I’m so excited to share this butter chicken recipe today! Dustin and I love Indian food but I never thought I’d be able to replicate our favorite Indian dishes at home- until this recipe! It’s just so so good. And easy.

Let’s talk about a few of the ingredients. You can use chicken breast and/or thighs here. Just be careful not to overcook chicken breast or it’ll be dry. The chili powder this recipe calls for pure ground chili, which I don’t have, so I used cayenne. I reduced the amount of cayenne pepper quite a bit (to be safe for kids) and found it still had a kick. Also, don’t try and make this dish too healthy. If you use low-fat substitutes it’s just not going to taste as good/like the real thing. Butter chicken actually doesn’t have as much butter in it as I expected but gets its richness from some heavy cream.

We had this butter chicken over basmati rice, with fresh cilantro and warm garlic naan for scooping up all that sauce. I also made a cucumber raita (which I’ll be posting right away) to serve alongside.

Easy Indian Butter Chicken

INGREDIENTS

Marinade:
1/2 cup plain full-fat yogurt (I used Greek yogurt)
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. turmeric powder
2 tsp. garam masala
1/2 tsp. pure ground chili powder or cayenne pepper (I used 1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper and it had a slight kick)
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breast or thighs, cut into bite size pieces (I used chicken breast)

Sauce:
2 Tbsp. butter or ghee
1 cup tomato puree
1 Tbsp. sugar
~1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp. cornstarch + 1 Tbsp. water (to thicken, optional)

For Serving:
basmati rice
garlic naan
fresh chopped cilantro
cucumber raita (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1. Whisk together the marinade ingredients until smooth and then stir in the chicken until the chicken is thoroughly coated. Marinate for at least 3 hours, or up to 24 hours.
2. In a large frying pan, heat the butter/ghee over medium-high heat. Add the chicken (discard the extra marinade) and cook for a few minutes, then turn the chicken pieces so they cook on the other side. Add the tomato puree, sugar and salt and let simmer on low-heat for about 10-20 minutes, until the chicken is cooked completely through. Stir in the whipping cream. If you want to thicken the sauce, whisk the cornstarch and water together in a small bowl or cup with a fork then pour into the sauce. Let the sauce come to a simmer again and cook for a minute or two to thicken, then adjust salt to taste. Garnish with fresh chopped cilantro and serve with basmati rice, naan bread, and cucumber raita (optional).

Serves 4.

(Adapted from RecipeTin Eats via Everyday Reading)