Butter Chicken is a Northern Indian dish, and a close cousin to Tikka Masala. The sauce is a rich and creamy tomato base with aromatics that include garam masala, ginger and a few other spices. Chicken thighs are coated in yogurt that, when broiled, mimics the char flavor of a traditional tandoori oven. Served with rice or warm naan (bread), this is a flavorful meal. As for heat? The serrano chili adds a touch of heat, but doesn’t turn you into a fire breathing dragon! I can’t rave enough about how much we loved this recipe. If you love Indian food, then this is the recipe for you!
My husband loves Indian Food. My exposure to it was very minimal, given that I had a German mom whose repertoire pretty much stuck to her Bavarian roots. I had it in my head (mistakingly) that Indian food is all about yellow curry, so I avoided it as much as possible.
How wrong I was, now that I’ve overcome my silly childhood aversion to curry! Year ago, I made Tikka Masala. Actually, Tikka Masala is not an authentic Indian dish, but one that was invented in the UK in the 1960’s. It’s a tomato based sauce that has a key spice called Garam Masala. I am smitten with that spice blend, and have used it to season many dishes– including rice.
Butter chicken is a recipe I’ve seen floating around on the internet for a long time. The name of the dish made me think of chicken cooked in butter. Was I ever wrong! Butter Chicken is a Northern Indian dish, and a close cousin to Tikka Masala.
We have Kundan Lal Gujral to thank for creating what we know today as murgh makhani, or butter chicken, in 1948. Gujral ran a legendary restaurant in Delhi called Moti Mahal and needed a way to use up another popular creation of his, tandoori chicken. To prevent the already-cooked meat from drying out, he slowly stewed it in a gravy of tomatoes, aromatic spices and—you guessed it—butter. (source)
I’m learning there’s a lot more to Indian cooking than just curry. I’m beginning to really like that cuisine. I wanted to surprise my husband, so I made this for his TGIF end of the work week dinner.
I much prefer chicken breasts, but in this case, don’t do it! You need to use boneless, skinless, chicken thighs. If you use chicken breasts, you will have dried out meat and that won’t be pleasant. Trust me.
There is going to be some “heat” to the sauce, so you need a Serrano pepper. (Yes, you can use a jalapeno pepper, if you wish.) I was a little nervous that it would spice up the sauce more than my delicate palate could handle. SPOILER ALERT: It didn’t!
The sauce is easy to make, once you invest some time chopping and prepping onion, garlic, ginger, peppers and aromatics.
Onions, garlic, ginger and peppers are cooked until softened and just slightly browning.
The aromatics are garam masala, cumin, coriander and pepper.
“Bloomed” the spicesuntil fragrant! Sniff. Mmmmmm….
For the sauce, there’s a generous amount of tomato paste and water added. Off heat, heavy cream is added.
To make a creamy sauce, I used my immersion blender (or you can use a blender, in batches). Done! I took a taste and, wow, is that sauce ever delicious!
You can make this sauce up to four days in advance, and slowly reheat on the day you cook the chicken.
The chicken prep could not be simpler. You will need to use full-fat Greek yogurt (not regular yogurt). The idea is that the yogurt will make the broiled chicken mimic the char of chicken cooked in a Tandoor (something most of us do not have, I am betting).
It took about 20 minutes for the thighs to broil until it reached 170F. Perfect! I cut them into chunks and added them to the sauce.
Add fresh cilantro and stirred it with the broiled chicken. Dinner is ready!
I served this with basmati rice and homemade naan . I summoned my husband for dinner (though the aroma already had him on hunger alert.)
TASTING NOTES: I play the “rating game” with my husband, who gives me honest feedback on new recipes that I make. “Five” is the highest rating and he doesn’t give them all the time (“Four” is his average, and I still consider that to be a compliment.) “Ten!” Yes, he loved this dish. As for me, I thought it was one of the tastiest sauces I’ve ever made. I love tomato based sauces, and this one had just the right amount. It was the spices that took front and center, and the “heat” was spot on– it was subtle, but not overpowering. The chicken was moist and we both went back for half portion seconds. It was that good!
