This butter chicken recipe features tender chicken swimming in a rich spiced tomato gravy for a meal that’s deeply flavored and incredibly satisfying.
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00:00 Hey everyone, it's Tia in the Delish Kitchen studio.
00:03 After three separate recipes and tons of research
00:07 and multiple rounds of testing on my part,
00:10 I can say with confidence that this is our favorite ever
00:15 butter chicken recipe.
00:17 Featuring tender spiced chicken
00:19 swimming in a rich tomato gravy,
00:22 this butter chicken is one of the finest
00:25 comfort foods worldwide.
00:27 And now you're gonna be able to make it
00:28 in your own kitchen.
00:30 Let's get started.
00:31 Butter chicken was invented in the 1950s in Delhi
00:34 as a way to repurpose/refresh tandoori chicken.
00:38 For this recipe, we don't have leftover tandoori chicken,
00:42 so we're going to start by approximating our own.
00:45 Here I have a couple pounds
00:46 of boneless, skinless chicken thighs.
00:49 This is the best type of chicken to use for butter chicken
00:51 because it stays tender and juicy
00:53 even after it's been broiled
00:55 and then tossed into this flavorful gravy.
00:58 We're gonna cut them into one and a half inch size chunks.
01:01 We're gonna get our chopped chicken
01:04 into a super flavorful marinade now.
01:07 This yogurt spice marinade is gonna have a lot
01:09 of the ingredients that are gonna go
01:11 in the tomato butter gravy later on.
01:13 Into our bowl, we're going to put our yogurt,
01:16 garlic, ginger, garam masala,
01:21 Kashmiri chili, salt, and lemon juice.
01:26 (upbeat music)
01:28 Kashmiri chili is an amazing ingredient
01:35 and super great in this recipe.
01:37 It is very flavorful without being spicy.
01:41 You can find it online.
01:42 You can find it in a lot of specialty Indian stores.
01:45 However, if you don't have it,
01:46 you can also sub it for three parts paprika
01:49 to one part cayenne.
01:50 We're gonna toss the chicken in the spice yogurt,
01:53 get it all fully covered,
01:55 and then top it with some plastic wrap
01:57 and get it into the fridge for an hour to marinate.
01:59 So here we have our marinated chicken
02:03 and now we're going to get it on a sheet pan
02:06 and under the broiler.
02:07 If you happen to have a tandoori oven in your home,
02:11 by all means use that.
02:13 I do not have that luxury,
02:14 so I'm going to use a foil covered sheet pan
02:17 and the broiler to mimic a tandoori oven effect.
02:21 You could also use a grill if you want.
02:23 Before we even start, let's talk about the sheet pan.
02:27 Typical sheet pan, but you must use foil.
02:32 The foil is going to make cleanup so much easier, trust me.
02:36 We're gonna get our chicken onto the sheet tray
02:38 and spread it out into an even layer.
02:41 We're gonna broil this on high for 15 minutes,
02:45 flipping once about halfway through
02:47 until the chicken is fully cooked.
02:52 While our chicken is broiling,
02:54 we're gonna start on our makhni sauce.
02:57 Makhni means butter,
02:58 so this literally does mean butter chicken.
03:02 We're gonna get a large skillet over medium heat
03:05 and add to that our butter and our tomato paste.
03:08 We're gonna cook, stirring all the while
03:10 for about five minutes
03:11 until that tomato paste turns a deep brick red.
03:14 Once our tomato paste mixture is dark brick red,
03:20 we are gonna add our serrano chili
03:22 and our ginger and stir about a minute
03:25 until they're fragrant.
03:26 Then we will add our dried spices,
03:29 cumin, garam masala, and Kashmiri chili powder.
03:32 At this point, we can add in our heavy cream,
03:41 water, salt, and dried fenugreek.
03:52 Our chicken is now done broiling,
03:54 so we can add that in, bring it up to a boil,
03:57 reduce the heat to a simmer,
03:59 and let it cook until the chicken is super tender
04:02 and the sauce is slightly reduced.
04:03 This should take about 15 minutes.
04:05 Mm, it's so tender and juicy,
04:21 and the flavor is out of this world.
04:24 It's spicy, it's buttery, it's creamy, it's rich,
04:28 but not too heavy.
04:29 The Kashmiri chili that we added in here
04:32 gives it that really beautiful spice note
04:36 without making it too spicy.
04:38 And all of that tomato paste that we spent time cooking down
04:41 adds this really great depth and back note
04:44 of that tomato flavor.
04:45 I don't often say this,
04:47 but this chicken tastes like it comes
04:50 from a high-end restaurant.
04:52 Today, I served this with rice and naan
04:55 and a nice kachumber salad,
04:57 but honestly, you don't need to have all that.
04:59 You can choose to serve it with the rice or the naan,
05:02 or you can just eat it on its own.
05:05 I know I sometimes do.
05:06 I'm gonna go eat the rest of this right now.
05:09 For this and other comfort classics,
05:11 stick around here on delish.com.
05:14 (upbeat music)
05:16 (upbeat music)