Butter melting into tomato, ginger and garam masala fills a kitchen with a warm, sweet, faintly smoky smell long before the pot is ready. Butter chicken, known in Hindi and Punjabi as murgh makhani, is a rich, gently spiced tomato and butter sauce with charred pieces of yogurt-marinated chicken. It looks like a weekend project, but it divides neatly into steps that can be done days apart.
Done in stages, the weeknight part takes about 25 minutes. The chicken marinates overnight, and the sauce, which actually tastes rounder after a day, can be made up to 3 days ahead or frozen. On the night itself, the chicken goes under the broiler, the sauce warms up, and the two come together with a splash of cream.
The Make-Ahead Planner
Use this as a schedule for a busy week. Each stage stores safely, and the quality of the finished dish does not suffer from the wait.
If cooking everything on one day, allow at least 2 hours of marinating; the chicken will be a little less tender and flavorful than after an overnight soak, but still very good.
Stage One: The Yogurt Marinade
Boneless chicken thighs are the best cut for butter chicken. They stay moist through broiling and simmering, and their richer flavor stands up to the sauce. Cut them into 1 1/2-inch pieces so they char at the edges without drying out.
Yogurt works gently on the chicken. Its mild acidity and enzymes tenderize the surface without turning it mushy, unlike strong citrus marinades, which can make chicken mealy after many hours. Yogurt also clings to the meat and browns well, giving spotty, charred edges under the broiler. Whole-milk yogurt works best; thin, low-fat yogurt slides off.
The marinade includes salt, which seasons the chicken through over several hours, and spices that bloom slightly in the fat of the yogurt. Marinate in a covered container or a zip-top bag in the refrigerator for 8 to 24 hours. Longer than a day is not harmful but does not improve the result.
Stage Two: A Sauce That Improves Overnight
The sauce starts with onion softened slowly in butter until golden, then ginger, garlic and ground spices, then tomatoes. Simmering for 20 minutes cooks out the raw edge of the tomatoes and the spices. The sauce is then blended until completely smooth, which gives butter chicken its velvety texture.
Made a day or more ahead, the sauce tastes more rounded. Spices continue to release flavor compounds into the fat as it sits, and the sharpness of the tomato mellows. Store it in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Kashmiri chili and fenugreek
Kashmiri chili powder gives butter chicken its deep red-orange color with only mild heat. It is sold in Indian groceries and online. If you cannot find it, combine sweet paprika with a pinch of cayenne. Dried fenugreek leaves, called kasuri methi, add a savory, slightly bittersweet note that many cooks consider essential. Crumble them between your palms over the pot just before serving; heat and rubbing release their aroma.
Storing and Reheating Butter Chicken
Because most of this dish is made ahead, storage is the main event. These are the times and temperatures to follow.
In the refrigerator
The raw chicken in marinade keeps up to 24 hours. The sauce without cream keeps up to 3 days. Finished butter chicken, with cream, keeps 3 to 4 days. Keep everything covered, on a shelf below ready-to-eat foods.
Freezer butter chicken
The sauce freezes very well for about 3 months. Freeze it without cream, since dairy can separate slightly when frozen and thawed. Finished butter chicken with the chicken already cooked in it also freezes for up to 3 months; the texture of the chicken softens a little but remains good. Freeze in flat zip-top bags, which thaw faster and stack neatly.
Reheating safely
Thaw frozen sauce overnight in the refrigerator, or in a bowl of cold water for a few hours in its sealed bag. Reheat sauce and chicken together on the stove over medium-low heat, stirring often, until the sauce is bubbling gently and the chicken reaches 165°F (74°C). Add the cream after reheating and heat it through without boiling. Reheated sauce often thickens; loosen it with a few tablespoons of water.
Stage Three: Charring the Chicken
Restaurants cook the marinated chicken in a tandoor, a clay oven that reaches very high temperatures. A home broiler is the closest substitute. Spread the pieces on a foil-lined sheet pan with a rack set on top, leaving space between them, and broil about 6 inches from the element for 10 to 12 minutes, turning once, until charred in spots and cooked through to 165°F (74°C).
