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Homemade butter chicken with charred chicken pieces in a creamy tomato sauce beside naan
Butter chicken in a warm bowl – silky tomato-cream sauce with a swirl of cream, butter naan alongside.

Creamy Butter Chicken

Yoghurt-marinated chicken charred in a hot pan, then folded into a glossy tomato and cream sauce. Rich, mild and the one children ask for again.

Prep
15 mins
Cook
30 mins
Total
45 mins
Serves
4
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Kitchen roadmap

Before you cook

The details that make or break this dish, mapped to the exact step where they matter.

  1. Watch forChar first, finish later
  2. Watch forReduce the tomato base
  3. Avoid thisDo not boil the cream

Ingredients

  • Chicken
  • Sauce
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Method

10 steps

  1. Combine the chicken, yoghurt, AL Mix and lemon juice.

    Marinate for at least 30 minutes, ideally 4 hours.

  2. Heat a large frying pan until hot.

    Add the oil and cook the chicken for 8–10 minutes until charred in places and nearly cooked through. Remove and set aside.

    Yoghurt-marinated chicken pieces with charred patches cooking in a hot home kitchen frying pan

  3. Reduce the heat and melt the butter in the same pan.

  4. Add the onion and cook for 6–8 minutes until soft and lightly golden.

  5. Add the ginger and garlic paste.

    Cook for 45 seconds.

  6. Pour in the passata, then add 1 teaspoon AL Mix and the honey.

    Simmer for 8–10 minutes.

    Reduced butter chicken tomato base holding a curved spoon track in a home kitchen pan

  7. Return the chicken to the pan and simmer for 5 minutes.

  8. Reduce the heat before stirring in the cream and dried fenugreek.

    Do not boil aggressively once the cream has been added.

  9. Taste and add the remaining AL Mix only if needed.

  10. Serve with butter naan or basmati rice.

If it does not come out right

The faults this dish actually has. Open one for the fix.

Why is my curry gritty or grainy?

Curry is gritty because the ground spices were never hydrated or cooked in fat, so the particles stay suspended rather than dissolving – spices ground too coarsely, or a masala tipped into an already-boiling sauce, both leave the same sandy texture.

Read the full answer
Why does my curry taste flat?

A curry tastes flat almost always because of salt and acid rather than spice – under-salted food reads as missing something, and a curry cooked without tomato, yoghurt, lemon, amchur or tamarind has no sourness to lift the spice, so adding more masala makes it duller rather than brighter.

Read the full answer
How much garam masala per kg of chicken?

Use 8 g of garam masala per 1 kg of chicken – two level teaspoons – stirred in during the final three to five minutes of cooking, because garam masala is a finishing spice and its aromatic oils are driven off by a long simmer.

Read the full answer

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