This authentic Indian Butter Chicken Recipe (Murgh Makhani) is filled with tender pieces of spiced chicken in a richly spiced tomato and cream based sauce.
This traditional Indian dish is served with basmati rice and naan bread.
Lately my husband and I have been hooked on this local Indian restaurant and every time I go I always order the butter chicken. As you can imagine, it can get pretty expensive going out to eat often, so making this dish at home was my goal.
I’m happy to report that I nailed this dish! The chicken is perfectly seasoned and the sauce is thick and creamy and out of this world. It’s the perfect blend of flavors and now I can make it at home to my heart’s content.
Indian Butter Chicken Recipe
Butter Chicken, also referred to as Murgh Makhani, is a traditional Indian dish originating from Northern India in 1948. This recipe consists of seasoned chicken that is cooked in a smooth and silky curry sauce that’s enhanced with butter and heavy cream.
Ingredients For Butter Chicken
Here’s the basic list of ingredients you’ll need in order to make Indian Butter Chicken at home. As always, you can find the full printable recipe card below.
- Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast – you could also use chicken thighs
- Plain Yogurt or Sour Cream
- Spices and Aromatics – Ginger, Garlic, Garam Marsala, Turmeric, Cumin, Chili Powder, Cayenne Pepper
- Butter
- Onion
- Diced or Crushed Tomatoes
- Cashews – to thicken the sauce
- Heavy Cream
- Sugar
How To Make Butter Chicken:
In order to get ultra flavorful and tender chicken, it’s best to marinate your chicken for at least 30 minutes, up to 24 hours (if time allows) in a mixture of spices and plain yogurt. I use sour cream because that’s usually what I have on hand. It works perfectly!
Make Butter Chicken Marinade
Combine the sour cream (or plain greek yogurt), garlic, ginger, garam marsala, turmeric, cumin, chili powder and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine.
Stir in the bite sized pieces of chicken and cover, allowing to marinate.
Sear Chicken
Heat olive oil in a large pan and cook chicken in batches, until browned on all sides.
Make Butter Chicken Sauce
Once you’ve cooked your chicken pieces in the pan, put them aside on a plate and keep warm. Now you’ll cook the sauce in the same pan, making sure to scrap any browned bits off the bottom for maximum flavor!
- Add butter to the pan and toss in sliced onion. Cook until tender about 7 minutes.
- Toss in the garlic, ginger, cumin and garam marsala and cook until fragrant, then add in the tomatoes, chili powder, cayenne pepper (depending on how spicy you like it), salt and cashews.
- Bring mixture to a simmer and cook until it’s a deep red color and very fragrant.
Blend The Sauce
In order to get an ultra creamy and rich sauce you’ll add the sauce ingredients (including the cashews) to your blender and processing until smooth.
PRO TIP: The mixture will be pretty thick at this point, which is just fine. We’ll be adding in more butter and heavy cream to bring it to the perfect silky consistency.
Finish The Sauce
Once you’ve added your blended sauce back to the pan, stir in the heavy cream gradually until the mixture comes together and is silky smooth. Add the chicken back to the pan and cook until the chicken is cooked through.
What really takes this dish over the top is, well… more butter! Once you’ve simmered your chicken and sauce together, stir in a few tablespoons of butter to add a delicious richness to the sauce.
Tips and FAQ
Cashews are a traditional way to add a slight nutty flavor while also thickening the sauce to that perfect consistency. We’re not adding any cornstarch or flour to our recipe, making it a truly authentic dish that’s thick and creamy.
Yes, it’s a crucial ingredient that gives this dish that signature flavor. You can find this spice either in the spice aisle of your local grocery store, in the Asian foods aisle or on Amazon.
Adjust the spice level of this dish by adding more or less cayenne pepper. With ZERO cayenne pepper it’s very mild and kid friendly. Add up to 1 tsp of cayenne pepper for more heat.
Use pork, lamb, shrimp or even garbanzo beans in place of the chicken for a nice variation.
Make Ahead and Storage
Making Butter Chicken ahead of time is one of my favorite ways to be able to get this dinner on the table during a busy weeknight.
Make Ahead
The chicken can be prepped and marinated ahead of time, up to 24 hours.
Storage
Store the prepared dish in the fridge for up to 5 days in an airtight container.
