Finger Lickin’ Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)
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Delicious restaurant-style butter chicken made right at home with simple ingredients. This recipe is exactly how they make butter chicken in restaurants — and I’ve had people tell me it’s actually better! Trust me when I say it’s finger-lickin’ good!
Finger-Lickin’ Butter Chicken! That’s a little too much fun to say.
Doin’ a little throwback Monday right here with some Indian food.
Last week I had this crazy intense craving need for creamy and spicy homemade butter chicken. I mean, it was so crazy that I could practically taste the butter chicken in my mouth. My heart started racing, my hands started shaking — okay, it wasn’t quite that dramatic but you kind of get the idea. I dug down deep into the LSJ files (this is actually one of the first recipes I ever posted on the blog!) It was time to retake some of the pictures and reintroduce you to my finger-lickin’ butter chicken recipe.
Not only am I replacing some of my old (and not so great) photography, I also reworked the recipe to make the ingredient list a little shorter without compromising any of the flavors. I made the instructions a little more easy to follow AND AND AND I am adding in tips, like, how to make some of the components ahead of time and just general advice on how to make this the best butter chicken you’ve ever had.
So about that BUTTER chicken. Ironically enough my butter chicken recipe doesn’t contain that much butter. And I used what’s called ghee (also known as clarified butter). If you’re wondering where in the heck you are going to find that, try Trader Joes or Whole Foods or here. Or if you prefer to use regular butter, I suggest you use a mix – ½ butter + ½ oil because butter can burn super easy.
This recipe is super simple. No need for you to grab whole spices and grind them up. I skip them and replace it with tandoori masala. Just follow the step by step directions, and you’ve got creamy butter chicken right at home that’s better than your favorite Indian take-out. It’s a combination of spices all blended together and it’s perfect for this restaurant-style butter chicken. It’s usually available in powder/paste form in the international aisle. The one I use and LOVE can be found here.
I can’t say I take all the credit for this recipe. I got the recipe from my mom, who got it from her sister, who used to work at an Indian restaurant once upon a time. So there. It’s authentic, restaurant-style butter chicken, for reals. <– Just tweaked a bit to make it easier for us everyday people, like you and me, without compromising flavor!
It’s all about that sauce when it comes to an authentic butter chicken recipe. No really. Like with most curries, this butter chicken actually tastes better with time. If you’ve got your life together, and you’re one of those people that recipe plan and prep food ahead (first of all, power to you!) then this butter chicken can be even better for you. Make the gravy portion of this recipe, blend it and allow it to cool completely before popping it in the refrigerator for 24-48 hours. Let those flavors really get together.
You can also marinate the chicken in the ginger, garlic, yogurt, and tandoori masala and let it sit for 12-24 hours, covered in the refrigerator. The yogurt, ginger, and garlic really help make the chicken more tender. As always, I’m a fan of white meat chicken, so I used boneless skinless chicken breasts, but you could go the dark meat route and use chicken thighs as well. Some may even tell you it’s more flavorful that way, I’m not one of those people though. ???
Also, with a little weekend prep work, this recipe can be made weeknight friendly. Just make the sauce (and freeze it beforehand) and marinate the chicken on Sunday and pull it together in about 20 minutes on a Monday. That’s faster than ordering take-out and trust me, it tastes better too.
This is kind of a big deal for me. I usually leave the Indian food to mom or the Indian restaurants. But if there’s any recipe that’s worth making at home, it’s butter chicken. AM I RIGHT? I could eat this all week long. And yes, I’m going to say with confidence that this is the BEST butter chicken recipe you’ll ever make. A big thank you to all those that have tried it/loved it/commented/added it to your dinner rotations. <– Let me make the directions a little more clear and the recipe a little easier to follow for you!
Butter chicken, it’s what my dreams are made of.
Original recipe posted Dec. 20, 2013. Updated on Feb 22, 2016, with new pictures, minor recipe adjustments, and easy to follow directions.
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Finger Lickin' Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)
Delicious restaurant-style butter chicken made right at home with simple ingredients. This recipe is exactly how they make butter chicken in restaurants -- and i've had people tell me it's actually better! Trust me when I say it's finger lickin' good!
