Indian Butter Chicken 🍗🧈🍅 is an EASY, ONE-POT recipe for a classic Indian favorite! Juicy, BUTTERY chicken simmered in a CREAMY tomato-based sauce! Next time you’re craving Indian food, you can make it yourself in 30 minutes!
Easy Butter Chicken Recipe
I am by no means an expert in Indian cooking. Or for any ethnic recipes that I share, from Mexican to Asian. But after plenty of research, trial, and error, and condensing some very complicated and time-consuming recipes for Indian butter chicken into this very straightforward and easy one, I can definitely say that it’s a winner that my daughter and I loved.
- It reminds me a lot of my Chicken Tikka Masala, but rather than having to marinate the chicken overnight in a Greek yogurt-based marinade, no planning ahead is required for Indian butter chicken. Score!
- Sweet Vidalia onions are caramelized in butter before adding the chicken, garlic, and a slew of spices, including garam masala, cumin, turmeric, and ginger. I am not shy when adding spices because flavor development is my goal and bland food is my nemesis.
- None of the spices are so exotic that they are hard to find and you can find them all in your regular grocery store. Keeping recipes convenient enough so that people actually make them is important to me!
- Garnished with cilantro and served on top of basmati rice or cauliflower rice with a side of naan, this is a keeper that’s faster than going to your local Indian restaurant because it’s ready in 30 minutes and tastes every bit as amazing. It may be a simple butter chicken recipe, but I promise it’s packed with flavor!
Indian Butter Chicken Ingredients
To make this simple butter chicken recipe (including the addicting butter chicken sauce), you’ll need:
- Unsalted butter
- Sweet Vidalia onion
- Chicken breasts – If preferred, boneless skinless chicken thighs will also work
- Garlic
- Kosher salt and pepper – I used no-salt-added tomato sauce and used nearly 2 teaspoons salt in total, but if you’re using salted tomato sauce 1 teaspoon salt will likely be enough
- Heavy whipping cream
- Tomato sauce
- Basmati rice, for serving
- Fresh cilantro , for garnishing
The butter chicken spices that I used included:
- Garam masala, ground cumin, ground turmeric, ground ginger, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Butter Chicken
The best butter chicken recipe, this is quick, easy, and as good as it gets! Here are the basic steps to making this simple butter chicken recipe:
- Heat a little butter in a skillet and sauté the onions until they begin to soften and caramelize.
- Add the diced chicken to the skillet and cook until almost done.
- Then, stir in the spices and garlic, allowing the ingredients to blend.
- You can’t have butter chicken without plenty of butter! After adding the spices, you add (more) butter and heavy cream. It’s a full-fat dairy marriage in heaven that produces a buttery, creamy, full-bodied sauce that is butter chicken’s signature.
- Let the sauce bubble away until thickened, then serve the butter chicken over rice and garnish with fresh cilantro.
What to Serve with Homemade Butter Chicken
Recipe FAQs
Yes, very easily! You can sub cubed tofu or chickpeas for the chicken if desired.
Not that I’m aware of. Indian butter chicken is one of those dishes where full-fat butter and cream is a must.
If you tried to use a substitute like whole milk or yogurt, I’m not sure how well the butter chicken would taste. Not to mention the butter chicken sauce would likely be super runny.
A few readers have reported success using full-fat coconut milk or coconut cream alond with dairy-free butter to keep this recipe dairy-free, but both options would of course add a coconut flavor to the recipe.
If you’re a sauce fan, this recipe produces an abundant amount of butter chicken sauce as written.
If you don’t want it as saucy, you can scale back on the amount of tomato sauce and/or cream. The sauce it good enough to slurp down as if it were a soup, which I relished doing.
No, the cayenne pepper in this dish doesn’t make it spicy. It just adds a nice depth of flavor. However, you’re welcome to add more cayenne pepper or red chili powder if you like things spicy.
Indian Butter Chicken
Equipment
Ingredients
- ¾ cup unsalted butter, 1/2 stick + 1 stick, divided
- 1 large sweet Vidalia or yellow onion, diced small
- 1.50 pounds boneless skinless chicken breast, diced into bite-sized pieces
- 4 cloves garlic, finely minced or pressed
- 2 tablespoons garam masala
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 1 tablespoon turmeric
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger or 1+ tablespoon fresh ginger, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream, see Notes below
- one 8-ounce can tomato sauce, I used no-salt added; see Notes below
- basmati rice, or your favorite rice, for serving
- ⅓ cup fresh cilantro leaves, or to taste for garnishing
Instructions
- To a large skillet add 1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick), onion, and sauté over medium-high heat until the onions begins to soften and caramelize about 5 minutes; stir intermittently. It does not have to be fully caramelized before moving on.
- Add the chicken and cook for about 5 minutes, or until chicken is done; flip and stir often to ensure even cooking.
- Add the garlic, stir to combine, and cook for about 1 minute, or until fragrant; stir frequently.
- Add the garam masala, cumin, turmeric, ginger, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper (does not make it spicy but adds depth of flavor), and stir to combine.
- Add the remaining 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter and heat until it has melted; stir frequently to encourage melting.
- Add the heavy cream, tomato sauce, stir to combine, and allow mixture to simmer for about 10 minutes, or until sauce has thickened and reduced slightly. Taste and if desired, add additional salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, etc.
- Add rice to the serving plates and top with chicken and as much sauce as desired.
- Evenly garnish with cilantro and serve immediately. Dish is best warm and fresh but will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Notes
- If you’re a sauce fan, this recipe produces an abundant amount of sauce as written. If you don’t want it as saucy, you can scale back on the amount of tomato sauce and/or cream.
- I used no-salt added tomato sauce and used nearly 2 teaspoons salt in total, but if you’re using salted tomato sauce 1 teaspoon salt will likely be enough.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Originally posted April 9, 2018 and reposted January 20, 2023 with updated text.
Absolutely delicious! My first time trying Indian and I’m hooked. Yumm!
Thank you for the five star review donna and I am so flattered that my recipe was the first Indian recipe you had tried and now you’re hooked!
I’ve made this recipe twice now and it’s delicious! The only modifications I made was to use sweet curry powder instead of cayenne for spice and coconut milk instead of heavy cream.
Thanks for the 5 star review, Sarah, and I love that you’ve made it twice and the ideas of sweet curry powder and coconut milk both sound absolutely lovely!
Most excellent!!! I served with cucumber slices and basmati. I also added chunks of carrot near the end and they were delicious. Thank you
Thanks for the 5 star review, Mardi, and I’m glad to hear this was most excellent for you!
It was quite difficult while making but it tasted like heaven it was as if I had been to heaven for a while 😍😍💭❤️❤️💓💞
I am glad you enjoyed the recipe and it tasted heavenly!
I love the food, it tastes really nice
Mine was not nearly as pretty, but it was easy and delicious, which counts more than appearance in my book! :) My whole family loved it (including two boys ages 15 and 11!) Thank you!
Thanks for the 5 star review, Nikki, and glad that your two boys loved it too – and it is HARD sometimes to get certain types of food to look picture-perfect, and this is one of those types, haha! Glad it tasted great and was easy!
LOVE this recipe. I make it at least once every two weeks, it’s a firm favourite in my household.
I add peas for some extra veg and I’m very liberal with the cayenne pepper addition. I also make it with tofu occasionally, I bake it and add it in to soak up the sauce while the sauce simmers.
Can’t recommend this recipe any more highly, it’s wonderful. Thank you
Thanks for the 5 star review and I’m glad you make this very frequently and it’s a household favorite! And that you make it with peas, tofu, cayenne adjustments…all wonderful to hear you adapt to your needs as necessary!