How to Make Indian Butter Chicken. I just recently learned about Tieghan Gerard's Half Baked Harvest blog, which she started almost ten years ago when she was only 18 years old. She comes from a large family of ten, and she discovered she loved helping her mother prepare dinner after years of doing it. Tieghan develops her recipes and produces the breathtakingly beautiful photos in a converted horse barn where she resides and works in Colorado. She has published two cookbooks, won numerous awards, and is a well-known Instagram user.
What is Butter Chicken?
Butter chicken is a creamy chicken dish with a spiced tomato sauce. It's made with a generous amount of butter and heavy cream, as the name suggests. It's not particularly spicy, but you can increase the heat if desired.
What's in This Butter Chicken?
The majority of the ingredients for this simple butter chicken recipe are spices and other aromatics. You may need to purchase a few for this recipe, but they can all be used in a variety of other recipes.
You will need the following ingredients to make this Indian butter chicken:
- Vegetable oil
- Butter
- Onion
- Spices
- Tomato paste
- Tomato sauce
- Bay leaf
- Cream
- Chicken thighs
- Salt and pepper
- Frozen peas
- Lime
- Fresh cilantro
Butter Chicken Recipe
To begin making this Indian butter chicken, sauté the diced onion in olive oil and butter until translucent. Continue to cook the spices in the skillet until fragrant. Combine the tomato paste, sauce, and bay leaf in a mixing bowl.
Stir in the cream gradually, then bring to a boil before lowering the heat and simmering for 5 minutes.
In a separate skillet, brown the diced chicken on all sides in a buttered and oiled skillet. Continue to cook the chicken in the tomato cream sauce until it is no longer pink on the inside.
Continue cooking the peas and remaining butter in the sauce until the peas are heated through. Garnish the butter chicken with lime and cilantro and serve over basmati rice.
Is there an alternative to cream that I can use?
If you want to make this butter chicken recipe a little healthier, you can sub full fat plain Greek yogurt for all or part of the cream. I've never made this recipe as written, but you could try it. Please let me know if you succeed!
Can I prepare this ahead of time?
Indian butter chicken, like most recipes, is best the day it's made, but leftovers reheat well thanks to the tomato cream sauce. If you have leftovers or want to meal prep this recipe, reheat it in a saucepan with the lid on to avoid drying out the chicken.
Depending on how much sauce remains, you may need to add a splash of cream to the pan to loosen the leftover chicken.
How to Make Indian Butter Chicken
If you only have chicken breasts, use them in this simple butter chicken recipe. Thighs, on the other hand, have the most flavor!
If you like spicy Indian dishes, add a dash of cayenne pepper to this recipe. Be cautious because a little goes a long way.
Finally, if desired, you can add a variety of other vegetables to this butter chicken. I kept it simple with frozen peas, but any vegetable tastes delicious in the tomato cream sauce.
