How to make easy butter chicken gravy
A creamy rich butter chicken gravy recipe available with video and stepwise pictures.
Butter chicken gravy is one of the popular Punjabi non-veg recipes, made with freshly made makhani masala, mild spices and full bursting aromas. This is almost similar to the other famous delicacy chicken Tikka masala.
The basic difference between chicken Tikka masala and butter chicken masala is in the intensity of the spices used. Tikka masala is made of strong spicy layered chicken and tangy tomato gravy. But in butter chicken, we use very minimal spices and the butter gives a sweet touch to the creamy gravy. This makes it a favorite among kids.
Also, I would like to mention, the traditional makhani masala-based gravies don’t use onions but only tomatoes. If you want the original taste of butter chicken, try to use the main ingredients in this way starting from chicken(boneless thigh pieces), curd(non-sour), butter(not oil to saute), tomatoes (no onions) and cashews(can use blanched almonds) with fresh cream(homemade or store-bought).
Last but not least, the highlight ingredient is kasoori methi leaves (dried fenugreek) and do not skip this for the wonderful flavor.
Similar delicious gravies:
Serve this delicious chicken gravy with any variety of Indian bread like roti, Phulkas, parathas, and naan. It suits well with rice items like veg pulav, Ghee rice, and jeera pulav too.
Watch the video here which I uploaded on my YouTube channel and please subscribe if you like the video uploads.
Butter chicken gravy | How to make butter chicken
Ingredients
Ingredients:
To marinate:
- 400 g boneless chicken
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 pinch turmeric powder
- ½ tsp chilli powder
- ¼ tsp cumin powder
- ¾ tsp kasuri methi
- ½ cup fresh curd
For base masala:
- 1 tsp oil
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
- 2 large tomatoes
- 1 tbsp cashews
Other ingredients:
- 1 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 cardamom
- 1 bayleaf
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- 2 cloves
- ½ tsp kashmiri chilli powder
- ½ tsp garam masala powder
- 1 cup water
- Salt (as per taste)
- ¼ tsp sugar
- ¼ cup fresh cream
- 1 tsp kasuri methi
Instructions
Preparation:
How to do the marination for butter chicken:
- Clean boneless chicken pieces properly and pat them dry with a kitchen towel. We don't need excess water in the chicken.
- Take chicken in a bowl, add salt and turmeric powder.
- Also, add chilli powder and cumin powder.
- Put some kasuri methi and hung non-sour curd. Choosing the fresh curd is important to get creamy rich butter chicken gravy.
- Combine everything together properly and keep covered this marination for a minimum of 30minutes to overnight in the refrigerator.
Recipe:
How to make the base makhani masala for butter gravy:
- Take a flat pan, heat oil and add crushed ginger garlic or ginger garlic paste.
- Saute well for two minutes to remove the raw smell of garlic.
- Add chopped tomatoes and saute for two minutes. No need to saute till mushy as we are going to cook them covered.
- For creaminess add some cashews with tomatoes, cover with a lid and cook for four to five minutes in medium heat until tomatoes become soft.
- Switch off, transfer to another plate and let this cool down completely and grind into a smooth paste and keep ready. This is our base makhani masala.
How to cook chicken:
- To the same pan add extra tbsp of oil and heat.
- Add the marinated chicken and try to layer the chicken pieces in such a way that all pieces have contact with the pan. If you don't have a large flat pan, you can do this in a dosa tawa also.
- Do not add water. Chicken can get cooked in its own water plus the curd we added for marination. Also we add oil for the roasted effect.
- Since we use only boneless chicken for this butter chicken gravy, covered cooking is not required.
- Cook the bottom sides of the pieces for 3 minutes and flip them all.
- In total 8 minutes all the moisture is absorbed and chicken cooked well. Switch off keep aside.
How to make the butter chicken gravy:
- In another kadai, heat butter and saute whole spices.
- Let them roast and nice aroma arises in a few seconds.
