Butter chicken
मुरग़ मखनी
Delhi restaurant gravy: tandoori-style chicken in a tomato-butter sauce. Famous, modern, and not a stand-in for 'Indian food'.
Recipe by I Want Some Food · Reviewed by the editorial kitchen. Native name preserved: मुरग़ मखनी.
0 people cooked this in the public kitchen yet. Kitchen-tested by I Want Some Food. Not a purchased rating.
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 40 min
- Rest
- 1 hr
- Total
- 2 hr 5 min
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Spice
- Mild
- Cost
- Weeknight budget$8–16 USD · indicative, not a store price
About
Butter chicken (murgh makhani) is a mid-century Delhi restaurant dish: leftover tandoori chicken, tomato, butter, a little cream, gentle spice. It is Punjabi-restaurant cooking, not an ancient palace secret. This home version uses a hot oven instead of a tandoor and a blender for a smooth gravy. It should be orange, rich, and milder than people who fear 'curry' expect. Char the chicken hard in a hot oven first; pale poached meat will not taste like leftover tandoori. Kasuri methi is worth a specialist shop — skip it and the gravy tastes like generic tomato cream. Blend until smooth, then finish with butter off a rolling boil so the cream does not split. Done is an orange coat that clings to a spoon, mild heat, and chicken that still has roasted edges.
Ingredients
Ingredients
- Chicken, thighs, bone-in or boneless800 g
- Garam masala9.9 ml
- Cumin4.9 ml
- Paprika, or Kashmiri chilli powder4.9 ml
- Tomato, ripe, chopped, or passata500 g
- Butter60 g
- Cream80 ml
- Onion, sliced1 medium
- Fresh chilli (optional)1
- Salt4.9 ml
Scaling multiplies the written quantities. Baking still prefers a scale.
Steps
Step 1
Mix yoghurt, half the ginger and garlic, 1 tsp garam masala, cumin, paprika and salt. Coat chicken. Marinate at least 1 hour.
15 minStep 2
Roast chicken at 220°C until charred in spots and cooked through, 20–25 minutes. Rest. Pull into large pieces.
25 min220°CStep 3
In a saucepan, melt half the butter. Cook onion until soft and sweet. Add remaining ginger, garlic and chilli. Add tomatoes and simmer 15 minutes until thick.
20 minStep 4
Blend the sauce until smooth. Return to the pan with remaining butter, cream and the rest of the garam masala. Loosen with water if needed.
5 minStep 5
Add chicken and any roasting juices. Simmer 5 minutes. Taste: it should be rich, gently spiced, slightly sweet-acid from tomato. Serve with rice or bread.
5 min
Adapt this recipe
The canonical recipe stays intact. Personal versions are labelled. Serving changes are maths, not AI.
Adaptations · 0 / 15 used. Resets 10 October.
Substitutions
Cream → More butter and a splash of milk
Lighter, still restaurant-adjacent.
Chicken → Paneer
Paneer makhani. Skip the long roast; brown the paneer instead.
Tips
- Kashmiri chilli powder is colour. Cayenne is heat. Do not confuse them in the dark.
- A tiny pinch of sugar is allowed if the tomatoes are mean. A handful of sugar is a different sauce.
History & culture
Served with naan or rice in restaurants worldwide. In India it is one dish among thousands. Ordering it is allowed. Thinking it is the whole cuisine is how food writing goes wrong. Punjabi restaurant kitchens from Delhi outward made this the export 'curry'. In most Indian homes it is not the weekday default. British and Australian curry houses sweeten it further; pull the sugar if you want the Delhi-restaurant line. Naan is the usual mop and rice is fine — ordering it is ordinary; treating it as the whole cuisine is the mistake.
Attributed to Moti Mahal in Delhi, where cooks folded tandoori chicken into a tomato-butter gravy. A restaurant classic with a known-ish origin — treat it as such. Moti Mahal in mid-century Delhi is the usual attribution: tandoori leftovers folded into tomato and butter. It is hospitality food from after Independence, later marketed with a Mughlai glow it does not need. Cream-tomato gravies of this smoothness are restaurant technique. Call it a known-ish twentieth-century classic and stop looking for a palace manuscript.
Modern adaptation — No tandoor. Kashmiri chilli for colour more than fire. Cream is traditional in the restaurant style.
Provenance: Editorial adaptation. Original editorial adaptation for I Want Some Food. Photograph: I Want Some Food generated editorial photography (Editorial supply).
Questions about this recipe
Answers taken from this dish's times, amounts, swaps and tips — not a chatbot.
How long does Butter chicken take?
2 hr 5 min all in — 25 min prep, 40 min cook, 1 hr rest. Cook and rest follow the method. Leftover storage and optional extra waits are not included.
How many does it serve?
The recipe is written for 4 people. Scale the ingredient list on the page if you are cooking for a different number.
How hard is it?
Medium.
How spicy is it?
Mild.
What allergens should I watch?
This recipe is labelled for Milk. Labels are informational — check the packets in your kitchen. This is not medical advice.
Does it fit a diet?
The published recipe is labelled Gluten-free.
What does it cost to cook?
Weeknight budget — about $8–16 USD, as a grocery budget for this recipe, not a restaurant price.
What equipment do I need?
Oven, Saucepan, Blender.
How much salt do I put in?
The recipe lists Salt at 1 tsp.
What can I use instead?
Cream → More butter and a splash of milk. Lighter, still restaurant-adjacent. Chicken → Paneer. Paneer makhani. Skip the long roast; brown the paneer instead.
Any tips from this recipe?
Kashmiri chilli powder is colour. Cayenne is heat. Do not confuse them in the dark. A tiny pinch of sugar is allowed if the tomatoes are mean. A handful of sugar is a different sauce.
Can I use an air fryer?
This method is not written for an air fryer. The core technique on the page still applies.
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