If your broiler is weak, sear the chicken in a hot cast-iron skillet in batches for 3 to 4 minutes per side instead. Either way, the browned bits add a smoky depth to the sauce that simmering raw chicken in it would not.
Balancing the Sauce Before It Is Stored
Tasting and adjusting the sauce on the day it is made, before it goes into the refrigerator, saves time on the busy night. Taste it after blending, while it is still warm, and look for balance between four things: salt, sweetness, acidity and spice.
Canned tomatoes vary a great deal in acidity. If the sauce tastes sharp or tinny, add sugar a quarter teaspoon at a time; the goal is not a sweet sauce but one where the tomato tastes ripe. If it tastes flat and heavy, a squeeze of lemon brings it back. Salt should make the spices taste distinct rather than muddy; add it gradually, remembering that the marinated chicken brings its own salt.
The spices should taste cooked, not dusty. If the sauce still has a raw, powdery edge after 20 minutes of simmering, give it another 10 minutes, partly covered. Ground spices that taste dull usually mean the jars are old; replacing garam masala every 6 months or so makes a noticeable difference in this dish.
Getting it truly smooth
A countertop blender gives the silkiest result. Let the sauce cool for 5 minutes first, fill the jar no more than halfway, remove the center cap from the lid and cover the opening with a folded towel, so steam can escape safely. An immersion blender works but leaves a slightly coarser texture. For restaurant-smooth sauce, press it through a fine-mesh strainer with the back of a ladle after blending.
The Recipe
Serves six with rice or naan. The total time listed includes overnight marinating.
The recipe
Butter Chicken
Yogurt-marinated chicken thighs charred under the broiler and simmered in a smooth tomato, butter and spice sauce finished with cream and fenugreek, designed to be made in stages.
- Prep
- 30 min
- Cook
- 55 min
- Total
- 9 hr 25 min
- Serves
- 6
Ingredients
Marinade
Sauce
To serve
Method
- Marinate (8 to 24 hours ahead). Mix the yogurt, lemon juice, salt, garam masala, chili powder, turmeric, ginger and garlic. Toss with the chicken, cover and refrigerate 8 to 24 hours.
- Cook the sauce base (up to 3 days ahead). Melt 3 Tbsp butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook the onion 8 to 10 minutes, until golden. Add the ginger and garlic for 1 minute, then the garam masala, cumin and chili powder for 30 seconds.
- Simmer and blend. Add the tomatoes, sugar and salt. Simmer gently, partly covered, for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Blend until completely smooth. Cool and refrigerate up to 3 days, or freeze up to 3 months.
- Char the chicken (serving day). Heat the broiler with a rack 6 inches below. Spread the chicken on a rack set over a foil-lined sheet pan. Broil 10 to 12 minutes, turning once, until charred in spots and 165°F (74°C).
- Combine. Warm the sauce in a large skillet over medium heat until gently bubbling. Add the chicken and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in the cream and remaining 1 Tbsp butter and heat through without boiling.
- Finish. Crumble the fenugreek leaves over the pot, taste for salt, and scatter with cilantro. Serve with rice or naan.
Notes
- Total time includes 8 hours of marinating.
- Finished butter chicken keeps 3 to 4 days refrigerated and freezes for about 3 months. Reheat to 165°F (74°C).
Oven temperatures are for conventional ovens; for convection, reduce by about 25°F (15°C).
Serving and Adjusting
Basmati rice is the classic pairing. Rinse it until the water runs clear before cooking, which removes surface starch and keeps the grains separate. Warm naan or flatbread scoops up the sauce. A simple salad of sliced cucumber, red onion and lemon cuts through the richness.
For more heat, add a finely chopped green chili with the ginger or a pinch more cayenne. For a lighter sauce, use half the cream and a few tablespoons of yogurt, stirred in off the heat so it does not curdle. Paneer, cut into cubes and browned, can replace the chicken for a vegetarian version; it needs no marinating time beyond an hour and only 5 minutes in the sauce.