The homemade naan bread was perfect for soaking up the delicious sauce!
COOKING TIPS: I was pretty tired, as it took three hours to make both recipes. I think I was a bit too ambitious to make two new recipes that I wanted to be ready at the same time. Making the sauce, kneading naan dough, broiling chicken, rollout out naan dough, stirring, baking, cooking– I was definitely mopping my forehead and I felt like I was on an episode Food Network Iron Chef episode! My husband is already hinting that he hopes this dinner will be a repeat performance. Yes, it will– but next time: Make the sauce at least one day ahead. Make the naan dough the day before. The day I’m serving, make the chicken (easy), roll out each naan and cook in a matter of minutes. Other than that– make this! It’s one of our favorite recipes!
Indian Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)
Ingredients
For the sauce:
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter cut into 4 pieces and chilled, divided
- 1 onion chopped fine
- 5 garlic cloves minced
- 4 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
- 1 serrano chile stemmed, seeded, and minced
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- ½ teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 ½ cups water
- ½ cup tomato paste
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons table salt divided
- 1 cup heavy cream
For the chicken:
- 2 pounds chicken thighs boneless, skinless, trimmed
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt do not use low fat yogurt
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro divided
Instructions
For the sauce:
- Melt 2 tablespoons butter in large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic, ginger, and serrano and cook, stirring frequently, until mixture is softened and onion begins to brown, 8 to 10 minutes.
- Add garam masala, coriander, cumin, and pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add water and tomato paste and whisk until no lumps of tomato paste remain. Add sugar and 1 teaspoon salt and bring to boil.
- Off heat, stir in cream. Using immersion blender or blender, process until smooth, 30 to 60 seconds. Return sauce to simmer over medium heat and whisk in remaining 2 tablespoons butter. Remove saucepan from heat and cover to keep warm. (Sauce can be refrigerated for up to 4 days; gently reheat sauce before adding hot chicken.)
For the chicken:
- Adjust oven rack 6 inches from broiler element and heat broiler.
- Combine chicken, yogurt, and remaining 1 teaspoon salt in bowl and toss well to coat. Using tongs, transfer chicken to wire rack set in aluminum foil—lined rimmed baking sheet. Broil until chicken is evenly charred on both sides and registers 175 degrees, 16 to 20 minutes, flipping chicken halfway through broiling.
- Let chicken rest for 5 minutes. While chicken rests, warm sauce over medium-low heat. Cut chicken into ¾-inch chunks and stir into sauce. Stir in 2 tablespoons cilantro and season with salt to taste. Transfer to serving dish, sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon cilantro, and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
I have eaten butter chicken all over the world (lived in UK for many years). I have tried many times to make it myself, but this was by far the easiest and best tasting – it even surpasses our favourite take out restaurant. Absolutely gorgeous! Yum! Only wish it wasn’t so fattening.
Oh, I agree with you! It’s a treat, and a super easy recipe. Thank you for the positive feedback!
The best butter chicken I have ever made! Leftovers were even better! Thank you.
Yay! That makes me happy to hear that you loved this recipe. It’s so full of flavor, isn’t it?
This is the exact recipe from America’s Test Kitchen. I see your note at the very end acknowledging it, but it seems more honest to your readers if you state right up front that you are cooking their recipe. You also list yourself as the author of the recipe. ???
Being a food blogger, is always an opportunity to be subject to criticism. The “author” is part of the recipe template where I am the person who created the recipe card. Duh. I think you could make it your life’s mission to visit THOUSANDS of food bloggers who post recipes from websites. What I’m doing is sharing a recipe I’ve made from a recipe source. I ALWAYS list the recipe source on the card. Are you saying I should have a banner on each of the posts? I’ve been blogging for 15 years. I do it for FREE to readers, but I actually pay money for my hosting website, recipe software, not to mention my camera equipment. Thank you for your harsh criticism. I continue sharing free recipes, but it’s comments like these that sometimes make me wonder why I bother?