Butter Chicken Recipe: Creamy Murgh Makhani at Home

Cream or Cashew: The Sauce, Head to Head

How do you make butter chicken sauce? Start with butter, tomato passata, and cream — and the order matters. Melt the butter, add the passata with sugar, salt and garam masala. Simmer for 12 minutes until the sauce thickens and the fat shows at the edges. That simmer is where the tomato loses its raw edge and the butter turns it silky. A sauce simmered for 5 minutes tastes of raw tomato.

Then comes the choice: cream or cashews. The cream version stirs in 1 cup of chilled heavy cream off the heat. The cashew version blends 18 soaked cashews with 80 ml of chilled cream and stirs that in instead for a nuttier, lighter finish. Either way, add the cream off the heat and never let the sauce boil after it goes in, or it splits. Kasuri methi goes in with the cream, crushed between your palms.

Why This Recipe Works

• An overnight yogurt marinade tenderises the chicken and carries the spices right into the meat, so the char tastes of garam masala, not just smoke.
• Charring the chicken in a ripping-hot pan gives the tandoor edge — blackened spots and smoky flavour — without any special equipment.
• Stirring chilled cream into the sauce off the heat keeps it silky; boiled cream splits, and a split sauce never comes back.

Ingredients

• 500 g boneless skinless chicken thighs
• ½ cup (120 g) full-fat yogurt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• ½ teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
• ¾ teaspoon kasuri methi (dried fenugreek)
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 30 g (2 tablespoons) butter
• 1 cup (240 ml) tomato passata
• 1 cup (240 ml) heavy cream
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• ½ teaspoon garam masala
• 1½ teaspoons kasuri methi (crushed dried fenugreek)
• 1–2 green chillies, slit (optional, for heat)
• Fresh coriander leaves, to garnish

Instructions

1. Marinate the chicken —Mix the yogurt, lemon juice, garam masala, Kashmiri chilli, cumin, turmeric, kasuri methi, salt, ginger and garlic in a bowl. Add the chicken thighs and turn them over until fully coated, then cover and refrigerate for 12 hours, or at least 30 minutes. The overnight marinade gives the deepest flavour, but 30 minutes still works on a weeknight.
2. Char the chicken in a hot pan —Heat a large pan over high heat with a drizzle of oil until it just starts to smoke. Cook the chicken in two batches for about 4 minutes per side, without moving it, until the edges blacken and char. The chicken will not be cooked through yet — it finishes in the sauce, so take it out and set it aside.
3. Simmer the tomato-butter sauce —Melt the butter in the same pan over medium heat, then add the tomato passata, sugar, salt and garam masala. Simmer for 12 minutes, stirring often, until the sauce thickens and the fat shows at the edges. Taste it now: it should be rich and slightly sweet, with the butter carrying the tomato.
4. Stir in the cream off the heat —Move the pan off the heat, then stir in the chilled cream and the kasuri methi. Return the pan to the lowest heat just until the sauce is warm through, without letting it boil. If the sauce looks grainy, it has split — move the pan off the heat immediately and whisk in a spoonful of cold cream.
5. Finish the chicken in the sauce —Add the charred chicken and any resting juices to the sauce, and simmer gently for 5 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and coated. Rest the curry for 5 minutes so the sauce settles, then taste for salt. Garnish with fresh coriander and serve hot with basmati rice or warm naan.

What Is in Butter Chicken?

This recipe for butter chicken is murgh makhani, and it is exactly what the name promises. What is in butter chicken? Chicken in a butter-rich tomato sauce. The chicken is marinated in spiced yogurt, charred until the edges blacken, then folded into a sauce of butter, tomato passata, cream and kasuri methi. There is no onion in the classic gravy, no stock. No flour: the body comes from tomato reduced with butter, and the silkiness from cream stirred in off the heat.

The best butter chicken recipe is defined by the sauce: tomato and butter cooked until the fat shows at the edges, then cream and kasuri methi stirred in off the heat. This article cooks the dhaba-style version: a proper overnight marinade, a hard char in a hot pan instead of a tandoor, and the choice of cashews or cream in the sauce. In the curries and rice collection, this is the richest curry of the set.

Butter Chicken Spices

The butter chicken spices are a short list, and kasuri methi is the centre of it. Garam masala carries the marinade: 2 teaspoons, more than most recipes use, because the yogurt and the char both mute spice. Kashmiri chilli gives colour with gentle heat. Cumin and turmeric sit underneath, and a little salt in the marinade seasons the chicken all the way through.

An authentic butter chicken recipe rests on kasuri methi — dried fenugreek leaves — the flavour that makes the dish taste like the classic. It goes in twice: ¾ teaspoon crushed into the marinade, and 1½ teaspoons crushed between your palms into the finished sauce, where its bitter, almost maple edge balances the butter and cream. Crush it, never sprinkle it whole: whole leaves stay leathery and never release their flavour.

The Marinade: Overnight vs 30 Minutes

The marinade does three jobs: the yogurt tenderises, the lemon brightens, and the spices get 12 hours to reach into the meat. The yogurt's acid works slowly, which is why time matters more than quantity: a thin coating left overnight beats a thick one left for an hour.

