Butter Chicken

Butter Chicken
Sarah Anne Ward for The New York Times. Food stylist: Heather Meldrom. Prop stylist: Paola Andrea.
Total Time
1 hour 15 minutes
Rating
5(7,821)
Notes
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Butter chicken is a great, ever-evolving, cross-continental dish found in Delhi, London, New York, Perth and most points in between. In its purest form, it is yogurt-and-spice-marinated chicken dressed in a velvety red bath comprising butter, onions, ginger and tomatoes scented with garam masala, cumin and turmeric, with a cinnamon tang. This version was adapted from Amandeep Sharma, a young kitchen hand at the restaurant Attica, in Melbourne, Australia, who used to make it for staff meal. It is wildly luxurious. Serve with basmati rice and mango chutney, with papadums or naan if you can find them, with extra rice if you cannot. —Sam Sifton

Featured in: Indian Butter Chicken, by Way of Australia

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Ingredients

Yield:6 servings
  • cups full-fat Greek yogurt
  • 2tablespoons lemon juice
  • tablespoons ground turmeric
  • 2tablespoons garam masala
  • 2tablespoons ground cumin
  • 3pounds chicken thighs, on the bone
  • ¼pound unsalted butter
  • 4teaspoons neutral oil, like vegetable or canola oil
  • 2medium-size yellow onions, peeled and diced
  • 4cloves garlic, peeled and minced
  • 3tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and grated or finely diced
  • 1tablespoon cumin seeds
  • 1cinnamon stick
  • 2medium-size tomatoes, diced
  • 2red chiles, like Anaheim, or 1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and diced
  • Kosher salt to taste
  • cup chicken stock, low-sodium or homemade
  • cups cream
  • teaspoons tomato paste
  • 3tablespoons ground almonds, or finely chopped almonds
  • ½bunch cilantro leaves, stems removed.
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (6 servings)

1020 calories; 85 grams fat; 37 grams saturated fat; 1 gram trans fat; 30 grams monounsaturated fat; 11 grams polyunsaturated fat; 18 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams dietary fiber; 8 grams sugars; 48 grams protein; 1200 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Whisk together the yogurt, lemon juice, turmeric, garam masala and cumin in a large bowl. Put the chicken in, and coat with the marinade. Cover, and refrigerate (for up to a day).

  2. Step 2

    In a large pan over medium heat, melt the butter in the oil until it starts to foam. Add the onions, and cook, stirring frequently, until translucent. Add the garlic, ginger and cumin seeds, and cook until the onions start to brown.

  3. Step 3

    Add the cinnamon stick, tomatoes, chiles and salt, and cook until the chiles are soft, about 10 minutes.

  4. Step 4

    Add the chicken and marinade to the pan, and cook for 5 minutes, then add the chicken stock. Bring the mixture to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer, uncovered, for approximately 30 minutes.

  5. Step 5

    Stir in the cream and tomato paste, and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, approximately 10 to 15 minutes.

  6. Step 6

    Add the almonds, cook for an additional 5 minutes and remove from the heat. Garnish with the cilantro leaves.

Ratings

5 out of 5
7,821 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

I'm an experienced Indian cook, and this is the best butter chicken I have ever had. Some modifications necessary: never leave skin on for curry recipes; and increase cooking time in first part of step 4 to get a nice "bhuna" brown. Takes moving around and scraping the bottom, as the yoghurt will stick. If adding breast meat as well (cut each half bone-in and skinless breast into 2-3 pieces), increase the cooking in stock to about an hour, which will require extra stock or water.

One thing I really like about this site - until reading this response - is that the comments are made by those who have tried the recipe. So many other sites are clogged with comments about how amazing a dish looks, without ever having cooked it. Just saying.....

I have used this recipe a number of times and really enjoy it! I don't use any butter at all and just enough oil to cook the onions, substitute light cream for full cream and I also add 2 cinnamon sticks right when I start cooking the onions for more sweetness. I feel this cuts out a lot of fat and calories but turns out awesome!! Be sure to marinate at least overnight and don't be tempted to add any more tomato or tomato paste than the recipe calls for or you will ruin the dish

Hi I am an Indian cook, who teaches authentic Indian and northern Pakistani cooking, the amount of garam masala sounds completely inaccurate. Garam masal is a very pungent, strong combination of spices , even 1 TBS would be over doing it. This explains why some of the readers found it bitter abd felt the need to add sugar. The proportions of spices and balance can completely alter the taste.

I first had Butter Chicken at an office holiday potluck, in Atlanta, contributed by a nice, but very quiet, Indian colleague. At first, the mostly-Southern group was dubious but after a few bites were won over, and the dish quickly disappeared. My co-worker shyly accepted the compliments and clearly took pride that afterwards, when any potluck was in the offing, everyone would say, "You're bringing that awesome chicken thing, right?"

It's an excellent dish. I agree with Maggie, a dash of sugar. As I mixed the marinade, I thought so as well. I added the sugar during the last phase. Right, taste early and taste often, as in Cook County voting rules.

The fat is important in this recipe. It carries the flavor. I spent the afternoon climbing the Watchung hills on a bike, so I have no guilt. Plus, this is a recipe one doesn't eat every day. We're obsessed with guilt, and nutritional guilt. Chill out and enjoy.

In America, we're obsessed with 'boneless, skinless' poultry. Cooking meat and poultry on the bone gives a depth of flavor you can't get any other way. We've been fortunate in the Chicago area this summer to have bone-in thighs on sale for only 59 cents a pound. I used those and tried the recipe with cream once and coconut milk (as they do in another part of India) another time. DELICIOUS, is my verdict for both!