You can also freeze Butter Chicken for up to 3 months. Let defrost in the fridge overnight and reheat over a simmer on the stove top. Add extra cream or butter if needed to thin the sauce.
You’ll be blown away by the flavor, texture and taste of this authentic Butter Chicken Recipe. I’m thrilled to be able to make this over and over again at my house and skip going out to eat at the expensive Indian restaurant!
More Indian Recipes:
- Roasted Curry Chicken and Brussels Sprouts
- Chicken Tikka Masala
- Shrimp Tikka Masala
- Naan Bread
- Curry Beef Stew
Authentic Butter Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
For the Chicken:
For the Butter Chicken Sauce:
- 6 tbsp butter, divided
- 1 medium yellow onion, sliced
- 1 tbsp garlic, minced
- 2 tsp ginger, minced
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 15oz can crushed tomatoes
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, up to 1 tsp (optional according to spice preference)
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup cashews, unsalted
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 tbsp sugar
Instructions
For the Chicken:
- Combine the chicken ingredients in a large bowl and stir until the chicken is coated completely. Cover with plastic wrap and let marinade for at least 30 minutes, up to overnight if time allows in refrigerator.
- Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Sear chicken pieces in oil, until browned all each side, about 3 minutes. Chicken will not get cooked through here, but later on in the sauce. Don’t overcrowd the pan, you will have to work in batches, adding more oil if necessary. Set chicken aside on a plate to keep warm.
For the Butter Chicken Sauce:
- To the same pan that was used to cook the chicken, add 3 tbsp of butter and let it melt over medium heat. Toss in the onions and let cook about 5 to 7 minutes, scraping any browned bits off the bottom of the pan.
- Add in the garlic, ginger, cumin and garam masala and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Stir in the tomatoes, chili powder, cayenne (if using), salt and cashews. Bring mixture to a slight simmer for about 10 minutes, until mixture turns a deep red color.
- Scoop mixture into a blender and process until smooth. Pour mixture back into the skillet over low to medium heat and gradually stir in the heavy cream and sugar.
- Add the chicken (and any juices) back into the sauce and bring to a simmer, stirring frequently. Finally add in the remaining 3 tbsp of butter and let it melt into the sauce as you stir. Serve warm with basmati rice, warm naan bread and enjoy!
Nutrition
I’ve made this so many times. My family loves this butter chicken recipe. When I marinate the chicken for 2-3 days it is just that much better!
I added 1 tsp of cayenne pepper instead of the 1/4 tsp listed in the recipe. One of the best Indian dishes ever!
Love this recipe. I am making for 10 people over Christmas period. Could you please tell me quantities to use.
Hi Karen! If you hover your mouse over the servings number listed in the recipe card you can adjust the serving size there and it’ll adjust the quantities for the recipe. I would recommend doubling the recipe to serve 10 people with a little extra to spare. Enjoy!
This was incredible!
Hello. I have a question the 2 tablespoons of olive oil are they added to the chicken marinade or are used to cook the chicken on the pan?
Love the well rounded flavor of your Indian Butter Chicken!!! I also successfully added the Sauce to other vegetarian vegetable dishes. Thanks for a great recipe!
This recipe was very good, much better than others I have tried.
I made a slight alteration to blitz the cashews, tomatoes and cooked onions all together before cooking.
The small amount of cayenne does make it very hot so leave it out if you don’t like it hot.
Ok so we cannot handle any spicy hot. Should we eliminate anything else in addition to the cayenne? Tia
it is truly the best butter chicken I ever ate! Easy to make, great in taste!
So glad you enjoyed the recipe Daniela!
Wow. I made this recipe for my family tonight and it’s easily the best, most flavorful butter chicken I’ve ever had. We used to eat at a local Indian restaurant but recently moved away. We were so sad to not have a place to go to anymore. I’m so happy I found this recipe that I can easily make and enjoy time and again!
Yay! That’s so great to hear!! I’m so glad you enjoyed it and can now make it at home!
Delicious!! My family loved this!
Wonderful recipe, this is now my go to recipe for butter chicken. Everyone requests it alot. I sub coconut milk for the yogurt and coconut cream for the heavy cream, because my son is lactose intolerant and it turns out great!
This recipe is awesome!!!!
I tried a different recipe once and it was awful, my family and myself were so pleased with this one it was gone so fast and even my youngest who doesn’t like things even a little spicy ate all hers. So good, Thankyou!!!
