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Butter Chicken is the most popular Indian dish in the world and consists of aromatic chicken pieces in a flavorful rich creamy tomato gravy. It is also called Murgh Makhani or Chicken Makhani. This recipe is the only one you will ever need to create this iconic dish.
Like in almost every Indian household, butter chicken is the most favorite Chicken dish in my home as well. As you can imagine I’ve probably experimented 20-25 Butter Chicken recipes, if not more. Some require you to grill the chicken, whereas other need you to blend a paste, I’ve tried it all.
I call this the best Butter Chicken Recipe because of the following reasons;
- You fry onions in one pan and cook the chicken in another, this brings your cooking time down to half, yay!
- You use caramelized onions that melt into the gravy and gives that great restaurant-style texture that you will absolutely love. And you don’t need to blend anything and saves you from washing the blender jar. (if you know, you know it counts)
- In several recipes I tried, you cook chicken marinated in yogurt and most of the time the yogurt would split and leave a white grainy texture. This won’t happen in this one!
- It is quite a forgiving recipe even if you don’t follow it to a T.
I’ve used Chicken Breasts for this recipe, but you can swap it for whole chicken or thighs.
Here is a time-lapse video of how I cook this dish. I’m cooking 1 kg chicken here, so double the quantities as mentioned in the recipe.
The best Butter Chicken ever
Ingredients
- 500 gm Chicken breast cut into small pieces, drained and marinated with ½ tsp turmeric and ½ tsp chilli powder
- Cooking Oil
- 1 Bay leaf
- 3 Cardamom/Elaichi
- ¼ tsp Carom Seeds/Ajwain
- 2 1" Cinnamon sticks
- 4 Cloves
- 1 Mace/Javitri Strand
- ½ tsp Black peppercorns
- 3 Medium-sized Onions sliced
- 2 tsp Ginger Garlic Paste or 4 cloves of garlic and 1" ginger pressed
- 3 tbsp Hung Curd or Greek Yogurt beaten
- 1 green Chilli slit
- 1 tbsp Mint leaves chopped
- 1 tbsp Coriander powder
- 2 tsp Red chilli powder
- ¾ cup Tomato Puree or 2 tbsp double concentrated tomato puree/Tomatenmark
- 100 ml Butter
- 1 tsp Garam Masala
- 2 tsp Dry Fenugreek leaves / Kasoori Methi
- ½ cup Fresh cream
- 1 handful Coriander leaves chopped
Instructions
- Clean and cut chicken, let it drain. Marinate the chicken pieces in ½ tsp Red Chilli powder, ½ tsp Turmeric powder and 1 tsp salt. Set aside.
- Slice Onions. Now heat two pans simultaneously, one for the chicken and one to brown the onions.
- Add 4 tbsp Oil in the pan to brown the Onions. Once the oil is hot, add the Onions. Fry until golden brown. Drain and set the fried onions aside.
- Heat 2 tbsp Oil in the pan for the chicken. Add the bay leaf, cardamom, cinnamon, carom seeds, mace strand and black peppercorns. Let it splutter.
- Once the spices releases its aroma add the Chicken. On high heat give it a good mix for 1-2m minutes.
- Now add the Ginger Garlic Paste. Mix well. Cover with lid and let the chicken cook for 8-12 minutes until the chicken is no longer pink inside. Switch off flame.
- In the pan that the onions were fried, add 1 tbsp oil. Once the oil is hot add the tomato puree. Cook it for 5-6 minutes until it thickens. If you are using double concentrated tomato puree this will get cooked in 2-3 minutes.
- Into the chicken add the fried onions, greek yogurt, green chilli, mint leaves, coriander powder, 1 tsp red chilli powder, and tomato puree. Mix well. Let it sit for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, heat the pan that the onions were fried in again. Add the butter. Let it melt until you hear the crackling sound. Pour the melted butter over the marinated chicken.
- Put the marinated chicken on flame again. Combine everything well. Cover and cook on medium flame for 10 minutes.
- Now add the Garam Masala and Kasoori Methi. Mix well.
- Add Salt to taste.
- Now add the fresh cream and chopped Coriander leaves. Mix well and bring it to a boil and then immediately switch off flame.
- Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve with Rice or Naan. Enjoy!
This recipe has turned into a staple in my Kitchen now. The kids love it with rice and me with Naan.
If you’ve enjoyed the Best Butter Chicken Recipe you will also enjoy my other recipes here.
Already tried it? Let me know how you liked it in comments or on Instagram.