The result is noticeably less deeply spiced than a 3-hour marinade. If that is all the time you have, use the full 2 teaspoons of garam masala and an extra pinch of salt.

Getting the Char Without a Tandoor

A tandoor runs far hotter than any home oven — but a ripping-hot pan comes close enough. Heat the pan until it just starts to smoke, cook the chicken in two batches, and do not move it for 4 minutes a side. The blackened edges are the point: the smoky, slightly bitter char that the sauce then softens, and a pale, steamed piece of chicken never gives it.

The oven-grill alternative is 240°C, with the chicken on a rack for 20–30 minutes until charred at the edges. It is the closest home method to a real tandoor, and the best choice for a small pan. Either way, the chicken does not need to cook through here — it finishes in the sauce. The same hard char defines tandoori chicken.

The Easy 35-Minute Weeknight Version

How to make butter chicken in 35 minutes: this butter chicken recipe easy version is the article's shortcut, not its replacement. Marinate for 30 minutes instead of overnight, char the chicken in the pan. Make the sauce while the chicken rests — the whole cook takes 35 minutes. If even that is too much for a weeknight, the easy butter chicken version strips it back further, with a shorter marinade and a simpler sauce.

The shortcut keeps the same sauce and the same char, which is why it still tastes like the classic: only the marinade time changes. Serve it with basmati rice recipe to soak up the sauce, or warm garlic naan for scooping. The naan's garlic butter suits the tangy tomato base. A squeeze of lemon over the top lifts the richness.

Controlling the Heat

This spicy butter chicken section is about control, not heat: the dish is mildly spiced by design. The warmth comes from garam masala and ½ teaspoon of Kashmiri chilli, and the butter, tomato and cream soften it. Kashmiri chilli is the right choice here. It gives a deep red colour with gentle warmth, where hot chilli powder gives the same colour with a real bite.

To turn the heat up, add a slit green chilli to the sauce as it simmers, or a pinch of cayenne to the marinade. Both add fire without changing the sauce. To turn it down, use Kashmiri chilli only and skip the green chilli entirely. The dish loses nothing, because its flavour is in the butter and the kasuri methi, not the heat. Season the sauce before the cream goes in — once the cream is in, the heat is set.

Butter Chicken vs Chicken Curry and Korma

Three different dishes share a spice cupboard. Butter chicken is tomato, butter and cream, with charred yogurt-marinated chicken and no onion in the gravy. Chicken curry is a tomato-onion gravy built on whole spices, with no cream, cooked longer and thinner. Korma is the mildest of the three: nut- or yogurt-based, pale and gently spiced.

Choose by the mood of the table. It is the richest and the most forgiving — the cream and butter carry it. Chicken karahi is the sharper, faster cousin: the same tomato base, cooked hard in a karahi with green chillies and ginger, no cream at all. Tikka masala is the closest relative of all: charred tikka in a creamy tomato sauce. But it is a dish of its own, and not the subject of this page.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is butter chicken made of?

Butter chicken is murgh makhani: chicken marinated in spiced yogurt, charred, then folded into a sauce of butter, tomato passata, cream and kasuri methi. The classic version has no onion in the gravy, and the sauce gets its body from tomato and cream, not flour or stock.

How long does butter chicken last in the fridge?

Cool the butter chicken within 2 hours of cooking, then refrigerate it sealed for up to 3 days. Reheat it gently over a low heat with a splash of water or cream until steaming hot, and do not let it boil.

How to marinate chicken for butter chicken?

Coat 500 g of chicken thighs in yogurt, lemon juice, garam masala, Kashmiri chilli, cumin, turmeric, kasuri methi, ginger and garlic, then refrigerate for 12 hours overnight. Three hours is the minimum for the spices to reach into the meat, and 30 minutes works on a weeknight. Do not marinate past 24 hours, or the yogurt overworks the meat.

What makes butter chicken spicy?

Butter chicken is mildly spiced by design: its warmth comes from garam masala and half a teaspoon of Kashmiri chilli, softened by butter, tomato and cream. Kashmiri chilli gives a red colour with gentle warmth rather than a real bite. For more heat, add a slit green chilli to the sauce or a pinch of cayenne to the marinade.

Tips

• Chill the cream before it goes in, and add it off the heat. Warm cream can curdle; temper it with a spoonful of hot gravy to help prevent that.
• Do not crowd the pan when charring: cook the chicken in two batches so it sears instead of steaming. Leave it alone until the edges blacken.
• Make the gravy ahead and refrigerate it. The chicken only needs its 8-minute char and 5-minute simmer on the day.

Storage

Fridge: Cool the curry within 2 hours, then refrigerate it sealed — it keeps up to 3 days.

Freezer: Spoon the cooled curry into a container and freeze it for up to 3 months; thaw it overnight in the fridge.

Reheat: Reheat over a low flame, adding a splash of water or cream, until steaming hot; do not boil.