Chicken butter masala recipe – An easy recipe to make delicious and creamy restaurant style Indian chicken butter masala under 30 mins. It goes great with butter naan, roti or even with jeera rice. It is similar to the north Indian or punjabi murgh makhani or the Butter chicken. But there are variations in making both the dishes.
To make punjabi murgh makhani, chicken is marinated in yogurt and then grilled. It is cooked in a tomato gravy without the use of onions. Then cream is used towards the end.
Chicken butter masala is made with an onion tomato gravy. The marinated chicken is just sauteed and then added to the onion tomato gravy.
While the punjabi chicken makhani uses a stronger garam masala, chicken butter masala is made using milder spice powders. So a good chicken masala powder or garam masala is the main ingredient to make this recipe.
This chicken butter masala is best served Ghee rice, simple jeera rice or plain paratha..
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Chicken butter masala recipe
Chicken butter masala recipe | Indian butter chicken masala recipe
Easy restaurant style creamy and delicious chicken butter masala in onion tomato gravy.
Ingredients (240 ml cup used)
Marination
- 500 grams chicken
- ½ to ¾ tsp red chili powder
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
- Salt as needed
- 1 to 2 tbsp yogurt (or curd)
- ½ to ¾ tsp garam masala
- Little turmeric (or haldi)
ingredients for gravy
- 1 tbsp butter or Oil
- 1 cups onions cubed , 3 medium
- 1½ cups tomatoes (3 large), finely chopped deseeded
- salt as needed
- 10 to 12 cashew nuts (or kaju)
- ½ to ¾ tsp garam masala powder
- ½ to ¾ tsp kashmiri red chilli powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- ½ tsp sugar (optional)
- 1 ½ tbsp Butter
- 1 bay leaf (or tej patta)
- 3 green cardamom (or elaichi)
- 2 to 3 cloves (or laung)
- 1 cinnamon stick (or dalchini) , small
- 1½ tsp ginger garlic paste
- ½ tsp kasuri methi (or dried fenugreek leaves)
- 3 tbsp cream ( for restaurant style)
- coriander leaves few , for garnish
How to make the recipe
Prepration
- Marinate chicken with ingredients mentioned under marination. Set aside till we need it. Overnight marination is needed to yield restaurant style dish.
- Heat 1 tbsp butter or in a pan, fry onions till the raw smell goes away
- Saute tomatoes with salt.
- Add chili powder, garam masala powder and coriander powder along with cashews. Saute until the raw smell goes away.
Cool and blend together with ¾ to 1 cup water.
Making chicken butter masala
Heat the pan with more butter. Saute cinnamon, cloves, bay leaf and cardamom.
- Add ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw smell goes off.
Add marinated chicken. Saute on a medium high until the masala dries up.
Pour the onion tomato puree. Adjust as needed chili powder and masala powder. Also adjust the consistency of gravy by adding more water if needed.
- Cook until the chicken turns tender.
- Add kasuri methi and stir.
- Add cream and stir well. You can skip cream if using little more of cashews to the puree.
- Add chopped coriander leaves.
Serve Indian chicken butter masala with roti, butter naan or jeera rice.
Preparation for chicken butter masala recipe
1. Marinate chicken with 1 to 2 tbsp yogurt, red chilli powder, turmeric, ginger garlic paste, garam masala and salt. If you have time you can also leave it overnight in refrigerator, this is what I do.
2. Heat a pan with butter or oil. Saute onions until they turn pink. Just for the raw smell to go off.
3. Add tomatoes, sprinkle salt. Cook until they turn soft and mushy.
4. Add red chili powder, garam masala, coriander powder and cashews. If you do not want to use cream to this recipe then i suggest using a bit more of cashews.
5. Fry until the raw smell of the masala goes off.
6. Cool it and add to a blender with 3/4 to 1 cup water.
7. Blend to a smooth puree. This is the onion tomato base for the chicken butter masala.
How to make chicken butter masala recipe
8. Heat the same pan with butter. Saute 1 bay leaf, cinnamon stick, cloves and cardamom.
9. Add ginger garlic paste and fry until the raw smell goes off completely.
10. Add the marinated chicken and a deseeded slit green chili if desired. On a medium high flame, fry until the chicken turns pale and white in color. Make sure the yogurt masala dries up now. Saute until the masala dries up. Usually chicken oozes out lot of moisture, that’s just normal . Continue to cook.
