Indian Butter Chicken Recipe

Butter Chicken - Murgh Makhani 

Aromatic and full of flavour, butter chicken is one of the best sweet curries and is a firm favourite in this house.

Indian butter chicken is one of the most popular curries at any Indian restaurant, near us anyway.

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The rich tomato butter sauce has been perfected by Gordon Ramsay - seriously, you just want to keep on eating it.

I must say, Gordon Ramsay's recipe is just the best. I've been watching his 'Great Escape' programme on TV and it's brilliant.

Okay, the list of ingredients is quite long, but they are mostly spices and I will say it is so worth making.

This is one TASTY curry!

However, when the book Great Escapes was published I'm thinking something is wrong with the butter chicken recipe.

In the programme talking about the butter chicken he had there, Gordon said: It doesn't taste tart like it's been laced with tomato puree, it uses fresh tomatoes.

Now, this is all very strange because the book says to use 275ml of tomato puree and there's not a mention of a tomato fresh, tinned or even passata.

But with that said, I do believe that in the USA tomato puree is known as tomato paste. So, perhaps it's just a misunderstanding by whoever wrote the recipe for the book.

Tomato paste in the UK is very different from tomato puree; confusing or what?! 😐

So, there I was, everything ready to go until I noticed the amount of tomato puree.

Not only would the dish have been very bitter, but there would also have been hardly any sauce at all. I used a good quality tin of plum tomatoes.

Tinned Tomatoes

I prefer the brand Cirio; yes they are a bit expensive but when you open the can you will see what I'm talking about.

They're available in Tesco, Sainsbury's or Waitrose and in my opinion, you can't beat them.

With all that in mind, I set about looking up different recipes on the net and the end result is my very much 'titivated' version of Gordon Ramsay's Indian Butter Chicken.

Murgh Makhani

Murgh makhani is the Indian name for butter chicken.

According to Wikipedia, Makhani is an Indian word meaning "with butter". It has been given to Indian cuisine during the Mughal rule in India.

It is now used in the names of several dishes from Punjabi cuisine.

Anyway, after making this again last night (September 2022) my recipe has now been updated since I've discovered a couple of shortcuts, but fear not, it tastes just the same 😋 hopefully, I've made it easier to follow.

Have you tried this recipe? Please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ star rating in the recipe card below!

Indian butter chicken recipe, butter chicken curry, butter chicken, Gordon Ramsay, murgh makhani, 

curry, chicken, main, dinner

Indian

Yield: 2-4

Author: Jan Bennett

Indian Butter Chicken Recipe

This is so delicious it's easily eaten by the two of us because we are quite greedy. But there is plenty enough sauce for 4 fat chicken fillets to serve 4 not so greedy people!

Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 30 MinInactive time: 1 HourTotal time: 1 H & 45 M

Ingredients

For the chicken

• 2 nice fat chicken fillets cut into big-ish bite-sized pieces (3cm)
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and very finely chopped
• 2 cm ginger, peeled and very finely chopped
• a pinch of fine sea salt
• 1 teaspoon hot chilli powder
• 3-4 heaped tablespoons (enough to coat the chicken) I use TOTAL Greek 5% Natural Yoghurt
• ½ teaspoon garam masala
• ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• a little vegetable oil for brushing

For the sauce

• 1½ tablespoons ghee or melted unsalted butter
• 2 garlic cloves - peeled and finely chopped
• 2 cm ginger - peeled and finely chopped
• 1 cardamom pod - seeds only and lightly crushed
• 2 whole cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• 2 teaspoons hot chilli powder - or to taste, remember you can add more towards the end
• 1 heaped tablespoon tomato purée (tomato paste if you're in the US)
• 400g can of tinned tomatoes - good quality ones or the juice will be like water, I use the brand Cirio
• 1 to 2 tablespoons of runny honey - or to taste
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 3 green birds eye chillies - left whole, but each one pierced a couple of times with a knife
• 40g unsalted butter
• 100ml double cream (heavy cream if you are in the US)

To serve

• Chopped coriander and rice

Instructions

Prepare and cook the chicken

1. Put the yoghurt in a bowl with the garlic, ginger, salt, chilli powder, garam masala, turmeric and cumin.
2. Mix well and then add the chicken making sure that each piece is well coated with the mixture.
3. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour, but 3 hours would be better if you have time.
4. Preheat the oven to 190C /375F or Gas 5
5. Put the marinated chicken pieces on a grill rack set on a baking tray lined with foil so there's less mess.
6. Cook for about 15 minutes without turning; if you turn it you will lose half the marinade.
7. *Please note the chicken will not be fully cooked at this point; it will finish cooking in the sauce in a bit so if you fully cook it now it will be dry.

1. Meanwhile, you can make the sauce - just don't forget about the chicken in the oven!
2. Heat the ghee or butter in a large frying pan and add the garlic and ginger, fry for a minute then add the cardamom seeds, cloves, coriander, turmeric, garam masala, and chilli powder.
3. Stir well and fry for 1-2 minutes, until they give off a lovely aroma.
4. Add the whole green chillies but be sure to have pierced each of them with a knife a couple of times so they can release a nice bit of heat into the dish.
5. Stir in the tomato purée and lemon juice and cook for another couple of minutes.
6. Now add the can of tomatoes along with the juice and stir in the honey.
7. Using a wooden spoon break up the tomatoes because you want the sauce to be quite smooth.
8. Have a taste to see if you want more honey or chilli or whatever.
9. Add the chicken to the sauce and cook until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has reduced to a nice thickness.
10. Don't let it boil, just simmer gently otherwise the chicken will end up tough.
11. Remove from the heat and let the sauce cool for about 5 minutes.
12. Use this time to remove the chillies and find the two cloves or someone will encounter a clove, and possible break a tooth! So be finding them and throw them away!
13. By now the sauce should have cooled a bit if not the sauce will curdle.
14. Add the butter and stir. Now add the cream stirring continuously until it's all melted.
15. Put the pan back on the heat until it's all piping hot and serve straight away, garnished with chopped coriander.

Notes

I really recommend you use double (heavy if you're in the US) cream rather than single. Otherwise, the sauce is far more likely to curdle and your dish will not look good at all. It's also important you don't add the cream to the sauce while it's piping hot you must let it cool before adding.

Did you make this recipe?

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