Why you are cooking this tonight
Butter chicken is the curry most people order when they cannot decide what to order. Which is slightly unfair to butter chicken, because when you make it properly at home it is one of the most satisfying dishes you can put on a weeknight table. It is also the gateway curry. The one that converts a household that “doesn’t really do Indian food” into a household that now, suddenly, does Indian food twice a week.
The version you get at the third-best Indian restaurant on your high street is usually too sweet, too orange, too thick, and tastes faintly of canned tomato soup. The version you will cook tonight is none of those things. It’s rich without being cloying, warm with spice without being angry about it, and finished with a proper swirl of butter and cream that makes everyone at the table a bit quiet for the first few bites.
Two things to know upfront. One: you marinate the chicken, properly, in yoghurt and spice, for at least an hour, ideally overnight. Two: you make the sauce separately and bring them together at the end. Do those two things, it works. Don’t do those two things, it’s fine but it’s not this.
What you need
For the chicken marinade
600 g boneless skinless chicken thigh, cut into thumb-sized chunks. Thigh, not breast. I will die on this hill. Breast goes dry, thigh stays tender. Thigh is also half the price.
150 g full-fat natural yoghurt. Greek works, plain natural works. Low-fat doesn’t work.
2 tbsp lemon juice.
3 fat garlic cloves, grated on a microplane.
2 tsp grated fresh ginger.
1 tsp ground cumin.
1 tsp sweet paprika (smoked paprika is also good here, will give a deeper note).
1 tsp garam masala.
1 tsp kashmiri chilli powder if you can find it, regular chilli powder if not, half the quantity if the regular stuff is fierce.
1 tsp fine salt.
For the sauce
60 g unsalted butter.
1 brown onion, finely chopped.
4 garlic cloves, finely grated.
1 tbsp finely grated ginger.
2 long green chillies, finely chopped. Seeds in or out to taste. I leave them in.
1 cinnamon stick.
2 green cardamom pods, bashed open with the side of a knife.
2 whole cloves.
1 tsp ground cumin.
1 tsp ground coriander.
1 tsp sweet paprika.
1 tsp garam masala, plus a bit more at the end.
400 g tin of whole peeled tomatoes, or 400 g of fresh ripe tomatoes blitzed in the blender.
150 ml water.
100 ml thickened cream.
1 tbsp honey (or sugar).
30 g cold butter, to finish.
Salt to taste.
Coriander leaves, a big handful, to finish.
To serve
Basmati rice, cooked plain and well-seasoned.
Naan, shop-bought is fine, charred in a dry pan with butter and garlic.
Sliced red onion and a green chilli on the side if you’re into that.
How to cook it
Step 1. Marinate the chicken (at least 1 hour, ideally overnight)
Whisk everything in the marinade list together in a bowl, tip the chicken in, toss, cover. Fridge. The yoghurt does two jobs: it tenderises the meat and it carries the spice into the flesh. An hour is the minimum. Four hours is better. Overnight is best. You only need to remember to do this once.
Step 2. Sear the chicken
Hot, dry, heavy pan. Cast iron if you have it. Lift the chicken out of the marinade, shake off the excess, lay the pieces in the pan in a single layer with space between them. You are not cooking them through, you are scorching the outside.
Three minutes one side, two minutes the other. You want dark edges, slight char in places. Pull it onto a plate. Don’t worry if the inside is still raw. Repeat with a second batch if your pan was too small for one go.
Step 3. Build the sauce
Same pan, medium heat, add the 60 g butter. When it’s foaming, in with the onion, a pinch of salt, cook 8 to 10 minutes until very soft and just going golden at the edges. This is the foundation. Don’t rush it.
Cinnamon, cardamom, cloves into the pan. Thirty seconds. Garlic, ginger, chilli, another minute.
Ground cumin, ground coriander, paprika, garam masala. Thirty seconds. You are toasting them, not burning them. If it looks dry, a splash of water.
Tin of tomatoes in, break them up with your spoon. Water. Bring to a simmer. Lid off, medium-low, 15 minutes. The sauce will darken, thicken, and start to smell like a curry and not like pasta sauce.
Step 4. Blend (optional but correct)
Fish out the cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, and whole cloves. Blitz the sauce with a stick blender or in a regular blender until smooth. Return to the pan. This is the step that takes the sauce from “homemade” to “restaurant”. Do not skip it.
Step 5. Bring it together
Chicken back in with any juices from the plate. Simmer 8 to 10 minutes, lid off. The chicken will finish cooking and the sauce will reduce to a glossy coating consistency.
Cream in, honey in. Stir. Another two minutes.
Off the heat. Drop the 30 g cold butter in, stir it through as it melts. An extra pinch of garam masala, stirred in. Taste. Salt. Another squeeze of lemon if it needs it.
Step 6. Serve
Coriander on top, plenty of it. Basmati rice, charred naan, sliced red onion and chilli if you’re showing off.
What to pour with it
Make this drinkA cold gin and tonic with a fat wedge of lime
The drink that was practically invented to sit next to Indian food. The bitterness of the tonic cuts the cream, the juniper complements the spice, the lime lifts everything. Four Pillars Rare Dry Gin for bonus points.
Read the recipe →Wine / beer to buyOff-dry Riesling from Eden Valley or Clare
Grosset Off-Dry, Pewsey Vale Prima, anything with a touch of sugar and a spine of acid. Sounds wrong on paper, works in the glass. The small hit of sweetness tames the chilli, the acidity cuts through the dairy.
Wine / beer to buyMango lassi
if you’re going alcohol-free. Blend mango pulp, yoghurt, a pinch of salt, a squeeze of lime, a few ice cubes. Serve cold in a tall glass. The best non-drink drink for this dinner.
Wine / beer to buyCold Indian lager
if you’re feeding a crowd and want to keep it easy. Kingfisher if you can find it. Anything cold and unfussy.
Two things that go wrong
The sauce has split. It looks grainy and the fat has separated. Low heat, whisk in a splash of cream, then a bit of cold butter, off the heat. It’ll come back together. Often the butter at the end gets added too hot, which is the usual suspect.
The spice isn’t there. You skipped the toasting step or your spices are old. Spices expire faster than people think. If your jar of garam masala has been open since the Turnbull government, buy a new one.
Variations worth knowing
Paneer butter masala
Swap the chicken for 400 g of paneer, cut into cubes and pan-fried until golden. Vegetarian, equally good.
Dial it up
Add a teaspoon of kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves) at the very end. Crush between your palms into the pan. One ingredient, massive flavour jump. Your local Indian grocer will have it.
Dial it back
Halve the cream, bulk the sauce with a bit more tomato. Cleaner, slightly less indulgent, still excellent.
Leftover plan
Leftover butter chicken is extraordinary the next day. The sauce has thought about what it wants to be overnight. Warm slowly with a splash of water, serve on rice, or stuff into a wrap with salad and mint chutney for the world’s best leftover lunch.
Butter Chicken
Ingredients
Method
- Combine chicken and all marinade ingredients. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour, ideally overnight.
- Heat a heavy frypan over high heat. Cook chicken in batches until just charred, about 3 minutes per batch. It does not need to be fully cooked through. Set aside.
- In the same pan, melt butter and oil. Add onions and cook for 8 minutes until golden.
- Add ginger, garlic, garam masala, cumin and chilli. Cook for 1 minute until fragrant.
- Stir in tomato paste, then crushed tomatoes. Simmer for 10 minutes, then blend smooth with a stick blender.
- Return chicken to the pan. Simmer for 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
- Stir in cream, cold butter and sugar. Taste for salt and sweetness. Top with coriander and serve with rice and naan.