> Skip to content

Recipe  •  2 March 2023

 

Butter Chicken

A family favourite.

A royal dish if ever there was one, Butter Chicken is known for its luxuriously rich texture and for me, the thicker and creamier the better. It’s a flavourful, aromatic curry with a butter and tomato base – wonderfully creamy and tastes out of this world. My children absolutely love this beautiful dish. I make this often and serve it with Basmati Rice (see page 136). My husband loves Butter Chicken too and makes it using this recipe – I’ve got to say it’s pretty good! Forget going out to dinner – make this and have a night in. You can thank me later!

Serves: 2-3
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook TIme: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

  • 4–5 tablespoons oil
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 500g chicken breast, cut into chunks
  • 1 teaspoon ginger paste
  • 1 teaspoon garlic paste
  • 1 teaspoon chilli powder
  • 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
  • 1 tablespoon Kashmiri chilli powder
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 1 tablespoon butter chicken masala or tandoori masala
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon dried fenugreek leaves
  • 1 fresh tomato, chopped
  • 250g tomato passata
  • 100–150ml water
  • 125ml milk
  • 150ml single or double cream
  • 30g butter
  • 2 tablespoons lemon juice
  • chopped fresh coriander, to garnish


Method:

 
1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan on a low heat, add the bay leaves and onion and cook for 5 minutes until golden brown. Add the chicken, ginger paste and garlic paste and cook for 25 minutes until only a little moisture is left from the chicken.

2. Add the chilli powder, chilli flakes, Kashmiri chilli powder, ground coriander, cumin, turmeric, butter chicken masala or tandoori masala, salt, pepper and dried fenugreek and stir well. Add the fresh tomato and passata, cook for 1 minute, then pour in the water, milk and cream and stir well. Simmer for 8–10 minutes until the sauce has thickened.

3. Add the butter, letting it melt through the sauce, then add the lemon juice and serve sprinkled with chopped coriander.

Feature Title

The Ramadan Cookbook
A collection of 80 delicious recipes perfect for cooking during Ramadan
Read more

More features

See all recipes
Recipe
Spicy Potato & Sweetcorn Tortilla Samosas

A satisfying and tasty snack, perfect for Ramadan.

Recipe
Air Fryer Chicken Parm

Crispy chicken is topped with a rich tomato sauce and plenty of Cheddar cheese and Parmesan in this easy, high protein dish.

Recipe
Breakfast Pizza

Topped with spinach, tomatoes and cheesy eggs this breakfast pizza is perfect for a speedy high protein breakfast.

Recipe
Spicy Noodle Soup

This high protein soup is packed with rice noodles, bean sprouts and juicy king prawns in a spicy, coconut sauce.

Recipe
Spicy tomato, tortellini and chilli soup

This vegetarian slow cooker spicy tomato tortellini and chilli soup from Bored of Lunch is an easy dish for cold days.

Recipe
Chilli con carne macaroni melt

This easy slow cooker recipe from Bored of Lunch combines chilli con carne with macaroni cheese for the very definition of healthy comfort food.

Recipe
Portuguese Chicken and Fries

Think of this as exactly what Nando’s wishes it was: vibrant spicy chicken with crispy skin served with crunchy fries and a spicy dipping sauce. Piri piri chillies aren’t widely available in Australia, unless you grow them yourself, but bird’s-eye chillies are easy to find and they do the trick.

Recipe
Cherry clafoutis

I don’t remember much about the circumstances of my first cherry clafoutis. But I must have loved the classic French farmhouse dessert, because I’ve been trying to reproduce that first custardy, almond-scented pancake ever since.

Recipe
Panang-style beef with coconut rice

Not quite a red curry, not quite a satay, this dish is the best of both worlds, inspired by Thai flavours and it is divine. It’s a throw-and-go recipe and I know we all love those at BOL. Perfect served with creamy coconut rice, some sliced red chilli and flatbreads.

Recipe
Stir-fried peppers with paneer – Kadai mirch paneer

Camellia Punjabi's recipe for the classic North Indian dish of stir-fried peppers with paneer is flavoured with a medley of spices and aromatics and makes for a brilliant vegetarian dish.

Recipe
Rick stein’s mini brioche toasts with whipped feta, fresh figs and pickled walnuts

‘I always think that canapés should box slightly above their weight – in other words, they need to be vividly flavoured to succeed. Here, the combination of crisp brioche, salty feta, pickled walnuts, figs, honey and thyme is just that. If you like, there’s a recipe for pickling your own green walnuts on page 275 of Rick Stein’s Christmas. You can also make this with slices of goat’s cheese from a log instead of the whipped feta.’

Recipe
S’mores Spiderweb Cookies

These adorably spooky cookies are the perfect Halloween biscuit, with a perfect chocolate crumb and a coating of marshmallow cobwebs. You can also create a seasonal variation for Bonfire Night featuring a sprinkling of edible gold dust.

Looking for more recipes?

See all recipes
penguin pop image
penguin pop image