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Tender chicken cooked in a rich, fragrant tomato-based curry sauce makes the perfect butter chicken. Perfect served with steamed rice and naan bread.
Butter Chicken (Or Tikka Masala as it’s also known) is an old favorite of mine. Rich, aromatic tomato-based curry made with tender chicken? Who couldn’t love that? I used chicken breasts for this because it’s what I had in the fridge but boneless chicken thighs will also work well. The nice thing about this curry is that it cooks in 30-45 minutes and the marinating can happen overnight and this takes all of 5 minutes to put together.
So as far as curry goes, this is a really nice quick one. I served the curry with steamed Jasmine rice and Naan that I made from shop-bought bread dough. I simply rolled balls of the dough into oblong shapes and cooked them in a really hot pan for 1-2 minutes per side until they were cooked through then brushed them with melted butter as they came out of the pan. It was absolutely scrumptious and the leftovers are even better the next day.
How do you make Indian butter chicken?
Butter chicken is a tomato-based curry flavored with garam masala, chillies, cinnamon, cloves and yogurt. The chicken is marinated in the yogurt-spice mixture for a few hours before being cooked with onions, garlic, ginger and tomatoes until fragrant. Thereafter, butter and cream are stirred into the curry to give a luscious creaminess to the sauce.
Can I use milk instead of cream in butter chicken?
You could but the end result won’t be the same. The cream adds a silkiness to the sauce and milk won’t give the same result.
Curry recipes
- Chicken korma curry
- Butternut squash curry with crispy chickpeas
- Easy weeknight chicken curry
- Easy cauliflower tikka masala curry
Butter chicken curry
Ingredients
For the marinade
- 2 kg (4lbs) Chicken Breasts cut into bite-sized chunks
- ¾ cup Plain yoghurt
- 2 red chillies
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons Garam Masala
- 2 cardamom pods
- Thumb size piece ginger grated
- 6 garlic cloves
- 800 g (28oz) whole peeled tomatoes
- 400 g (14oz) tomato puree
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
For cooking
- 3 tablespoons oil/ghee
- 2 large onions sliced
- 4 garlic cloves thinly sliced
- ½ cup butter cubed
Instructions
- In a blender, process the spices, yoghurt, tomatoes, ginger and garlic until completely fine. Pour over the chopped chicken and allow to marinade (I left mine for about 2 hours)
- Heat the oil in a hot pot and fry the onions until soft and golden.
- Add the garlic and fry for another minute then add the Chicken and all the marinade and allow to come to the boil.
- Lower the heat and allow to cook for 30-45 minutes until the chicken is fully cooked and the sauce has thickened.
- Add the butter and stir through. Season to taste.
- Serve with Jasmine Rice and Naan Bread.
Nutrition
About to make this just seems a lot of tomatoes 2 tins plus 400g of tomatoes puree might substitute one tin of tomatoes for a 400ml coconut milk
Because this makes a large quantity of Butter chicken (serving easily 10 people), the amount of tomatoes is correct but you could definitely use less. Coconut milk will change the flavor but it will still be very delicious.
My sauce was not nearly as deep and rich in color!! I’m not sure what I did wrong 🙁
Was the flavour good? Different varieties of tomatoes and spice brands can have an effect on the look of the sauce but if it tastes good, that’s all that matters. 🙂
Great recipe! Easy to make and delicious even for my 6 and 3 year old! Will be making this again, once we are able to dig out from all the snow that has fallen in DC. I love how easy you made it and especially appreciate the naan (beats the store bought one). The sauce is perfect. Thanks so much for posting this.
Oh, how I wish I could experience snow like that Maria. Thanks for your lovely comment, I’m so glad you and your family loved this recipe.
I just stumbled upon your site as I searched for curry recipes on Pinterest and OMG I CAN’T WAIT TO TRY THIS. Especially intrigued that naan is that easy to make! Pinned and will be following your blog. 🙂
Alida!! Thank you so much for this winning recipe!!
I made it last night and it was a HUGE success, and so easy to make.
Absolutely divine. 😀
I am so glad you liked it Heleen! Thanks for the lovely comment.
What is C=clove? I want to make this for the wife.
That was just a typo, thanks for pointing it out. I’ve fixed it now.
All of a sudden I find myself reading in Afrikaans while looking for a curry recipe that reminds me of home (I live in Israel) – In case I had any doubts, now I am definitely making this!
I hope you enjoy it! 🙂
Of course! Coconut milk would be lovely.
Can you add coconut milk?
Baie dankie vir jou wonderlike comment. Ek is so bly jy en jou gaste het van hierdie resep gehou. Dit bly maar ‘n wenner!
Dit is ‘n heerlike resep, dankie Alida. Ek het dit gister vir Sondag-middagete gemaak, kompleet met die naan-brood soos joune, en dit was ‘n wenner! My gaste was skoon ongelukkig toe hulle nog wil eet, maar bloot nie meer kan nie. (En ek sien uit na die oorskiet hierdie week vir aandete). Hierdie resep gaan definitief in my “go-to” resepte versameling in. (Ek het die marinade en hoender al Saterdagaand klaargemaak en in die yskas gesit, so Sondag se kook was sommer in ‘n japtrap klaar) Nogmaals dankie vir jou puik resep (en blog!).
Hi,
Have you tried this recipe in the slow-cooker? If so did you need to make any adjustments to the recipe?
Emma, I haven’t (I actually don’t even own one, unfortunately) so I won’t be able to give you much advice regarding slow cooking. Perhaps just add more liquid so it doesn’t dry out?
I do cover it but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. If you find it to be too thick, simply add a splash of water until you reach your desired consitency.
Once everything is in one pot, and I lower the heat on all of the mixture, do I need to cover it? The mixture seems pretty thick right now and I cannot imagine it getting thicker.
Hi, I just wanted to say I saw the picture of this and now i have to make it, but if I may ask what is the herb did you garnish it with in your pictures? And do you put the salt sugar and vinegar in the marinade? Sorry if its there and I’m just missing it. I can’t wait to try this. Thanks
I used chopped coriander and yes, all those ingredients go into the marinade! Hope you enjoy it.
Did you use white vinegar? Would sherry vinegar work?
White vinegar is good because it doesn’t have a very strong flavour but I’m sure sherry vinegar will work just fine.
I just want to say that your photography is beautiful! Every time I click on a photo on food sharing sites due to the styling/photography it almost always brings me here! I hope to one day be this talented. Keep it up, it’s very inspiring 🙂