Butter Chicken
The sauce that made a thousand people order a second naan just to wipe the bowl. This is the honest weeknight version: no overnight marinade, all of the velvet.
- Total time
- 19 min
- Serves
- 2
- Effort
- Medium
What you need
Written for 2 — nudge the counter and the numbers follow.
0 of 10 in the basket.
How you make it
Toss the chicken with 1 tsp garam masala, the chilli powder and half the salt while you heat the oil in a wide pan over high heat.
Sear the chicken in a single layer for 3 minutes without moving it, turn and sear 2 minutes more, then lift it onto a plate; it will not be cooked through yet.
Drop the heat to medium, melt the butter, add the ginger-garlic paste, cumin and remaining garam masala and stir for 60 seconds until it smells toasty rather than raw.
Pour in the passata with the sugar and remaining salt, simmer 4 minutes until it darkens and pulls away from the pan, then stir in the cream.
Return the chicken and any resting juices, simmer gently for 5 to 6 minutes until the sauce clings and the chicken is cooked through with no pink at the centre, reaching 75C/165F on a probe.
Taste for salt and sugar, then rest off the heat for 2 minutes so the sauce thickens before serving.
Read all that and thought “absolutely not”?
Completely fair. Butter Chicken is sitting in the Indian kitchen right now, it costs nothing, and it will never arrive.
Order it insteadMore from the Indian kitchen
Spice layered on spice until the room smells incredible.