The Perfect Butter Chicken

  
This rich, buttery, creamy curry needs no introduction. Butter chicken, without any doubt is one of the most well known and most loved dishes around the world.   

  

 
I came to know recently from chef Gordon Ramsay’s show,  Gordon’s great escape that this dish has its background in Punjabi cuisine and was developed by Kundan Lal Gujral, owner of Moti Mahal restaurant situated in the capital city of India, New Delhi. It seems this dish was originated to end the problem of excess chicken tikka, which if left overnight gets hard and fibrous. What a great idea to use up leftover tikka, i must say! 

   

Butter chicken is a must in all Indian restaurants (mainly the north indian ones). You can rate the quality of a restaurant by trying out their butter chicken. According to me, a restaurant is not worth going to the second time if they dont serve a good, satisfying plate of butter chicken. 

  
It is a fav among the kuwaitis here, but i actually dont get that satisfaction when i have it from restaurants here. I like to have mine spicy, creamy and flavorful with a sweetness that balances all the flavors. But here, they modify the recipe to satisfy the locals taste buds and makes it sugary sweet, less spicy and very bland. 

   
 
Butter chicken is made with pureed juicy tomatoes, and spices are cooked in butter and finished off with a rich cream. The aroma of the kasuri methi/dried fenugreek leaves is the highlight of the dish. The chicken is marinated in a yoghurt based marinade, grilled (i shallow fried it) and cooked further in the prepared gravy. It goes very well with soft naan, ghee rice or even with biryani like how the hyderabadis have it. 
   
  

I have been searching for that perfect butter chicken recipe for soo sooo long, and i finally found it. I got it from aarthi’s blog yummy tummy aarthi. I seriously made butter chicken a million times before, but would never get happy with the results. But with this recipe i got exactly the restaurant style butter chicken. My husband loved it very very much, which made me super happy. Thanks a loot Aarthi for this awesome recipe. 🙂

  

Ingredients:

  • 2 tbsp Oil

For marination:

  • 500g chicken
  • 1/2 cup yoghurt
  • 1 tsp chilli powder
  • 1 tsp garam masala powder
  • 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
  • Salt to taste

For gravy:

  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 large onion chopped
  • 2 tsp ginger garlic paste
  • 11/2 tsp red chilli powder
  • 1 tsp garam masala powder
  • 2 1/2 – 3 tsp sugar
  • Salt to taste
  • 2 large tomatoes pureed
  • 1/4 cup cream
  • 1 tbsp kasuri methi crushed
  • Water as required

Notes:

✔️ Red food color can be added if you want. 
✔️ You can adjust the thickness of the gravy by adding more or less water. 

Method:

  

  1. Marinate the chicken in above mentioned ingredients and leave for 15-20 minutes. 
  2. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a frying pan and place the marinated chicken in a single layer and cook them on high flame till chicken is charred on all sides. Set this aside.  
  3. In a heavy bottompan heat oil and butter and heat up. 
  4. Add in zeera and let sizzle. Add onions and sauté till onion is well browned. 
  5. Add in ginger garlic paste and sauté well. 
  6. Add in the chilli pdr, garam masala pdr, salt and sugar and mix well and cook for 30 seconds. 
  7. Pour in the tomato puree and mix well. Cover and cook for 8-10 mns till oil starts separating.   
  8. Let the mixture cool and then blend this in a blender till smooth. 
  9. Return this back to the pan, pour required amount of water ( i used 11/2 cups of water)
  10. Add in fried chicken pieces and cook in low heat till chicken gets cooked completely for about 15-20 mins.
  11. Once chicken is cooked, add the crushed kasuri methi. Pour in the cream. Simmer again for another 5 mins.
  12. Switch off the flame and add in coriander leaves. 