Ingredients
Chicken Marinade:
- 1 lb. boneless chicken breast, cut into 1 ½ inch cubes (see notes)
- 2 tablespoons tandoori masala (see notes)
- 1 teaspoon EACH: ginger paste and garlic paste (I used Gourmet Garden)
- ½ cup yogurt
- 1 tablespoon oil
Butter Chicken Sauce:
- 2 tablespoons ghee (clarified butter) (see note)
- 1 large onion, thinly sliced
- 1 ½ teaspoon EACH: ginger paste and garlic paste (I used Gourmet Garden)
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
- 1 teaspoon chili powder (see notes)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
- ¼ teaspoon dried fenugreek leaves (crushed between fingers)
Instructions
Chicken:
- In a medium bowl, combine the tandoori masala, ginger, garlic, and yogurt. Whisk until smooth, adjust seasonings to preference. Add the chicken and allow to marinate for at least 20 minutes and ideally for 12-24 hours, covered in the refrigerator.
Butter Chicken Sauce:
- Heat the ghee in a dutch oven or heavy bottom pot over medium heat. Add the onions and sauté until they turn translucent and start to sweat, about 5-7 minutes, don't allow the onions to brown. Add ginger and garlic paste and let cook for 30 seconds, stirring so it doesn't burn. Add the can of crushed tomatoes along with the chili powder, coriander powder, and cumin powder and continue to cook for 5 minutes, if the mixture starts bubbling rapidly, add about ¼ cup of water and continue to cook.
- Remove from heat, add the mixture to a blender and blend until smooth, you may need to add a couple water to help it blend (up to ¼ cup). Depending on how powerful your blender is, you may want to blend the mixture in two batches. Remember to hold the lid of the blender down with a kitchen towel when blending, to avoid accidents.
- MAKE AHEAD OPTION: At this point you can cool and refrigerate the sauce for 24-48 hours (or freeze it for up to 3 months), it will help blend the flavors even more, just remember to bring the sauce back to room temperature (use the microwave) before proceeding with the recipe OR you can continue on with the recipe immediately.
Assembly:
- Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in the dutch oven over medium heat. Add the marinated chicken (discard any excess marinade) and cook for about 5-6 minutes, stirring as required to brown all sides. Add the butter chicken sauce to the pot and heat everything through. Once it starts to bubble, add the cream and garam masala. When the sauce regains a simmer, add the crushed fenugreek leaves. Serve over basmati rice or with naan.
Notes
- Fan of dark meat chicken? You can replace the cubed chicken breasts with cubed boneless, skinless chicken thighs for more added flavor.
- GHEE: If you can't find it you replace it with 1 tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon oil.
- TANDOORI MASALA: is available in powder/ paste form. I prefer the powder but some of my readers recommended Patak's brand tandoori paste. You'll need about 2-4 tablespoons of the paste (to preference).
- CHILI POWDER: optional! If you prefer milder food, you may want to leave it out as the tandoori masala already has heat. Traditionally, a spicy pepper similar to cayenne is used. If you can't find Indian or Pakistani chili powder (usually sold at Indian stores), replace it with cayenne. 1 teaspoon can be a lot so if you prefer a milder flavor, replace with 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon.
IS THIS A GOOD CHOICE FOR YOU?
*Please note: the nutritional facts calculated are an estimate based on the ingredients i’ve used. If you’d like a more accurate count, please calculate them using the ingredients/brands you’ve used to prepare the recipe. The nutritional information provided is for 1/5th of the butter chicken recipe. This does not include naan or basmati rice.
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If you like this butter chicken recipe, you might also like:
instant pot chicken tikka masala
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273 Comments on “Finger Lickin’ Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)”
First time ever making Butter Chicken and oh my gosh, this recipe is just deeelish! My household loved it! Thankyou for sharing 🙂
Hi,
I’ve made this recipe exactly per your recipe (came out great!), but I have a question. The recipe says to “thinly slice” the onion…I like to use a food processor for onions. Since you end up blending it anyway, does it really matter how the onion is cut? Thank you in advance!