So great to hear Dani! We sure love this recipe too. My 2 year old gobbles it up every time!
Hi! Can I make this dish a little lighter?
It’s already got butter. Can I omit the heavy cream since it has so many calories? Would it work to substitute milk? Thanks!
Hi, I see that it says there are 471 kcal per serving. Is that right? Or is it 471 calories per serving? Thank you!
They actually mean the same thing. 😉
I’ve made this multiple times & my family LOVES it. I was just wondering how could I convert this to work in a crockpot? If you have any tips or have heard of anyone else using that method with this recipe.
I’m not sure how to convert this recipe to the slow cooker and get the same results. If you give it a try let us know how it goes!
I have whole chicken ,have you ever marinated whole chickenwith the yogurt mixture?
I haven’t tried it with a whole chicken, but I’m sure it would taste amazing!
Made this yesterday for the family, added a bit more Hot chilli powder than stated because even the kids like it hot. It went down a treat, they said it was the best one I’d made. I loved it too, really great rich deep flavours to it and great consistency to the sauce. A new family favourite. Thanks for the recipe.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe Phillip!
This was the best butter chicken I’ve ever made!! So good. I’m a kiwi living in the USA and haven’t been able to find any good Indian packet meals like they have back home….I don’t need to now! This is better than the curry shops at home. I’m going to put it in pastry and make butter chicken pies out of it too!
One question though….while the flavor was amazing, it wasn’t that smooth. Maybe I need a better blender? Or put it in the food processor? I did soak the cashews for an hour or so beforehand…
That’s so great to hear Andy! I’m glad you enjoyed it. And yes, I use a high powered blender and it creates a smooth sauce. I would just blend longer, or use your food processor.
Try blitzing the cashews (dry) to powder/paste prior to cooking. You’ll get a much finer grind than blending the whole mixture later.
Oh my goodness…this was absolutely fantastic! I would give it 10 stars if I could. This tasted just like my favorite restaurant. I have to say I omitted the cashews because I didn’t have them but it was still amazing. This recipe is a keeper for sure – even my dad (who is a very picky eater) loved it. This is definitely going into my recipe rotation.
So great to hear Casey! Glad you all enjoyed it!
Hi Shawn! I would like to know if the cashew is optional? I have visitors coming over my house and would love to serve this dish but not sure if any of them are allergic to nuts. Thanks!!
Someone else made this recipe without the cashews and it worked for them! Hope that helps!
My whole family loves this recipe and asks for me to make it all the time. I substitute heavy cream for coconut cream which works well. Is there something dairy free I can substitute the yogurt/sour cream with? The dairy upsets my son’s stomach
Made recipe as shown but left out cayenne for my daughter. This recipe was awrsome! Better than any jar sauce I’ve used.
Amazing! Loved it so much even though I had to change a few things based on what I had on hand and skillet size. I baked the chicken in the oven at 400 till just past pink. I used full fat sour cream instead of heavy cream and the same sour cream instead of yogurt. I also used fresh tomatoes from the garden that I cooked up just beforehand. Everything else the same. Absolutely yummy! Thanks for the awesome recipe.
This was such an easy and delicious recipe! Everyone in my family loved it and went back for seconds.
I love that! So glad you all enjoyed it Shelly!
I made this with what I had. Greek yogurt instead of regular, that’s the only change.
It was amazing.
We get this from a local Indian restaurant, this was as good as the restaurants for sure.
The leftover that we froze and had a week later was a lot hotter spice wise. I did use a little more cayenne than was called for but I don’t think I would change a thing
My wife begged me to leave it as is.
Fantastic! I’m so glad you were able to make it work with what you had. And yes!! The cayenne will intensify the longer the sauce sits, so keep that in mind for the future. 😉
Made this tonight. It is spot on! I love this dish so much!!!!!
That’s so great to hear! We sure love this one too!
I tried the recipe, and it’s delicious! I made it a little lighter by using low fat yogurt, low fat cream and only 50g butter, and it was still delicious! Also, towards the end, I felt the sauce was a bit too thick, so added around 1/2 c hot water to thin it out a little bit.
I love that! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
So good!! This has become a favorite of my two teenage sons! Thank you!!
Wonderful to hear! I’m so glad you guys are enjoying it Katie!