- Add the makhani masala(ginger-garlic, tomato and cashew paste) and mix well.
- Saute and add chilli powder and garam masala powder.
- Mix some water to adjust the consistency of the gravy and let cook for a few minutes until the oil separated on sides.
- Add required salt and little sugar.
- Put some salt and sugar.
- Now add the cooked chicken pieces with some water and mix well. Let the chicken absorb the spices for five minutes.
- While finishing, add fresh cream and Kasuri methi leaves.
- Mix and let the cream thickens in the gravy for few seconds, switch off.
- Serve with roti, paratha, Phulkas or pulav.
Video
Notes
1) To get creamy smooth butter gravy, using boneless chicken is necessary preferably thigh pieces. Chicken breast pieces may tend to get harder in a few minutes.
2) Along with whole spices using a fresh garam masala gives the aromatic gravy. I always like to use homemade garam masala or kitchen king brand if store-bought.
3) Also do not skip marination with fresh non-sour curd for the rich butter chicken gravy. Using a sour curd may curdle the gravy while adding fresh cream.
Nutrition
Preparation:
How to do the marination for butter chicken:
- Clean boneless chicken pieces properly and pat them dry with a kitchen towel. We don’t need excess water in the chicken.
- Take chicken in a bowl, add salt and turmeric powder. Also, add chilli powder and cumin powder.
- Put some Kasuri methi and hung non-sour curd. Choosing the fresh curd is important to get creamy rich butter chicken gravy.
- Combine everything together properly and keep covered this marination for a minimum of 30minutes to overnight in the refrigerator.
Recipe:
How to make the base makhani masala for butter gravy:
- Take a flat pan, heat oil and add crushed ginger garlic or ginger garlic paste.
- Saute well for two minutes to remove the raw smell of garlic.
- Add chopped tomatoes and saute for two minutes. No need to saute till mushy as we are going to cook them covered.
- For creaminess add some cashews with tomatoes, cover with a lid and cook for four to five minutes in medium heat until tomatoes become soft.
- Switch off, transfer to another plate and let this cool down completely and grind into a smooth paste and keep ready. This is our base makhani masala.
How to cook chicken:
- To the same pan add an extra tbsp of oil and heat. Add the marinated chicken and try to layer the chicken pieces in such a way that all pieces have contact with the pan. If you don’t have a large flat pan, you can do this in a dosa tawa also.
- Do not add water. Chicken can get cooked in its own water plus the curd we added for marination. Also, we add oil for the roasted effect.
- Since we use only boneless chicken for this butter chicken gravy, covered cooking is not required.
- Cook the bottom sides of the pieces for 3 minutes and flip them all.
- In total of 8 minutes, all the moisture is absorbed and the chicken cooked well. Switch off keep aside.
How to make the butter chicken gravy:
- In another kadai, heat butter and saute whole spices.
- Let them roast and a nice aroma arises in a few seconds.
- Add the makhani masala(ginger-garlic, tomato and cashew paste) and mix well.
- Saute and add chilli powder and garam masala powder.
- Mix some water to adjust the consistency of the gravy and let cook for a few minutes until the oil separated on the sides.
- Add required salt and little sugar.
- Now add the cooked chicken pieces with some water and mix well. Let the chicken absorb the spices for five minutes.
- While finishing, add fresh cream and Kasuri methi leaves.
- Mix and let the cream thickens in the gravy for few seconds, switch off.
- Serve with roti, paratha, Phulkas or pulav.
Tips:
1) To get creamy smooth butter gravy, using boneless chicken is necessary preferably thigh pieces. Chicken breast pieces may tend to get harder in a few minutes.
2) Along with whole spices using a fresh garam masala gives the aromatic gravy. I always like to use homemade garam masala or kitchen king brand if store-bought.
3) Also do not skip marination with fresh non-sour curd for the rich butter chicken gravy. Using a sour curd may curdle the gravy while adding fresh cream.