-Sahar
I slice the onions because it’s the quickest way to cut them and as it exposes more of the onion to the oil and cooks it slightly quicker. Food processing, or dicing the onions might change the cooking time to get the onions translucent by a little bit, but for this recipe, it won’t make a huge difference if you prefer to use your food processor!
Had to comment because I saw couple of comments saying their butter chicken ended up grainy rather than smooth. I think it is because of their sauce getting split rather than making an error in the recipe/not blending the sauce enough. Butter chicken is actually a very hard sauce because it contains yogurt, cream, butter and tomato sauce. Yogurt and cream are the reason why sauces can split while butter, tomato sauces and other salty products increase the risks of it happening. Splitting is a process where liquid separates from the rest of the yogurt/cream ingredients (those are the little grainy elements). You can look up more about this on the Internet but here are some tips that can lower the risks of your sauce splitting:
– Instead of Turkish or Greek yogurt, use natural yogurt. I think it doesn’t split as much as Turkish or Greek yogurt.
– Wait for the chicken yogurt marinade to get to room temperature before starting to cook it, adding cold yogurt to a hot pan makes it split 100%. Even if you didn’t refrigerate the marinade over night, wait for the temperature of the yogurt to rise. Also take the cream out of your refrigerator a good time before using it (once again you don’t want to add cold cream to a hot sauce).
– As the recipe states, only use medium heat AT MOST. Cooking the yogurt marinated chicken on too hot pan makes the yogurt split. Same goes later on in the recipe, do not heat the sauce too much or the yogurt and also the cream has a chance to split (that’s probably why Marzia wants you to add some water if the sauce started to bubble rapidly).
– Don’t add too much salt after adding the cream. Yogurt/cream + salt = split.
Hope this helps, remember that this sauce is incredibly hard because of its ingredients, even if you follow these tips there is still a good chance of your sauce getting split. But even if it does, it will still taste delicious, it just doesn’t look as good.
Good luck!
I just wanted to say a huge thank you for this recipe it turned out amazing! I’m glad I doubled the recipe because everyone ate until bursting ? it’s very yummy, easy and authentic!
Tasty!!thank u 🙂
I plan on making this butter chicken this evening and am looking for a basmati rice recipe on your site but am having difficulty finding one. Do you have one? Did I miss seeing a link? I found a link to your garlic naan on another recipe.
If I want more than 1 lb chicken. Should I double the whole receipe ?
Help – I’m in Australia and the tandoori masala isn’t avaiable near me. Is there anything at all that is an equal subsitute, or is anyone able to portion out the spices to make the mix?
Thanks very much 🙂
You can buy tandoori spice mix in Coles. It’s near the salt & pepper sections.
I loved making this dish and it turned out very well! It was super yummy and rich ??? you did a great job explaining the recipe!
1 lb is hw many grams of chicken.can we use chicken with bone. If using fresh tomatoes hw many can be used.
Intend to make this this weekend. The photos show jalapeño and green flecks…cilantro? Did you incorporate that into the recipe, or use only as garnish? Thank you –
Garnish, just for pictures!
Made this for dinner tonight and it was fantastic! Perfect balance of sweet, savory and spicy. This will be my go-to butter chicken recipe!
Normally don’t leave reviews, but this was so good I had to! Although it’s not quite the restaurant style that I remember, it is the closest any recipe has ever got me. Easy to make – both my husband and I loved it.
Made it for my family using a mixture of butter and olive oil. It was good, although it lacked a bit of the sweet and savoury flavour that i note in most butter chicken recipes. That aside, it was still had very good flavour. I added about a tsp of each salt and maple syrup. Although I did not plan too far in advance and only marinaded for about an hour, it still turned out nice and tender. I will definitely try this recipe again, marinading overnight and make the sauce ahead of time, although with my own adjustments to the recipe.
What can I substitute the fenugreek with?
You can simply omit it from the recipe.
This was really really good!
