A mouthwatering, creamy chicken curry cooked in a tomato based gravy loaded with butter and cream! A fitting treat for your weekend indulgence
Even though I am partial to spicy and hot curries, I can never say no to a yummy butter chicken. And that’s why I have perfected this recipe, my way. A luscious tomato based curry, cooked in butter and loaded with fresh cream is my one pot butter chicken. This velvety smooth curry has a beautiful and earthy underlying fragrance of toasted kasuri methi, which is the primary flavoring agent. Furthermore, the boneless chicken pieces dunked in this yummy sauce, has its own flavours. I, stir fry the marinated pieces of chicken in buttery goodness, and then mix it in the curry. So, you can already imagine how luscious this curry is. Typically, the Indian butter chicken is sweetish in taste.
That is because, sugar is also one of the ingredients in it’s recipe. Since this is, predominantly, a tomato based sauce, the sugar helps in rounding up the tanginess, if any. Nonetheless, you can adjust the sweetness, as per your liking. Also, the addition of cream and cooking it in butter means, makes this a mildly spiced curry. Butter chicken is also known as murgh makhani, in Hindi. While, murgh translates to chicken, makhani talks about the velvety, creamy goodness of the sauce. Since, this is an extremely popular recipe, there are loads of recipes for the same. Hence, as many variations! However, this one is my take on it, which is the one pot butter chicken.
Also see,
Methi chicken (chicken curry with fenugreek leaves)
Achari murgh (chicken curry in pickling spices)
One pot recipe
The best thing about my butter chicken recipe, other than it being delectable, is that it is a one pot recipe. That’s because, I sauté my marinated chicken chunks in butter first and then go on to making the curry sauce in the same pot. Not only does this save time, but cooking the sauce in the chicken flavoured oil, simply enhances it’s taste. Also, though a lot of people might differ when I say this is a quick recipe, but really, it is. You can finish cooking this yummy chicken curry in under 30 minutes. No kidding!
How I go by it is, while the chicken is marinating (hardly 15 minutes), I start the curry sauce preparation. Which is, simmering the tomatoes, onions, ginger, garlic, chilis and cashews in some water. Cashews, apart from acting as a thickening agent, also add to the creaminess. Once, this gets done and is cooling before I run it to a smooth paste, I go about frying the chicken. In the meanwhile, my curry paste goes into the blender and voila! I have everything now ready to bring together the one pot butter chicken! Try it my way, and you will know what I mean by quick and easy. 🙂
Additionally, I have added some fresh chilis (for the heat) as well as Kashmiri chili powder (for the colour), in my recipe. But feel free to leave them out, when making for kids or if you just wish to. Since, I like some heat in my food, you will find these in most of my recipes. But, for this one, you surely can do without them.
Share it
I hope I have tempted you enough to try this amazing north Indian chicken curry. Make it for your weekend lunch, for a dinner at home with friends or just simply for yourself. But be sure to give this a try. This is a yummy side dish with buttered naans, rotis and even some plain steamed rice. And if you do try my recipe out, I’d love to hear back from you. You can share your food pictures with me on Instagram. Also, you could drop me a line or two of your feedback in the comments section below. I’d be thrilled to hear from you.
Eat hearty!
One pot butter chicken
Equipment
- Shallow cooking pot with lid
Ingredients
- 1 kg boneless chicken breast sliced
- 4 large tomatoes roughly chopped
- 1 large onion roughly chopped
- 5-6 cloves garlic roughly chopped
- 1½ inch ginger roughly chopped
- 2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
- 2-3 fresh chilis roughly chopped
- ¼ cup cashews soaked in water for 20 minutes
- 1 tbsp tomato paste or tomato ketchup
- ½ cup cream
- 4 tbsp kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves) toasted
- 1 tbsp garam masala
- 1 tbsp Kashmiri chili powder for the colour
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 4-6 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp oil
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Rub the chicken pieces with some salt, red chili powder, ginger and garlic paste. Keep this aside for 15 minutes
- Meanwhile, place the chopped tomatoes, onions, ginger, garlic and chilis in your cooking pot with ½ cup water and cook over medium flame. Once the tomatoes soften (in around 15 minutes) along with the onions, turn the flame off and let it cool
- Then run this, along with the cashews, in a grinder to make a smooth paste. Strain this mixture in a bowl and discard the tomato peels and seeds - this ensures a smooth curry
- Heat the cooking pot with 2 tablespoons butter and the oil and sauteé the chicken pieces, until completely cooked. Set these aside
- In the same pan, add the strained tomato-onion puree´, butter, tomato paste, salt and sugar, mix well and cook this for about 5-7 minutes
- Add the cooked chicken pieces, the cream, chili powder, garam masala and the kasuri methi. Simmer over medium low flame for another 7-10 minutes
- Garnish the yummy one pot butter chicken with some more fresh cream and kasuri methi and serve hot with naan and/or rice. Enjoy!
Notes
- To make the toasted kasuri methi simply dry roast it for two minutes on a skillet, remove and then use
- tbsp - tablespoon
- tsp - teaspoon
