Easy Indian Butter Chicken Recipe

A no-fail Indian butter chicken recipe that is sure to please. The magical combo of butter, tomatoes, yogurt, cream and spices will make you reach out for more!

Course Dinner

Cuisine Indian

Keyword butter chicken, indian butter chicken, instant pot butter chicken

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 1 5

Marination 2

Total Time 3 15

Servings servings

Calories 226.7kcal

Author Saima Zaidi

Equipment

Oven
6-quart Instant Pot Duo OR a saucepan
Baking dish
Blender

Ingredients

For the marinade

2 lbs chicken bone-in, cut into 12 pieces
5 tablespoon yogurt lightly beaten
2 tablespoon chickpea flour (besan)
2 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
1 teaspoon garam masala powder
½ jalapeno pepper minced
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1 teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder
1 key lime squeezed
a pinch of orange food colour
1 teaspoon sea salt

For the sauce

4 tablespoon butter
1 black cardamom
4 cloves
10 peppercorns
2 green cardamom
1 teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder
2 cups tomato puree
1 medium-sized onion pureed
2 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoon fresh cream
1 teaspoon sea salt

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Preparation

Whisk together the marinade ingredients in a baking dish and add the chicken. Wrap with cling foil and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 400 Fahrenheit. Place the baking dish in the middle rack and bake for 30 minutes.

Stovetop Instructions

While the chicken is cooking in the oven, prepare the sauce. Melt butter in a saucepan and add whole spices.
When the spices start to sizzle, stir in the onion puree and ginger-garlic paste. Sauté for 5 minutes.
Add the tomato puree, Kashmiri chilli powder, salt and sugar. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Check once and add half cup water if the tomato gravy is too thick.
Add the baked chicken along with any scrapings and liquid from the baking dish. Cook for 15 minutes more.
Stir in the cream and serve hot with naan or rice.

Instant Pot Instructions

Switch on your instant pot to sauté and wait for the display to show HOT. Add the butter and whole spices.
When the spices sizzle, add the onion puree and ginger-garlic paste. Sauté for 5 minutes. Add the tomato puree, Kashmiri chilli powder, salt and sugar. Simmer for 10 minutes. Keep adding splashes of water if the sauce becomes too thick or starts to stick to the bottom of the pot. After 15 minutes, add 1 cup water and cancel sauté. Deglaze the pot.
Add the baked chicken (liquid, scrapings and all) and secure the lid. Make sure the steam release handle is on 'sealing' and press the pressure cooking button. Adjust to 'high' and set the timer to 5 minutes.
When the timer beeps, let the chicken rest for 10 minutes, then release pressure by turning the steam release handle to 'venting'. Finally, open the pot, add the cream, stir and serve hot with naan or rice.

Notes

I am a huge fan of homemade, wholewheat rotis, but butter chicken calls for heavier breads like naan and tandoori roti. The humble roti just won’t do in this case, so go for the naan! Here's a whole wheat naan recipe from the blog.
If you don't have Kashmiri chilli, add any red chilli powder you do have like cayenne. Reduce the quantity though as the former is mild compared to other varieties.
You can add pureed tomatoes instead of the store-bought tomato paste if you so wish. Choose the reddest tomatoes you can find for a pleasing rich-coloured gravy and whiz in a blender. Six medium sized ones will do.

Nutrition