Butter Chicken - Gordon Ramsay Recipe

Indian Butter Chicken Curry (Chicken Makhani) Recipe

A curry dish similar to Tikka Masala is one of the most popular curries on the menu in any Indian restaurant.

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*Post updated February 2025

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

Murgh makhani, chicken makhani or Indian butter chicken, whichever you prefer to call it!

It is the Indian name for butter chicken. According to Wikipedia, Makhani is an Indian word meaning "with butter." It was 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 (August 2023), I have updated my recipe.

Why? Because I've discovered a couple of shortcuts, but fear not, it tastes just the same 😋 Hopefully, I've made it easier to follow.

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!

You can still buy Great Escape Gordon Ramsay book on Amazon.

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 thought something was wrong with the butter chicken recipe.

Because in the TV programme, he was 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 know 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 tomatoes.

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.

My top tip on tinned tomatoes

I prefer the brand Mutti; yes, they are a bit expensive, but look how amazing they are. 😍

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

Ingredients for butter chicken

• 2 nice fat chicken fillets cut into biggish bite-sized pieces (3cm). Use 3 fillets if you want to serve 4 people

• 2 garlic cloves - peeled and very finely chopped

• 2 cm ginger - peeled and very finely chopped

• 4 heaped tablespoons (enough to coat the chicken) I use TOTAL Greek 5% Natural Yoghurt

• 1½ teaspoons hot chilli powder

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• ½ teaspoon ground turmeric

• ½ teaspoon garam masala

• a pinch of fine sea salt

• a little vegetable oil for brushing

Sauce ingredients

• unsalted butter

•  garlic cloves 

• ginger 

• cardamom pod 

• whole cloves

• ground coriander

• ground turmeric

• garam masala

• hot chilli powder

• tomato purée (tomato paste if you're in the US)

• can of finely chopped tinned tomatoes

• runny honey 

• lemon juice

• green bird's eye chillies - left whole and pierced with a knife 

• 100ml double (heavy) cream if you are in the US)

You can find the full recipe details in the printable recipe card below. 😉

Marinate the chicken.

Make the sauce.

Part-cook the chicken in a griddle pan.

Add the chicken to the sauce.

Add the butter and cream.

Serve with rice and naan bread and rice. We like Jeera Rice.

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

butter chicken gordon ramsay, Indian butter chicken, chicken makhani, butter chicken recipe

dinner, main, curry

Indian

Yield: 2-4

Author: Jan Bennett

Butter Chicken - Gordon Ramsay

Easy, butter chicken recipe. To serve 4, just add another chicken fillet as the sauce will still be enough.

Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 20 MinInactive time: 1 H & 15 MTotal time: 1 H & 55 M

Ingredients

For the chicken

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

For the sauce

• 30g plus 40g of melted unsalted butter
• 2 garlic cloves - peeled and very finely chopped
• 2 cm ginger - peeled and very 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 if needed
• 2 tablespoons tomato purée (tomato paste if you're in the US)
• 400g can of finely chopped tinned tomatoes - good quality ones or the juice will be like water, I use the brand Mutti
• 2 tablespoons of runny honey - or to taste
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 3 green bird's eye chillies - left whole - each one pierced 6 times using a knife
• 100ml double (heavy) cream

To serve

• chopped coriander (cilantro) leaves only

Instructions

Prepare 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. Make sure that each piece is well coated.
3. Cover and chill for at least 1 hour, but 3 hours would be better if you have time. Remove from the fridge 15 minutes before cooking.

Meanwhile make the sauce

1. Heat 30g of butter in a large frying pan. Add the garlic and ginger, fry for a minute and then add the cardamom seeds, cloves, ground coriander, turmeric, garam masala, and chilli powder. Stir well and fry for 1-2 minutes, until they give off a lovely aroma.
2. Add the whole green chillies, but be sure to pierce each one with a knife so they release some heat into the dish.
3. Stir in the tomato purée and lemon juice and cook for another few minutes.
4. Add the can of tomatoes with the juice and stir in the honey. If you need to, use a wooden spoon to break up the tomatoes - you want the sauce to be quite smooth.

Cook the chicken

1. Thread the chicken pieces onto metal skewers, drizzle with a little vegetable oil and cook in a hot grill pan.
2. Don't let them cook through because they will finish cooking in the sauce - if you fully cook them now the chicken will end up dry!

To finish the dish

1. Add the chicken to the sauce and cook until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has reduced to a nice thickness. Don't let it boil, just simmer gently otherwise the chicken will end up tough.
2. Remove from the heat and let the sauce cool for a good 5 minutes. Use this time to remove the chillies and find the two cloves or someone will encounter a hard clove, and possibly break a tooth, so find them and throw them away!
3. By now the sauce should have cooled a bit, if not the sauce will curdle. Add the rest of the butter (40g) and stir. Now add the cream stirring continuously until it's all melted.
4. Put the pan back on the heat and cook until it's all piping hot. Have a taste to see if you want more honey or chilli or whatever then serve straight away, garnished with chopped coriander.

Notes

I really recommend you use double cream (heavy) if you're in the US otherwise if you use single cream the sauce is far more likely to curdle.

https://www.aglugofoil.com/2010/01/indian-butter-chicken-murgh-makhani.html

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