I’ve been looking for a good butter chicken recipe for years!! This was absolutely fantastic. My kids are begging for more. Thank you! 🙂
I did it your recipe is soo amazing?❤️
Can I marinate the chicken also ahead of time and freeze it in addition to the sauce? I appreciate your advice. Thanks!
Not too sure about freezing the chicken as you run the risk of the yogurt separating and/or curdling and making the sauce grainy when you cook it. If you decide to give it a go, I’d love to know how it went!
Marzia, Thanks for sharing an amazing recipe. I have been trying to recreate the butter chicken/chicken tikka masala for two decades now and this one just hits the spot. Wow. This is amazing. I did make one change. Rather than add garam masala to the gravy, I fried some whole garam masala (cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, black pepper) along with juliennes of green chiles and ginger. Then added the chicken and gravy to that (kind of like a tadka/tempering).
thank you so much for sharing this recipe. it turned out to be amazing and everytime I make it gets better and better
Tried, tested and love it!! Been looking for an authentic butter chicken recipe for a while, stumbled upon this by accident and won over my hubby who was not a fan of butter chicken. Made it for a family function of 35 people, just adjusted the recipe and empty plates all round. Thank you!!
Awesome recipe..really fingerlicking good…My husband love this…Love the smell..better than restaurant food. So easy to make and tasty. Loved it. Thankyou.
Wow. That’s all I have to say! I’ve been looking for a recipe just like this for so long. I’ve made butter chicken after butter chicken only to be disappointed because it’s bithing like what I get at my favorite restaurants….until now! This is life changing!! Thank you so much for this recipe. ?
Yes, i love adding yogurt to the chicken recipe. It is so delicious. By the way, can I use coconut milk or milk instead of whipping cream? Thank you for amazing recipe!
Thank you so much for your recepie. I just cooked your butter chicken I use fresh tomatoes as my husband doesn’t like tomato teste at all. It’s delicious just like at restaurant:-)
I was also looking for some recipe to make butter chicken more delicious. I have had butter chicken in many restaurants in Brampton but was missing home made taste. But now I will try this at home and let you know. Anyways thanks for sharing such useful information.
I made this last night and it turned out so delicious! It was a little spicier than I generally prefer (I like mild spice), so next time I’ll cut down on the chili powder (I used cayenne) since the tandoori masala has a good amount of kick to it already. Based on other comments, I was confused about the amount of coriander to use, and it does not appear that the question has ever been resolved by the author. So, I started with 1.5 teaspoons and gradually increased by taste. I’m not sure exactly how much I ended up adding, but I estimate that it was something close to 1.5 tablespoons.
This is such a delicious recipe, I make it all the time. It isn’t exactly restaurant-style but it is WAY better than Sharwood’s or Patak’s jar sauce from the supermarket. Honestly, I like the jar sauces but there is NEVER enough sauce for everyone unless I buy so much that it becomes uneconomical and it never completely satisfies my cravings.
i have tweaked this here and there out of sheer laziness; regular whipping cream instead of heavy, garlic powder/minced garlic instead of paste, minced ginger in a jar rather than paste or fresh, one full single-serve fage yogurt cup to minimize waste, minced onions instead of sliced, etc without significantly changing the taste. Usually I’m rather heavy-handed with the spices, sometimes with the crushed tomatoes too, and I even sprung for some fairly cheap kashmiri chili powder from a local indian store that really gives the dish a vibrant red color supposedly with less heat. Spice Hunter’s Global Fusion Tandoori Rub works marvelously as well. I’ve forgotten the butter before (leave it to me to forget the butter in butter chicken) and while I wouldn’t recommend doing that, it was still delicious.
This will be the fourth time I’m making this dish. It is absolutely delicious! I’ve tried a lot of different recipes for Butter Chicken but they have never really produced the flavors I like. This one does! Very little ingredients and prep work. This has become my go to recipe when I’m short on time! Thank you so much!
