This tastes just like Indian takeout butter chicken! It’s so creamy and saucy! Made with tomato sauce, NOT YOGURT, it’s become a family dinner favorite! A one pot recipe ready on the table in less than 30 minutes. We love serving it with steamed rice and naan.
Easy Butter Chicken Recipe
This butter chicken recipe is probably going to change your life. It has changed mine. We love Indian takeout food (especially Chickpea Curry), but yikes, it’s expensive! I’ve been working on this recipe for a while, trying to get the perfect amount of tang for the butter chicken sauce using tomato sauce instead of yogurt. And finally, it’s here and I’m sooooooo excited to share!
This butter chicken is not spicy at all making it perfect for families. All 3 of my kids will happily eat this up (and then lick their bowls, real talk). The butter chicken is saucy because we love having extra sauce to pour over our rice.
I can easily whip this up in less than 30 minutes, so it works on busy weeknights. I’ll cook rice in the rice cooker while the chicken is cooking, and then add some frozen naan into the oven. And then dinner is ready. Yay, I love a quick meal!
Love my Indian butter chicken? Try my Slow Cooker Butter Chicken next and Indian basmati rice next!
Butter Chicken Ingredients
- Chicken breasts, boneless and skinless, you can also use chicken thighs if you’d like.
- Tomato Sauce to make the Butter Chicken Sauce
- Yellow onion, fresh ginger and minced garlic
- Heavy cream, this is going to make a creamy butter chicken sauce!
- Spices: garam masala, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper
- Kitchen basics: olive oil, butter, lemon juice
How to Make Butter Chicken
Cook onions, fresh ginger and minced garlic in a large skillet.
Add chopped up chicken breast, tomato sauce and spices into the skillet.
Stir to fully coat the chicken with spices and sauce.
Cook until the chicken is fully cooked inside, stirring occasionally. This takes around 8 minutes.
Add heavy cream and lemon juice, stirring, and then simmer for 10 minutes for the sauce to thicken up.
Serve over rice with naan and enjoy this easy butter chicken! Hope you love it as much as we do!
Storing leftovers
Store leftover butter chicken in an airtight container in the refrigerator, good for 3-4 days. Heat up in the microwave in 30 second increments until fully heated.
Pin for later:
Easy Indian Butter Chicken in 30 Minutes
PrintIngredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 small yellow onion finely diced
- 1 teaspoon fresh ginger finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1.5-2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts chopped into bite size pieces
- 15 ounce can tomato sauce
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Add olive oil and butter into a large skillet over medium high heat. Add onions and cook until onions are translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Add fresh ginger and garlic, stirring for 30 more seconds.
- Add chopped up chicken breast, tomato sauce, garam masala, chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper into the skillet. Cook until the chicken is fully cooked inside, about 7-8 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Add heavy cream and lemon juice, stirring to combine and bring to a light boil. Reduce heat, simmering for 10 minutes until sauce thickens.
- Serve this butter chicken over rice with naan next to it. Enjoy!
Jack Kirchhoff says
I will definitely try this delicious-sounding recipe, but if you don’t mind me asking, what’s wrong with yoghurt?
Pamela Reed says
I’m not a big yogurt fan, so I’m always looking for ways to make recipes without it. Also, we always have tomato sauce in our kitchen! 🙂
Jack Kirchhoff says
Fair enough. I was just curious. (And we also always have a lot of tomato sauce around. )