharing this recipe - it is an absolute pleasure to cook and enjoy this (at this time of typing, I have the chicken marinade in the fridge 30 mins and can't wait to be feasting on this sumptuous meal again!)
Marc Matsumoto says
Thanks Joseph! I'm happy to hear you and your family have been enjoying this. It's my goal to elevate traditional dishes from around the world here so I hope you're able to find other dishes to enjoy with your family here as well!
Nicholas Ipsen says
Hi Marc,
I have been enjoying this recipe for years, but recently began to wonder if butter chicken actually needs butter. Of course, I would never substitute it with something like granola oil, but wouldn't using ghee be easier(higher smoke point for the frying step) and taste pretty much the same, if not better?
I am having lactose-intolerajt guests over for dinner, and would really like to serve this. Using ghee instead of butter, and maybe treated cream, were two modifications I have been considering, but I would like to hear your opinion.
Also, thank you so much for all of these recipies. One can really tell how much effort you put into making each and every dish on this site shine!
Marc Matsumoto says
Hi Nicholas, I'm glad to hear you've been enjoying this! Butter is about 80% fat, 17% water, and the remainder is milk solids. When ghee is made, the water is evaporated and the milk solids are skimmed off to leave just the fat. This is why it has a high smoke point, because the milk solids are what smokes and burns. But it's also the milk solids that have most of the flavor. This is why browned butter is so tasty, you're basically inducing Maillard browning on the milk solids which is where it gets it's flavor from. Since this recipe adds liquids as soon as the butter browns, you create flavor and then stop the processing from going further and burning. You could certainly make it ghee (or really any other oil), but it will not have as much flavor as making it with butter.