Serves 4
Marinate 2–24 hrs
Cook 45 min
Level Intermediate
Butter chicken — murgh makhani — was invented in Delhi in the 1950s, reportedly as a way to use up leftover tandoori chicken by simmering it in a rich tomato and butter sauce. The original was practical and accidental. The result was one of the most popular curry dishes in the world, which suggests that sometimes the happy accident is the best possible outcome.
The dish has two components that are both essential: the marinated, grilled chicken, and the makhani sauce. Butter chicken made by simmering raw chicken directly in the sauce is a different, lesser dish. The charring of the chicken — even if achieved in a home oven rather than a tandoor — gives smokiness and texture that the sauce cannot replicate. Do both parts. It is worth the extra step.
Ingredients
Chicken marinade
800 g boneless chicken thighs, skin-off
150 g full-fat yoghurt
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp turmeric
4 cloves garlic, grated
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
1 tsp salt
Makhani sauce
60 g unsalted butter
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large white onion, roughly diced
5 cloves garlic, chopped
2 tbsp fresh ginger, grated
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander powder
½ tsp chilli powder
400 g tin plum tomatoes
150 ml double cream
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)
Salt to taste
Kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves) is the ingredient most home recipes leave out and the one that makes the biggest difference. It gives the sauce its characteristic slightly bitter, aromatic finish that makes butter chicken taste distinctly itself rather than like a generic tomato curry. It is available in Asian supermarkets and online, lasts forever in a jar, and is worth seeking out.
Instructions
Marinate the chicken — minimum 2 hours, overnight is better. Mix all marinade ingredients together. Score the chicken thighs with a knife (3–4 cuts per piece) to help the marinade penetrate. Coat thoroughly, cover, and refrigerate. The acid and enzymes in the yoghurt tenderise the meat while the spices flavour it.
Grill or roast the chicken with char. Preheat your oven grill/broiler to maximum. Place the marinated chicken on a foil-lined tray and grill for 12–15 minutes, turning once, until the marinade has charred in places and the chicken is cooked through with a slightly blackened exterior. The char is flavour — do not be alarmed by it. Cut into chunks and set aside.
Build the makhani base. Heat butter and oil in a heavy pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 10 minutes until golden. Add garlic and ginger, cook 2 more minutes. Add all the dry spices and stir for 60 seconds until fragrant.
Add tomatoes and simmer. Add the tinned tomatoes, sugar, and salt. Bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes until the tomatoes have broken down completely and the sauce has thickened and darkened slightly.
Blend the sauce. Blend the sauce completely smooth using a stick blender or transfer to a regular blender. Strain through a sieve if you want a restaurant-smooth texture — this is optional but transforms the sauce. Return to the pan.
Finish with cream and fenugreek. Stir in the double cream and dried fenugreek leaves, crushing them between your fingers as you add them. Simmer gently for 5 minutes. Add the grilled chicken pieces, stir to coat, and cook for 5 more minutes until the chicken has absorbed some of the sauce. Adjust salt and add more sugar if the tomatoes were acidic.
Serve with naan or basmati rice. Finish with a swirl of cream and a pinch of garam masala on top. Butter chicken holds its quality for 3 days in the fridge and freezes well for 2 months.
🍗Thighs not breasts. Chicken breasts dry out in this preparation — the high heat needed for char pulls all the moisture out and the pieces become tough. Thighs have more fat and stay juicy even with charring. This is one of the few preparations where the choice between the two genuinely changes the dish significantly.
🧈More butter = more authentic. Restaurant butter chicken in India uses considerably more butter than most home recipes. If you want the full richness of the original, add another 30 g of cold butter at the very end, stirring it in off the heat. The sauce takes on a glossy, velvety quality that is hard to achieve any other way.
The most-ordered curry in the world
Butter chicken is to Indian cuisine what carbonara is to Italian — a dish that has been reproduced so many times and in so many mediocre versions that people have forgotten how good the real thing is. The marinade and double-cook method takes more time than dumping chicken in a jar of sauce, but the result is categorically different. The smoky charred chicken against the silky, slightly sweet makhani sauce is one of the great flavour combinations. Once you make it this way, the shortcut versions stop being tempting.
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