This is the easiest Butter Chicken recipe you’ll find. Incredible flavors, quick and easy to make, this classic Indian dish will surely become a favorite.
Butter Chicken is one of my favorite Indian dishes. This easy to make meal features tender cubes of chicken cooked in a mildly spiced curry.
After a long day at work, picking up takeout on the way home can see like the perfect plan. But if you’ve got a little time and the desire to enjoy a home-cooked meal, you can enjoy this better-than-takeout butter chicken that cooks in just 30 minutes.
This butter chicken recipe is not 100 percent authentic and I won’t pretend it is, but it does deliver a quick, easy, and deliciously spiced chicken dinner without a long intimidating list of spices and ingredients needed.
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What Is Butter Chicken?
Butter Chicken is an Indian dish consisting of chicken marinated in yogurt and spices and cooked in a tomato-based sauce.
How To Make Butter Chicken
See recipe box below for ingredient amounts and full recipe instructions.
Ingredients
FOR THE MARINADE
- a boneless, skinless chicken breast
- sour cream or greek yogurt
- lemon juice
- turmeric
- Garam masala (homemade or store-bought)
- ground cumin
FOR THE BUTTER CHICKEN
- butter
- chopped onions
- garlic
- ground cumin
- ground ginger
- ground cinnamon
- salt
- tomato sauce
- heavy cream
- cooked rice
See below for ways to use up leftover ingredients.
Instructions
- Chop the chicken into 1-inch cubes and marinate the chicken in a marinade mixture. While the chicken pieces are marinating make the sauce.
- Melt butter in a medium-sized skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions to the pan and cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic, cumin, ginger, cinnamon and salt and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
- Stir in tomato sauce, reduce heat to low and simmer.
- While the sauce is simmering, melt the remaining tablespoon of butter in another medium-sized skillet set to medium-high heat. Add the pieces of chicken to the pan and cook for 5 minutes per side until browned.
- Remove the chicken from the pan and add to the pan with the sauce. Simmer another 5-10 minutes. Stir in the cream and cook, stirring for 1 minute.
- Serve with rice.
What To Do With Leftover Ingredients
If you have any ingredients left over from this butter chicken recipe, you might like to consider using them in any of these single serving and small batch recipes.
- Sour cream: Beef Stroganoff, Twice Baked Potato, Blue Cheese Dressing, Salisbury Steak
- Turmeric: Healing Turmeric Tea, Saag Paneer, Roasted Butternut Squash
- Cumin: Curried Carrot Soup, Baba Ganoush, Slow Cooker Chicken Burrito Bowl
- Ground ginger: Soft Ginger Cookies, Pork Stir Fry, Green Curry
- Tomato sauce: Giant Italian Meatball, Eggplant Parmesan, Baked Ziti
- Cream: Vanilla Ice Cream, Icebox Cake, Strawberry Shortcake, Alfredo Sauce
- Chicken: Baked Chicken Caprese, Instant Pot Chicken Noodle Soup, Cashew Chicken, Lemon Chicken
What To Serve With Butter Chicken
Notes: Garam Masala can be found in many supermarkets in the spice aisle. You can also make your own using this Garam Masala recipe.
When making this Butter Chicken For One, I use a 10-inch skillet. For best results, use a pan of a similar size. For more information on the baking dishes I use in our “recipes for one”, please visit our FAQ page.
Examples of the dishes used at One Dish Kitchen, please visit our Store page.
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Butter Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
FOR THE MARINADE
- 1 boneless, skinless chicken breast , cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1/2 cup sour cream , (or Greek yogurt)
- 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2 tablespoon turmeric
- 1/2 tablespoon Garam masala *see notes
- 1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
FOR THE BUTTER CHICKEN
- 2 tablespoons butter , divided
- 1/2 cup chopped onions
- 1 clove garlic , minced
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup tomato sauce
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup cooked rice
How To Video
Instructions
TO MAKE THE MARINADE
- Mix together the sour cream, lemon juice, turmeric, Garam masala and cumin together in a medium-sized bowl. Add the chicken pieces and stir so that all of the chicken pieces are completely covered. Cover bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
TO MAKE THE BUTTER CHICKEN
- Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a medium-sized skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onions to the pan and cook 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic, cumin, ginger, cinnamon and salt and cook for an additional 2 minutes.
- Stir in the tomato sauce, reduce heat to low and simmer.
- While the sauce is simmering, melt the remaining tablespoon of butter in another medium-sized skillet set to medium-high heat.
- Add the pieces of chicken to the pan and cook for 5 minutes per side until browned.
- Remove the chicken from the pan and add to the sauce. Simmer another 5-10 minutes. Stir in the cream and cook, stirring for 1 minute.
- Serve with rice.
Notes
RELATED: Cooking For One – Simple Tips For Solo Cooking
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Any harm in adding the remaining marinade to the sauce at the end? I’d hate to waste the spiced sour cream.
Hi Carol,
The marinade is rather thick so it will cling to the chicken as you put it in the pan. I would definitely NOT advise adding the marinade that held the raw chicken into the sauce at the end. Once a marinade has come in contact with raw chicken, it is absolutely not safe to consume.
Joanie
Where does the 1/4 cup of heavy cream come into the recipe?
Add the cream to the sauce at the end, when you’re adding the chicken to the sauce to simmer.
I’ve always wanted to try making this. Your recipe looks so easy I think I’ll finally give it a shot, thanks so much!
I hope you do, Dana. The flavors are incredible!
genius idea to make a single serve recipe for this classic dish.
Thank you, Lucy!
This chicken looks utterly satisfying and would eat it every week if I could.
I love Butter Chicken and this recipe for it sounds amazing! I love all the spices and seasonings!
I’ve never had butter chicken but it sounds fantastic! I’ll have to try this.
Thanks for sharing the great chicen recipet ….My hubby loves butter chicken!
I love Indian food and I love the idea of recipes for just one. That’s very useful information because we aren’t always cooking for families.