Easy Butter Chicken

This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.

This easy butter chicken recipe is full of authentic Indian flavors. This is a healthy chicken curry recipe that is quick to make and perfect for a weeknight meal. The curry sauce is mild in spice but big in flavor! This is the best butter chicken recipe!

Do you remember the first time you heard of butter chicken (which is known in India as Murgh Makhani)? I literally just pictured chicken swimming in butter… But then I actually tasted it at a restaurant. It was like a party in my mouth!

Quick Indian butter chicken recipe

Authentic butter chicken is a labor of love. It requires the chicken to be marinated in advance, has more authentic Indian spices than I can probably pronounce, and takes at least an hour to make. I only allot myself 30 minutes for most recipes. So I took a shortcut and made this [still absolutely amazingly tasting] authentic Indian dish. Don’t be scared by the list of ingredients. 7 of them are just the spices and all the rest are simple easy-to-find items.

I promise you all the flavor of traditional butter chicken is still there (thanks to my amazing Indian spice collection!) And I promise you the chicken will come out juicy, tender and unbelievably tasty! Also, the best part is that even though it’s a butter chicken recipe, there’s really only 1 tablespoon of butter in the recipe.

How to Make Easy Butter Chicken

To start, cook the onions with the butter and olive oil. It’s a great idea to finely dice the onions if you can. This helps the onions blends in well with the sauce. When the onions soften, I add some grated ginger and minced garlic.

You know by now this is all happening in one pan, right? So into the pan goes literally everything else! There’s chicken breast, tomato paste, red curry paste and tons of colorful Indian spices.

Once I add the coconut milk to that mixture, it transforms the dish to a beautiful orangey color that’s basically like a velvety butter bath bursting with flavor. Allow it simmer though for 20 minutes. You want the chicken to cook completely and the sauce to thicken.

Tips for making butter chicken

• Be liberal with the spices. Like a lot of Indian recipes, this one is a heavily spiced dish. When you break down the ingredients, you’ll realize that all the flavor comes from the combination of warm smokey spices. Use my recipe below as a guide but feel free to add more and substitute the spices you don’t have with more of the ones you do have.
• Use fresh ginger and fresh garlic. Yes, we are throwing in a ton of spices in the dish. And it’s tempting to throw in more dried spices like ginger and garlic. But it’s important that you use the fresh versions. They add a ton more flavor to the dish than their dry counterparts.
• Customize it with vegetables. The chicken is the star of the dish, but you can certainly bulk this up with any other vegetables like carrots, cauliflower or peas to add more servings of vegetables.
• Substitute the butter if you prefer. You don’t need butter to make this recipe? Nope. This recipe gets all its richness and “buttery” taste from the from cream, or in my case, the coconut milk. So if you’re not a fan of butter, try olive oil or any other cooking oil.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the difference between butter chicken and chicken tikka masala?

Butter chicken and chicken tikka masala look very similar, but chicken tikka has a more complex taste with more added spices and butter chicken has a milder and sweeter curry sauce or gravy. Butter chicken originates from India, whereas chicken tikka masala is actually a British dish.

Is butter chicken sauce spicy?

Despite the various spices used in this gravy, it is a very mild dish, the spices add flavor to the curry rather than heat. This is a great family meal that the kids will love, and if you are not a fan of spicy food this dish will be for you!

How many calories are in butter chicken?

If you order butter chicken in a restaurant, you are likely looking at around 500 calories, sometimes more, per serving, but my lightened up version is less than 300 calories yet still as tasty! Feel free to add extra veggies in as well for an even healthier dish!

That, my friends, is the whole recipe. It’s the fast and convenient recipe for us butter chicken lovers that have 30 minutes to get dinner ready on the table. By the way, while that is simmering for 20 minutes, it’s the perfect time to make rice to go along with this meal. You can also serve it with naan, quinoa, or brown rice. But long grain white rice or basmati rice is the best. It’s the way it’s served traditionally.

For more Indian inspired recipes:

• Cauliflower Curry
• Chicken Naan Pizza
• Red Lentil Curry
• Vegan Buddha Bowl

If you’ve tried this healthy-ish feel good Easy Butter Chicken recipe or any other recipe on FeelGoodFoodie, then don’t forget to rate the recipe and leave me a comment below! I would love to hear about your experience making it. And if you snapped some shots of it, share it with me on Instagram so I can repost on my stories!