Easy Homemade Butter Chicken Recipe

On By MeghaIn Food

It is one of the most popular Indian (non-vegetarian) dishes relished all over the world where Indian food is eaten. Famous for its rich creamy texture and the bright tandoori colour this is one of those recipes that will stay in your heart for a very long time.

Butter Chicken:

Servings: 4

Difficulty Level: Medium

Ingredients:

  • Chicken – 1 kg (preferably boneless)
  • Yoghurt – 1.5 cup
  • Garlic paste – 1 tbsp
  • Ginger paste- 3 tbsp
  • Garam Masala powder – 1 Tsp
  • Lemon juice – 1 tbsp
  • Green Chilies – 4 finely chopped
  • Red Chili powder – 2to3 tsp
  • Butter – 3tbsp (approx 100 gm)
  • Dry Fenugreek leaves/ Kasoori Methi – 2 Tsp
  • Whole Garam Masala (cinnamon, bay leaf, black peppercorns, cloves) – 1 tbsp
  • Green Cardamoms – 5
  • Tomato puree – 400 gm
  • Honey – 1tbsp
  • Cream – 1/2 cup (approx 100 gm)
  • Salt – to taste
  • Cooking oil – 2 tbsp ( for marinade)
  • Tandoori food colour – 1 Tsp

Method:

To Marinate:

  • Make incisions on chicken pieces. If boneless, cut the chicken into 1-inch cubes.
  • Apply a mixture of 1 tsp red chilli powder,1 tablespoon lemon juice and pinch salt to chicken pieces and set aside for half an hour.
  • Hang yoghurt in a soft muslin cloth for 20 minutes to remove all of its water content.
  • Prepare a marinade of the hung yoghurt, half teaspoon red chilli powder, salt, half teaspoon garlic paste, two tablespoon ginger paste, two teaspoon lemon juice, half teaspoon garam masala powder, half teaspoon tandoori colour and cooking oil.
  • Coat the marinade on chicken pieces and keep the chicken to marinate in the fridge for 4 to 5 hours.

To make Tandoori chicken:

  • Pre-heat the Oven at 200 degrees centigrade.
  • Put the chicken pieces on the oven racks and if using boneless chicken, put them on bamboo skewers keeping each piece a half centimetre apart on the skewer.
  • Cook for 15 minutes ( for boneless) or until the chicken is cooked through, turn sides and once almost done, paste butter on the pieces using the pastry brush.
  • Cook for further five minutes.
  • Remove from the oven and set aside.

For the Makhni Gravy:

  • Heat butter in a pan.
  • Add green cardamom seeds, cloves, black peppercorns, cinnamon and saute for 2 minutes.
  • Add remaining ginger garlic paste, green chilli paste and cook for two minutes.
  • Add tomato puree, red chilli powder, garam masala powder, salt and let it cook till butter leaves sides of the pan.
  • Add one to two cups of water and remaining half teaspoon of tandoori food colour and let it come to a boil.
  • Reduce heat and let it simmer for 10 minutes.
  • Add one tablespoon of honey or three teaspoon of sugar, powdered methi (fenugreek) leaves.
  • Add cooked tandoori chicken.
  • Simmer for ten minutes.
  • Add fresh cream, stir well and take the pan off the heat.

Serving Suggestion:

Tandoori Chicken can be eaten as a snack or meal in itself. It goes well with green chutney and other sauces. Serve the Butter Chicken with hot paranthas or naan.

For more recipes from my kitchen, visit my food corner.

37 thoughts on “Easy Homemade Butter Chicken Recipe”

  2. You couldnt have posted this recipe at a better time, ME! I have been looking for a nice doable butter-chicken recipe for quite sometime. I will definitely be making it soon!

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  5. Yummy!!! I will end up cooking chicken if I read your posts anymore 🙂 Now I can’y but order in – I want to eat some butter chicken! But I am sure it won’t be half as tasty as yours!

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  7. this is one of my favorite.. just had it today afternoon at a restaurant and the taste is still lingering in my mouth.. I wish I can make this some day… let’s see

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  9. Adopt me, ME, adopt me…I am willing to do all the kitchen work, wash the vessels even keep the vessels back to their shelf (I hate the job!) just promise you will keep feeding me 🙂

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  14. Oh darling your post tempted me enough to make butter chicken last night 😀
    But my method is different. For the gravy, I put onion, ginger, garlic with canned tomatoes in the cooker with water and salt and give it one whistle. Once opened and cooled I ground it to a paste with poppy seeds and cashews. Very very fine, satin-like paste. Usually I fry chicken with oil and spices in a pan and put this sauce in it. Then I heat it on the stove slowly with store bought Butter Chicken Masala and chilli powder. When it starts boiling just a bit, I add cream and butter and finally honey and kasoori methi. This recipe has never failed me.

    But thanks to you, I made tandoori chicken your style first. The gravy, I made my style. And I think I have just mastered the recipe 😀

    Also, what I made last night can even qualify for a short cut. While the chicken was in the oven, the gravy was ready (my style as described above). Then instead of doing it on the stove, I used the microwave. The dish was ready in 8-10 minutes, and I think I have just discovered my ‘goto’ dish 😀 I think you too would like this style – try karo 🙂

    PS: I made roomali roti to go with it(of course not the throwing in the air one, but another shortcut) and it was yum-yum

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    1. Too good 😀 😀

      Loved your tricks and tips CR….though I like my butter chicken onion free for it keeps the gravy different from the usual non-vegetarian gravies 😀

      waiting to learn your trick to make roomali roti the quick, smart way 😀 😀

      Love the way you mix and match recipes to create new ones just like me….hugs

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      1. Oh its easy doll! I suck at writing recipes, so please bear with me.
        You make a soft dough with equal amounts of maida and wheat flour adding salt, water and oil. Let it rest.
        Then make small balls, smaller than your usual roti balls. Flatten one ball, the size of a puri and still thick. Keep it aside. Then flatten another ball to the same size, apply oil(or butter or ghee) on one side, sprinkle some rice flour(very very little) and the place the other flattened ball on it, press and seal. Then flatten it as thin as you want, you can go really really thin here, no worries. Thinner the better. Then you cook it just like roti on a tava, without adding ghee or oil. Make sure that the roti doesn’t harden on its spots, so keep the heat high and take out the roti as soon as it puffs. Because it is so thin, it cooks right away and you don’t have to let it cook as much as your regular roti.

        Once you take it off the tava, put it on a plate, and you will see where we had joined the the two balls. Slowly separate the two layers without hurting yourself with the steam that comes from inside it. No matter how thin you make the roti, the layers will always separate. So now you have 2 rotis that are as thin as a handkerchief and tasting great 😀

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