Loved this recipe! Definitely reminds me of the butter chicken I have ordered in restaurants. A make again for sure! I couldn’t find any tandoori Marsala in the regular grocery store, will have to do some deeper searching for next time! Also, when I added the chicken I found the yogurt marinade curdled a bit. Maybe I should have cooled the sauce to room temp before adding it in? Overall an excellent and easy weeknight dinner. Thanks so much for sharing! 🙂
Wow, made this for a fifteenth birthday with 20 guests -with only 16 hours notice. It was easy and very delicious and everyone loved it! From 14-75 year olds. (Left some of the chill out, and put chili flakes on the table instead.) Will definitely serve this again and again!
By the way, here in Denmark the heaviest whipping cream is 38%. I used that, and it was perfect! But just out of curiosity; what is ‘Heavy whipping cream’ exactly?
Heavy cream in the US is 36% or greater, so the kind you used is perfect 🙂 glad to hear everyone enjoyed the butter chicken!
Hi Marzia, I’m making this tonight and I just wanted to confirm that you indeed did mean to write 1 and a half TABLESPOONS of coriander powder ?
Hi, I’m about to cook this but I want add a Smokey taste to it… so when would add the coal?
Thanks 🙂
Hi there! To tell you the truth, I’m not really sure. I’ve never tried adding a smoky flavor to the dish. I’d suggest maybe doing a search on google to see if anyone else has tried it and if they’ve provided any guidance on how to.
After searing off the marinated chicken in a skillet I throw them under the grill until I can see the tops going black. Then add to the sauce to finish them off and make them tender and juicy on the inside. I feel like this adds a nice charred/smokey flavour.
Add some chipotle, it’s great on/in everything. Should give the smokey/spicey flavor you’re craving.
try smoked paprika in the spice mixture , or you could smoke the tomatoes, or you could just cheat and add some drops of liquid smoke extract at the end.
Can you please post a link to your original recipe before you tweaked it? I like the original recipe.
Hi Chris! The only thing different is that I made my own ginger and garlic paste for the “original recipe”, everything else remains constant. If you’d like to make your own, it’s ¼ cup each ginger slices and garlic cloves + 1-2 tablespoons vinegar. Pulse it all in a blender or food processor and store leftovers in an airtight container. Hope that helps!
I tried this a few times, family loves it. I am experimenting with smoked paprika instead of the chilli powder
Made this last week. Didn’t have any chilli powder. The taste was amazing but it was a little mild (that’s my fault for not realizing I was out of chilli powder). Gonna try making it again this weeked when my mom comes over, this time with chilli powder. I also used sour cream instead of Greek yogurt and half and half cream instead of thicker cream and it was still awesome
This recipe made me feel like I was back in India for a second. Amazing flavor, amazing description. Keep up the good work! Greetings from the Netherlands.
This is the best chicken dish I have ever made.
Since I like chicken on the bone , I removed the skin from chicken quarters and made some slits on it and marinated it for 24 hrs .
I then sealed it in hot oil as per your recipe and then cooked it in my airfryer at 160° for 15 min (Since these are big pieces I wanted to ensure that the chicken was well cooked) . This also gave the chicken some char as well and helps to retain shape.
Rest of the recipe was exactly as you suggested.
Thanks for this great recipe..
yum
Amazing recipe, I’ve gotten to the point now I make my own masala spice mixesand garlic and ginger paste, and have been trying different types of yogurt, finding water buffalo yogurt is the best with goat and sheep yogurt in a tie for second
Ive seen a few posts about bland or runny, I do mine In a slow cooker on low, scraping all the build up from the sides back down (lots of concentration of flavour you’d waste not doing it)
Forgot to mention for the rice, use 1/2 water and 1/2 coconut milk and add some kafir lime leaves
Hey,
my son love eating butter chicken
He says thats the best ever dish that I make for him with fresh naan & plain rice
Lots of love??
How many people does this recipe serve?
About 5 servings in this recipe. You can always find this information on the recipe card, just above the title.
Delicious butter chicken! Just a question.. I have a friend who are allergic to chicken. Can I make it with turkey or do you recommend something else?
Turkey would work, you could even try paneer (Indian cheese, similar to tofu) or even extra firm tofu. I don’t recommend marinating the paneer/tofu for more than an hour though!