 

The Perfect Butter Chicken

A rich, creamy and buttery chicken curry.
Servings 4

Ingredients
  

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 tbsp Oil

For marination

  • 500 g chicken
  • 1/2 cup yoghurt
  • 1 tsp chilli powder
  • 1 tsp garam masala powder
  • 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
  • Salt to taste

For gravy

  • 3 tbsp butter
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
  • 1 large onion chopped
  • 2 tsp ginger garlic paste
  • 11/2 tsp red chilli powder
  • 1 tsp garam masala powder
  • 2 1/2 – 3 tsp sugar
  • Salt to taste
  • 2 large tomatoes pureed
  • 1/4 cup cream
  • 1 tbsp kasuri methi crushed
  • Water as required

Instructions
 

DIRECTIONS

  • Marinate the chicken in above mentioned ingredients and leave for 15-20 minutes.
  • Heat 2 tbsp oil in a frying pan and place the marinated chicken in a single layer and cook them on high flame till chicken is charred on all sides. Set this aside.
  • In a heavy bottompan heat oil and butter and heat up.
  • Add in zeera and let sizzle. Add onions and sauté till onion is well browned.
  • Add in ginger garlic paste and sauté well.
  • Add in the chilli pdr, garam masala pdr, salt and sugar and mix well and cook for 30 seconds.
  • Pour in the tomato puree and mix well. Cover and cook for 8-10 mns till oil starts separating.
  • Let the mixture cool and then blend this in a blender till smooth.
  • Return this back to the pan, pour required amount of water ( i used 11/2 cups of water)
  • Add in fried chicken pieces and cook in low heat till chicken gets cooked completely for about 15-20 mins.
  • Once chicken is cooked, add the crushed kasuri methi. Pour in the cream. Simmer again for another 5 mins.
  • Switch off the flame and add in coriander leaves.

Notes

Notes:
* Red food color can be added if you want.
* You can adjust the thickness of the gravy by adding more or less water.

   
  

36 thoughts on “The Perfect Butter Chicken

  1. Sadia, I made your butter chicken this weekend, and my whole family absolutely loved it! It was so delicious. It was fun using spices I had never used before. It smelled so good while it was cooking. I know I will be making it again and again. Thank you so much for this yummy recipe!

  2. Hi Sadia, It’s me again! 🙂 I’m sorry to be such a pest. I have another question. I made your butter chicken again, and it came out completely different. I loved it both times, but this last time it looks more like your picture. The thing that was different about it was the amount of spiciness. It was very spicy this last time, and we enjoyed that even more. I think I know what I did. The first time I used regular chili powder that we have in the states here. The 2nd time when I went to the Asian food store, I saw red chili powder and since this is what the second half of your recipe calls for, I got some and used that instead in the gravy. My question is, what do you use? Do you use the red chili powder in the marinade and the gravy or just chili powder? I was just curious. It was wonderful. We love spicy foods! Thanks so much!

  3. Lovely recipe and Amazing pics as always. I have a doubt. Since we are blending the onion tomato mix after cooking. Can we use chopped tomatoes and then once the oil separates blend together. Will it make a difference. Just a suggestion dear.

  4. سلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته
    الحمد الله made this butter chicken along with your batura … both came out yumm!! JazakiAllahu khairan once again

    Btw… I skipped only one ingredient from the butter chicken recipe and that’s sugar. May I know why is it actually being added for spicy foods ?

    1. Walaikumsalaam wrwb
      Alhamdulillah you liked the curryand batura. So glad 🙂
      Sugar actually blends all the flavors. I like to add sugar in creamy curries. It makes the gravy more delicious I feel.

      1. Oh I see… nevertheless it was still finger licking good without the sugar sadia! I’m gonna stick with this recipe , in shaa Allah 🙂

  5. Thank you for this awesome recipe. I tried it today and everyone in my family loved it…am making it again this weekend, on their demand : ) Take care!

  6. Hey there! Such a lovely dish and your post is very useful for preparing.

    Thank you for sharing such a great recipe 🙂

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