Fabulous butter chicken, created right in your own kitchen! Rich, creamy, and full of flavor, you'll love being able to cook up this famous Indian curry to serve at your table! Perfect served with hot basmati rice or naan.

A dark round bowl containing a deep orange sauce drizzled with white cream and topped with green leaves

Butter. Chicken.

What else is there to say?

We love butter chicken...so much so that when we go eat it at a restaurant, we will usually order two for the four of us...

...because let's get serious, those pretty little metal dishes they serve it in are TINY.

So you really don't get as much as you'd like AND it's not exactly a cheap meal out.

So what better reason than to learn how to make this amazing dish at home in your own kitchen, where you can literally make up a huge pot full and eat as much as you want, whenever you want?

Keep in mind that making butter chicken does require a bit of planning and preparation...but trust me, when you take that first bite, you'll know that it was all worth it.

Preparing and Marinating

The first step is to prepare the chicken and marinate it overnight. You could get away with marinating it for a few hours, but overnight is best.

Cut boneless, skinless chicken thighs into chunks and marinate in a mixture of lemon juice, plain yogurt, chili powder, cumin, coriander, turmeric, garam masala, ginger, garlic and salt. The yogurt marinade not only infuses the chicken with the flavors of all those wonderful spices, it also tenderizes the meat.

Chopped chicken meat, white yogurt and brown and yellow spices, a brown sauce, a sealed bag containing chicken and sauce

I make sure all the chicken pieces are coated really well with the marinade, and then seal it up in a zip top bag and let it hang out in the fridge overnight. At this point, my family gets pretty excited with anticipation of having butter chicken for dinner the next day!

Cooking the Chicken

Traditionally, the chicken for butter chicken is threaded onto skewers and cooked in a very hot tandoor or clay oven.

No tandoor oven? No problem.

Obviously, most people do not have a clay oven in their kitchen. Luckily, we can achieve very similar results simply by roasting the chicken at a high temperature in our regular ovens.

While I do not skewer the chicken because I just want to keep things simple, you can certainly skewer the chicken chunks if you like and cook as directed in the recipe. Keep in mind, though, that it is not necessary.

I simply spread the chicken chunks out on a baking pan and roast at 450F/230C until the chicken is cooked through and is nicely browned and has some charring. That browning contributes flavor when the chicken is added to the sauce.

Chicken meat pieces on a pan, cooked chicken meat pieces on a pan, brown and orange spices in a pot with oil

The Sauce

Speaking of the butter chicken sauce, this is probably the most exciting part.

Using all the same spices that you used in the marinade with the addition of some nutmeg, the sauce starts with toasting the spices in some ghee in a pot. Toasting the spices is an important step as the heat helps to release their natural oils and aromas and the flavors spread through the sauce much more that if you were to simply dump them into the sauce. The same also applies to the minced ginger and garlic when you then add them to the paste and heat them through before adding the tomato passata (or puree), some honey for a touch of sweetness, and the cream.

A pot containing brown spices and yellow minced garlic and ginger, red and white liquid being poured into the pot, chicken pieces in an orange sauce, a spatula stirring butter into an orange sauce

Then comes adding the roasted chicken and, of course...BUTTER. It doesn't make sense to have butter chicken without any butter! Heat through and it is ready to devour!

You can do like the restaurants do and drizzle some fresh cream on top of the butter chicken in the serving dish, and then top with some fresh chopped coriander. Then it really looks legit! Or you can simply scoop a ladle-full straight from the pot to your bowl or plate with some hot rice and naan and start eating!

A black round place containing white rice, light brown flatbread, and chunks of chicken meat covered in an orange sauce

Obviously, basmati rice is the rice of choice to go with butter chicken, but if you aren't picky (and we aren't), I've also served this with regular long-grain rice, and yes, I've even served this with short-grain pearl rice. The star of the show is the butter chicken and really, no one is going to complain about what rice you decide to serve with it.

Having some naan to mop up all the curry sauce is almost a requirement, and if you happen to be gluten-free (or even if you're not!), I've got a great Gluten-Free Flatbread recipe you can make! It's soft, delicious, and is an excellent way to make sure that none of that liquid gold curry sauce goes to waste!

Close-up of a hand holding a piece of flatbread that has been dipped in an orange sauce

This recipe was inspired by and adapted from the butter chicken recipe from Amber India, one of our favorite Indian restaurants in California from when we lived there years ago. Their recipe was published in the local newspaper and at the time, I remember thinking how incredibly daunting and intimidating it seemed. And even though my version has been modified to make it simpler for the home cook, I'm sure that you might think the same when you look through this recipe.

But let me assure you that if you try this, you are going to LOVE IT. And not only will you love it, but you will be amazed at how easy it actually is. Butter chicken isn't just for eating at restaurants anymore. 😉

~ Lisa.

A dark round bowl containing white rice and chicken covered in an orange sauce, the words rich and creamy butter chicken on the bottom

This post was originally published on October 30, 2017, but was republished on May 19th, 2020 with new photos, instructional photos, writing, and slight recipe adjustments.

Rich and Creamy Butter Chicken

Preparing and Marinating

Cooking the Chicken

The Sauce