Hi Marzia!!!!!! Just wanted to tell you how much we love your recipe. I don’t usually marnate the meat, I’ll have to try that next time(we just had it for dinner tonite). I’ve made it several times and its amazing. I don’t often eat so much that I can’t or don’t want to move….but oh boy. Very happy with this!!
Made this recipe tonight, delicious first time, made a minor adjustment by leaving out the ginger paste but it was still great anyway, I’m just wondering whether there is a way to make it “butteryier” my local indian makes it so you can really taste the butter and it is divine. Thanks for the recipe.
Hey Keith! Glad that you enjoyed the recipe. If you’d like it to have more of that butter flavor, you can melt another 2-4 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan, add the fenugreek to the butter and then pour the butter into the butter chicken. This should help give it that rich butter flavor you’re looking for! 🙂
2nd time to make this, everyone loves it! I adjusted the tomatoes a bit, used less (just our preference) and added a bit of sugar in the end to counter the sourness of the recipe (we like things a bit sweet!)
Best Butter chicken recipe I’ve tried so far. Also, I’ve opted to reduce the sauce a little in the end just so the flavor is stronger.
Thanks for the recipe!
Thanks for the recipe – I wonder if I missed something. It came out waaay too tomato-ey or spaghetti saucy-ey and not quite what I expected. When warming up it smells more like a chili than a butter chicken.
I should probably give it another whirl… Any suggestions?
Hi Eddie, sorry to hear the butter chicken didn’t turn out for you! It definitely does seem like there’s something missing as I haven’t had anyone else say it turned out similar to spaghetti sauce. Unfortunately, it’s really difficult for me to pinpoint exactly what might have happened, but it seems like perhaps there wasn’t enough tandoori masala? Or perhaps it was the kind that you may have used? Really hope you’ll decide to give this a second try as so many others have really enjoyed this recipe!
Are you using the tex mex blend chili powder? that could be it. The chili powder used in this recipe refers to comething like Kashmiri chili powder or cayenne. Simply a powdered chili pepper, and not a spice blend.
Marzia, this is the best butter chicken recipe I have tried. I’ve made it several times and each time it has come out excellent! Even my father who dislikes heavily spiced food (both heat wise and flavour wise…he had a bad experience with some very spicy food a south Indian roommate made back in his college days) loved this! I think its the kasoori methi that takes it over the top. I plan on making a double recipe of the sauce soon to keep on hand in the freezer.
Thanks again!
This recipe came out delicious!
Although the times you put have nothing to do with the real times. For instance, when doing the sauce you need to let it boil for a good 15 min so the crushed tomatoes get fried. The same for the onions, etc. Always found that most recipes miss this very important part about really how much it takes each step.
For the rest I have to say it congratulations!
This was a hit in our Texas household. I adapted the recipe for the Instant Pot (as I was fairly disappointed with some of the more popular current Butter Chicken recipes out there for the IP), and it worked perfectly.
For ingredients, I followed what you listed, and substituted ghee for butter, coconut milk for the heavy cream (as we wanted a Whole30 compatible dish). I added 1/2 bunch of finely chopped cilantro and a slurry of 1 tsp potato starch and a small amount of hot water to thicken.
I did it pretty much as you listed in your recipe, doing the cooking and sauteing in the Instant Pot on the Saute setting. After sauteing the chicken, I added the butter chicken sauce (plus a few green cardamom, because I love the flavor of them) to the IP, set it to Manual and covered it. I cooked it for 8 minutes on high pressure and did a quick release after 5 minutes. I then set it to Saute again and added the coconut milk, garam masala and 1/2 bunch of finely chopped fresh cilantro (plus 1 tsp of potato starch mixed in a small amount of hot water to thicken). From there, I added the fenugreek leaves and simmered for 10 minutes per your recipe.
Best butter chicken I’ve had in recent memory, and my new favorite dish. Thanks for posting, Marzia!
Can you let me know what steps you took to adapt for the Instant Pot? I’m looking to do the same and would appreciate any pointers!