Butter Chicken Recipe
March 11, 2026
Indulge in rich, creamy butter chicken (also known as chicken makhani butter chicken) with this easy butter chicken recipe! Perfectly spiced, tender chicken simmers in a luscious butter chicken sauce for a restaurant-quality dish made at home. Wondering how to make butter chicken from scratch? This foolproof recipe walks you through every step. Serve it with naan or rice for a gorgeous Indian fakeaway!
Indulge in rich, creamy butter chicken (also known as chicken makhani butter chicken) with this easy butter chicken recipe! Perfectly spiced, tender chicken simmers in a luscious butter chicken sauce for a restaurant-quality dish made at home. Wondering how to make butter chicken from scratch? This foolproof recipe walks you through every step. Serve it with naan or rice for a gorgeous Indian fakeaway!
Key products
Instructions
Instructions
- In a medium bowl combine all marinade ingredients with diced chicken. Be sure marinade covers chicken. Leave to marinate for a minimum of 30 minutes at room temperature, if marinating for longer than 1.5 hours, refrigerate.
- While the chicken marinates, prepare sauce ingredients. Once chicken has marinated, heat 2 Tbsp ghee in a medium deep frying pan on a medium-high heat until hot. Add chicken in batches so it doesn’t overcrowd the pan, get some colour on all sides, but just a quick sear as you will finish cooking It later in the sauce. Once each batch of chicken is seared, remove with a spoon into a medium bowl and set aside.
- In the same pan start sauce by adding in onion, and on a medium heat sweat for a few minutes until starting to soften, then add ginger and garlic, and cook for another couple of minutes. Then add all spices and sea salt, stir well and cook for 1-2 mins or just until fragrant.
- Then add tomato puree, cook 2 minutes then add crushed tomatoes and a splash of water, give everything a good stir and lower the heat to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring regularly.
- Once that’s reduced, optionally blend mixture with hand blender off the heat.
- Place the pan back on a medium heat, add cream and chicken with their juices and stir. Simmer gently for another 5-10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is to the consistency of your liking.
- To serve, spoon into bowls and top with coriander leaf and black onion seeds and serve along side rice or naan, or both!
- Cooking Tip For richness, finish with an extra tablespoon ghee jsut before serving.
