Butter Chicken or Murgh Makhani to give it it’s correct name, is a typical Punjabi dish which is now popular in many countries all over the world. It is a rich creamy dish and can be made as mild or as spicy as you like and has to be one of my all-time favourite curries to make and eat. Although similar, you shouldn’t confuse Butter Chicken with Chicken Tikka Masala. CTM originated in the UK where as Butter Chicken is a true Punjabi dish with hundreds of years of tradition and history.
This Butter Chicken Recipe is based on another sweary Gordan recipe that I’ve adapted for my fine tuned palate 
Easy Butter Chicken Recipe
Butter Chicken Origins
Originating in northwestern India and eastern Pakistan, Butter Chicken is typically a very rich dish, as is typical with cuisine from the Punjab due to the amount of calories that the rural people burn whilst working in the fields during the day. According to Wikipedia, Butter Chicken can be traced back to Mogal times to a chap by the name of Kundan Lal Gujral. Kundan supposedly ran a famous restaurant in Peshawar which was called “Moti Mohal”.
Easy Butter Chicken Recipe:
Chicken and Marinade Ingredients
- 800g skinless, boneless chicken cut into 3cm pieces. You can use thighs if like as some people think this has more flavour
- 2 peeled garlic cloves finely crushed
- 2cm peeled ginger finely grated
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ – 1 tsp hot chilli powder
- 1½ tsp lemon juice
- 75ml natural yoghurt
- ½ tsp garam masala
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
Butter Chicken Served with Rice
Sauce Ingredients
- 1½ tbsp ghee or if you can’t get ghee, use melted unsalted butter
- 2 peeled garlic cloves finely crushed / chopped
- 2cm stick peeled ginger finely chopped
- Seeds from 1 cardamom pod lightly crushed
- 2 cloves
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 -2 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 – 3 tsp hot chilli powder(careful!)
- 275ml tomato purée
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 40g unsalted butter
- 100ml double cream
- 1 tbsp chopped coriander for garnish
Butter Chicken Recipe – Chicken Preparation
- From the Chicken Ingredients, add the cubed chicken, garlic, ginger, chilli, salt and lemon juice into a large bowl. Make sure the chicken is well coated, cover the bowl and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
- Now mix the garam masala, tumeric, cumin and yohurt and add to the chicken, again making sure that the chicken is well coated with the mixture. Cover and marinate for at least another 2-3 hours in the fridge although overnight is preferable.
- When you’ve finished marinating the chicken, preheat the oven to 180C and after placing the chicken pieces on a grill rack, bake them for 8-10 mins.
- Now remove the chicken from the oven and brush with a little oil and turn then over.
- Put back into the over and bake for another 10-12 mins or until the the chicken is just cooked through.
Butter Chicken Recipe – Sauce Preparation
- Heat the ghee/butter in a large frying pan and once it’s hot, add the crushed garlic and ginger and fry for 1-2 minutes only
- Now add the chilli powder, cardamom, garam masala, cloves, coriander and turmeric and stir well frying for another 1-2 minutes
- Then stir in the tomato puree with the lemon juice and cook for a further 1-2 minutes.
- Add the already cooked chicken pieces and the butter and stir gently until the butter has melted and the sauce becomes smooth.
- Add more seasoning if neccesary and when ready serve and garnish with chopped corriander
Preparation time: 30mins, but don’t forget about all the marinating!
Cooking time: 30 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 4
If you’ve taken the time to make this scrummy Butter Chicken recipe, then why not rate it and let everyone know what you thought?
(62 votes, average: 3.60 out of 5)
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
What do you do with the cream?
The cream is added at the end when you are done simmering. Add the cream and simmer for another couple minutes mixing it in.
Hi, I’m going to try this as my kids love buttered chicken. Shouldn’t buttered chicken use fenugreek leaves? It would give the curry a unique flavour.