11. Add the puree now. You can also add more red chili powder and garam masala now if needed. Also adjust water as needed to bring the gravy to a consistency. I use about 1/4 to 1/2 cup water. Take care not to add too much otherwise the gravy turns very thin. Simmer until the chicken is cooked completely, soft and tender. When you see the chicken is soft cooked, then add crushed kasuri methi. By the end of this step you must have a thick creamy and smooth gravy.
12. This step is optional. If you like you can use cream to suit your liking. For health reasons if you like to skip cream, you can just add a bit more of cashews at step 4.
Serve chicken butter masala hot with rice or paratha and a dollop of butter or cream topped over the curry.
Irene says
Hi Swasti,
First, I’d like to thank you a million times for your blog! It’s everything I want in Indian food, delicious and healthy too! I’d be lost without it! I love how you put everything out so simply and clearly and with pictures on top of all! They really do help to understand if I get confused in a particular part and to make sure, we are following the recipe correctly, it’s very thoughtful.
I’m actually from bangali descent but haven’t had the chance to learn much so by making your recipes constantly (they differ a bit from Indian obviously but still very similar at the end of the day), I have a been learning the bases of south Asian cuisine and now have a better understanding of the ingredients and flavour combinations, etc. For many recipes, i don’t even have to follow the exact recipe as I can add my own touch to them and adjust according to my liking.
Your butter chicken recipe is definitely my favorite one though, I made it many times and it’s such a hit every single time! I do have one question though, what would be the difference between the butter chicken and the butter masala? They are quite similar I see although the latter requires less marination and time. Is one more authentic than the other or taste better? I wanted to try the marsala but was wondering if it was worth it?
swasthi says
Hi Irene
You are welcome. Thanks a lot for taking time to comment here. I am so glad to know the recipes are helpful. Butter chicken is a authentic punjabi dish made without using onions and the chicken is grilled mostly in tandoor or electric oven. I have shown it by grilling in pan as most readers from India wouldn’t have a oven. But chicken butter masala uses onions and is not grilled. It is just sauteed in pan before adding to the gravy. Both the gravy tastes completely different. Yes it is worth to try. Hope this helps. Thanks again.
🙂
Murugan says
I tried most of the chicken recipes it was really great.
swasthi says
Thank you so much
Athira Krishna says
Which cream do you recommend?
swasthi says
Hi Athira
Any fresh cream, whipping cream or cooking cream can be used
Cha Tackett says
I would like to than you for this authentic recipe. I used to fly a lot to India during my flying career and it sure does hit home as this is one of my fave Indian dishes. Glad to have a local Indian supermarket called Namaste near me that completed all my ingredients as per your recipe. Followed everything to the t but because I have in mind to serve 13 people over dinner, I quantified the ingredients accordingly. During cooking time I had a friend who assisted me in the cleaning and was my taste tester and we both thought it was way too spicy- (must be the chili powder)! My husband also test tasted it and thought he wouldn’t be able to eat it. With caution I watered it down making sure it still has its rich consistency and yet I find it still spicy so I poured in a can of coconut milk instead of cream. I served this yesterday evening with 12 guests oohing and aahing in delight of this delicious dish. Even my husband in the end loved it. I have a few leftovers from the big pot I made and a couple of my friends are coming over for repeats! i am so happy and grateful to you!
swasthi says
Hi Cha Tackett,
Thanks for trying the recipe. Glad to know chicken butter masala turned out good.
For any Indian recipes, it is good to use a mild spicy kind of chilli powder. Byadgi or kashmiri are the 2 varieties that are mild in heat but lend a good color to the dish. I guess the chilli powder used by you was a spicy kind.
Really appreciate your comment here. Thanks again. Your comment made me happy!!
🙂
Chandra says
Hi,
I do not eat chicken. But I do cook it for my family and friends. The trickiest part of cooking chicken for me is to find the right balance of all the spices as I can’t taste-test the end product. I found your recipe online and it seemed simple enough, so I made this dish for my colleagues. I followed your recipe as is. They were raving about the dish! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I’m making this again this week for our staff luncheon.
swasthi says
Hi Chandra,
Thanks a lot for writing. The comment made me very happy. I can understand how difficult it is to balance the spice and salt while cooking something we don’t eat. Appreciate your effort! Thanks again.
🙂