Curry

Butter Chicken

Name: Butter Chicken
Total time: 50 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 700 g boneless chicken thighs, cut into large 4 cm pieces; 240 g plain yogurt (about 1 cup) — for the marinade; 2 tbsp lemon juice; 2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste (split); 2 tsp garam masala (split); 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder (colour, mild heat); 1 tbsp neutral oil, for searing; 400 g canned tomatoes (whole or chopped); 1 tsp sugar (balances the tomato); 50 g butter (split); 100 ml heavy cream, plus a little to finish; 1 tsp kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves); 8 cashews (optional, for a richer, smoother sauce); 7 g fine sea salt (about 1% of the chicken), plus more to taste

The restaurant classic, done honestly: thighs marinated in spiced yogurt, charred hard for smoke, then simmered into a glossy tomato-cream sauce finished with butter and crushed fenugreek.

50 minServes 4 medium

Method

The sear is the flavour engine here — it stands in for the tandoor. Get the pan properly hot and don't rush it. Have the tomatoes open and cream measured before you start, as the sauce moves quickly once the chicken is out.

Marinate. Mix the yogurt, lemon, 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste, Kashmiri chilli, 1 tsp garam masala and 1 tsp of the salt. Fold in the chicken and rest at least 30 minutes on the counter, or up to overnight covered in the fridge. The yogurt's acid and enzymes tenderise the meat and help it take on colour.
Sear hard. Heat a heavy pan over high until very hot — a drop of water skitters and vanishes on contact. Add the oil and sear the chicken in two batches, without crowding, about 2–3 minutes per side until the edges char. Don't cook it through — you want colour and smoke now, not done. Crowding steams the meat grey instead of browning it. Set aside with any juices.
Start the sauce. Lower the heat to medium, add 25 g of the butter and the remaining 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste, and fry 1 minute until the raw garlic smell goes. Add the tomatoes and sugar, breaking them up, and simmer 12–15 minutes until jammy and darkened, with butter specks pooling at the edge.
Blend smooth. Tip the sauce (and cashews, if using) into a blender and blend to a velvet purée. Hot liquid builds pressure — fill the jug only half full, hold the lid down with a folded towel, and start on low. Pass back into the pan through a sieve if you want it truly silky.
Enrich. Stir in the cream, the kasuri methi (crush it between your palms first to release its aroma) and the remaining 1 tsp garam masala. Keep it at a gentle simmer, not a hard boil — boiling can make cream grainy.
Finish the chicken. Fold the seared chicken and its resting juices back in and simmer 8–10 minutes until cooked through. It's done at an internal 74 °C / 165 °F — cut the largest piece to check it's white throughout with no pink. Taste and adjust salt.
Butter to finish. Off the heat, swirl in the last 25 g butter until glossy. Rest 2 minutes, then finish with a swirl of cream and torn coriander. Serve with naan or rice.

Cook's note. No kasuri methi? Leave it out rather than substituting — it's a specific finishing aroma, and fennel or fenugreek seed won't stand in for it. The dish is still excellent without it.

Most likely things to go wrong: Sauce tastes sharp/acidic — the tomatoes need more time, or another pinch of sugar and a little more butter or cream. Sauce looks split or grainy — it boiled too hard after the cream went in; pull it off the heat and whisk in a splash of cream.

Rigorously developed and consistency-checked, but cook one test batch before publishing to dial the salt and heat to your taste.

The story

Butter chicken was created in 1950s Delhi at Moti Mahal, where cooks folded leftover tandoori chicken into a gravy of tomatoes, butter and cream so it would not dry out. The dish, murgh makhani, travelled with the restaurant's fame and became shorthand for North Indian cooking around the world.