Is the nutrition per serving including rice?
No, it does not include the rice.
Do you just use flour or corn starch for thickening if you can’t use nuts?
You could use cornstarch for thickening this sauce.
Hi Shawn,
I just made your recipe for butter chicken and it was so amazing !! The flavours were so bright! Thank you so much for great recipe!!
My first Indian dish, and what a treat!
Thank you guys for posting wonderful recipes!!
I have been doing all the cooking, as my employer shut down during the quarantine and my wife’s did not. I have relied heavily on your website to keep the meals interesting.
This was delicious (as were the others)!
I’m so glad to hear that Charlie! You have one lucky wife! 😉
This is restaurant quality!! My almost 3 year old ate it!! And he’s so picky! I served my husband first and he highly complimented me which I thought, well it’s Mother’s Day weekend he’s just being extra nice! —- then I sat down took a bit …. WOW!! I was blown away and wanted seconds!
So easy and absolutely DELICIOUS!!
Haha! That’s so awesome Emily! I’m so glad you all enjoyed it! Thanks for your sweet comment!
Hi! Wondering if you soak the cashews first? Or just throw it in the sauce dry and whole? I’m very confused about that part.
No need to soak the cashews first. Hope you enjoy!
I’m actually trying this now as a type and it smells delicious! For the last step when you add the chicken to the pot how long would you say to simmer it for?
I was wondering the same thing. Could someone please share how long after to cook the chicken? I don’t want to over cook mine… I don’t typically eat meat but this dish would be for my daughters birthday.
Sorry for the late response here, but you’ll just need to add the chicken back to the pan and let it simmer until the chicken is cooked through. It shouldn’t be any longer than 10 minutes. Hope that helps!
Hey Nicole! You’ll only need to simmer it until the chicken is cooked through. I would say just an additional 5 to 10 minutes should do it.
Hi there!
I’m excited to try this but I was wondering what quantity the nutrition facts are for. Is it for the entire sauce or per serving? Thank you!
The nutrition facts are per serving. 🙂 I hope you enjoy!
After having butter chicken for the first time at my local Indian restaurant, I was dying to make it at home to compliment some of my other Indian dishes. This is third butter chicken recipe I have tried off the web. The others were good but this was outstanding. I would say a top ten recipe of all time for me. My guy loved it, too. It was a bit of work, but worth it. I used 1 1/2 lbs. of boneless, skinless thighs. I also put the cream in the blender and pulsed it a few times (just a few, you don’t want to make whipped cream) after blending the sauce and emptying the blender back into the pan so that I could get the last bit of sauce out of the blender with the cream. Finally, I did a test freeze of the sauce and it seemed to be OK after reheating–no change to the consistency or flavor. Thank you SO much for posting this recipe.
I’m so glad you guys enjoyed it Janis! It’s one of those recipes that I crave all the time now! 🙂
Made this last night- followed the directions to the letter. It was beyond delicious! What a phenomenal recipe. The bonus was that the yogurt produces ultra-tender chicken.
That’s so great to hear Barbara! It’s definitely one of my new favorites! We love it too. 🙂
What can I substitute the heavy cream with? Can I add more yogurt or sour cream instead? It tends to upset my stomach when I use heavy cream in my sauces!
I would try something more liquid like half and half before trying to add yogurt.
You can substitute heavy cream with coconut cream or coconut milk. Cashew milk might work but I haven’t tried that before.
I have some experience with Indian food; my husband is vegetarian, and this cuisine has many amazing and flavoured dishes.I’m not vegetarian, so this recipe is very welcommed.Thanks for sharing.
I hope you enjoy it!
I dont like spicy hot. Is it spicy?
The recipe as written with NO cayenne is not spicy at all. I would omit the cayenne and you should be just fine!
Could you give me an approximate weight for the 3 chicken breasts? There’s a huge difference in chicken breast sizes at the store.
You’ll want about 1 1/2 pounds of chicken. More or less should not effect the end result.
Tried this recipe and it was amazing. It’s now a new family favorite. Try it with Indian fried sweet potato cakes.
So glad you enjoyed it Kristina!
Thank you for the prompt response. My husband saw the photo and immediately said he wanted it for dinner!
I can’t wait to try this! Any missing ingredients will be going on my grocery list!
Fantastic! Hope you enjoy it Lynda!