Love this. However, it's a dish that one needs to taste-test along the way. Garam Masala is a mixed bag of spices and has different flavor profiles depending upon the source. I've made this several times and occasionally found myself adding a dash of sugar, or additional tomato paste to balance some otherwise bitter spices.

This is a great recipe and was a great hit with my friends at a recent dinner party. I would suggest though for a more authentic flavour to reduce the garam masala -- 2 tbs was just short of overpowering the dish.

Oh, my, stars! Delicious! We did not want to wait for the overnight marinating time so we used the crockpot. Made the yogurt marinade. Used skinned trimmed bone-in thighs which sat in the marinade for about a half hour while we pan-friend the onions, garlic, spices, tomato mixture. (We did not use chilies at all.) Added all ingredients except cream and cilantro to crockpot. Cooked on high for 45 min or so, turned to low for about two hours. Chilled completely, then added cream and cilantro.

We add a can of tomato soup and a can's worth of milk to the left-over sauce for a delightful soup. Garnish with a swirl of cream and a sprinkle of chopped cilantro for fun.

Butter chicken. Butter. Chicken. You want spicy try chicken vindaloo that says spicy. Is butter spicy? No. This dish is meant to be savory, buttery, and delicious.

Skinless thighs are favored in butter chicken, and in my house, boneless are as well. The dish doesn't cook long enough for the bone to impart any flavor and the sauciness of it makes it difficult to eat bone-in. The picture here is a little deceiving--the preparation called for will not result in that browning (and, indeed, the dish has a more yellow-ish, curry hew than the orange above), but no matter. It was a big hit with some garlic naan.

We used our leftover sauce to make risotto the next day. Really delicious!

"It's like torture." Seriously, get over yourself. Throw it away. Side note: if you thought "Chef Bombay" from Walmart butter chicken hooked you and this recipe was "bland," then you maybe need to look at your addiction to sugar and high fructose corn syrup.

Can this be done in a crock pot?

I don’t know when or why I messed up, but this was not good at all. The butter chicken I’ve tried before has a sweet taste, this didn’t, at all.

For those of you who, like me, found that this produced too much sauce, here is a note I oiled from an Indian cooking blog: “You can make the gravy ahead and refrigerate. Just grill the marinated chicken when needed and heat up the gravy. Then add the grilled chicken.” I think that’s a great idea.

Delicious. Needs tweaking. I used boneless thighs, 2 pounds (equivalent of 3 pounds bone-in). Ended up with too much sauce! Next time will increase boneless meat to 3 pounds. Almonds don’t add much to the taste. I don’t like cilantro. IMO it does not need a fresh-herb herb topping. Goes well with naan instead of rice. It’s closer to a north-India (where bread goes with meals) preparation than a South-India (where rice prevails) curry. Quarter tsp cinnamon subs for cinnamon stick, if needed.

Not like any of the butter chickens I’ve had in restaurants but excellent just the same. From the comments it sounds like there are many different garam masala mixes so this may be why it seemed so different from those I’ve had before. Also, I think I might blend the mix prior to adding the chicken in the future to get a smoother texture.

This was not good at all. I have had butter chicken numerous times and the texture of the sauce was off, the flavor very a combination of bland and too acrid/bitter. Too much cumin,we even lessened the Garam Masala as suggested. This recipe does a disservice to Butter Chicken and Indian food.

the recipe came out pretty good, I did add a bit more butter( I would use Ghee instead if you have it) and next time I will use coconut cream instead of heavy cream will give this more flavor and won't need to add any sugar to cut some of the bitterness from the garam marsala. I would do more tomato paste or blend the tomatoes to give a better consistency. This recipe is light on the salt so using salted butter or ghee would probably be a better choice.

Wow, that was good. I made it just as written. The best butter chicken I’ve ever had was at Roots at N1 in London. Sadly they are no longer in business. This recipe didn’t have the depth of flavor at Roots, but has a lovely freshness to it. Highly recommend.

I'm unclear on whether you are supposed to move around and/or flip the chicken when you cook it for five minutes. Can anyone clarify?

This is one of my favorite recipes. To reduce calories, I use only 2 tbs butter and just a bit of cream, and it is still super yummy! I also follow other readers' advice and use only 1 tbs garam masala.

This was delicious! Made as directed. The dish has such depth and really is amazing. Served with rice & naan. Didn't have the chutney but didn't miss it, it was just that delicious! A keeper in the rotation.

Nice recipe! I had great results with marinating the Chicken overnight (adding the recommended Garlic, Ginger, Cumin, Sugar, and Salt that other posters noted), then broiling the Chicken on both sides before adding to the simmering sauce. Also -before adding the Cream- I coarsely shredded the Chicken Thighs and removed the bones, for easier eating. Lastly, I made a buttery Rice Pulao/Pilaf with Cardamom, Fennel Seeds, Cloves, whole Cinnamon, Bay Leaves, and Coriander Seeds to serve alongside.

Wonderful dish! I added a 28 ounce can of crushed Marzano tomatoes and used an immersion blender to blend them in, as I don’t like a chunky sauce for this dish. Very easy to make this dish lower fat, by using less butter, and eliminating, or reducing cream. It obviously will make the dish less rich, but it’s still very tasty.

This is a great starter. Made some modifications. I also doubled the cumin and added 1 Tbsp of ground coriander and 5 smashed green cardamom pods. As someone else noted, I doubled the stock and water. Came out absolutely delicious!

I am an amateur cook and not an expert on Indian cuisine, but to my taste this comes off as chicken curry, not butter chicken. The curry is yellow, not red when made per the recipe. The flavor also lacks a tomato base that makes it come across more as a Japanese curry. So while tasty, I didn’t get the butter chicken flavor that is commonly found in restaurants.

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Credits

Adapted from Amandeep Sharma, Attica, Melbourne, Australia.

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