Butter chicken
- Preparation 20 min
- Cooking 30 min
- Servings 4
- Freezing Absolutely
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🍛 An easy butter chicken that actually happens on a Tuesday
No yogurt marinade. No garam masala, no trip through the oven. Butter, chicken, curry powder, coconut milk and a can of condensed tomato soup, and that is the whole list. I found this one a very long time ago and I still make it, because thirty minutes and one skillet is what a Tuesday can afford. Call it an easy butter chicken recipe and you are not lying to anybody: it is fast, it is rich, and nobody at my table has ever asked where the tandoor went.
🥦 The vegetables cook in the sauce, so supper is finished
Here is what makes it different from every other butter chicken recipe I have come across. The cauliflower and the green beans go straight into the pan and cook in the curry itself. Everywhere else, butter chicken is a sauce you spoon over rice, and then you still owe the table a vegetable. Not here. The cauliflower soaks up the coconut milk and the curry powder until it turns soft, the beans stay green and keep their snap, and a pot of basmati rice closes the file.
🧊 The freezer batch my kids ask for by name
This is the part I would keep if I had to throw the rest away. I make a huge batch, then fill freezer containers with basmati rice on one side and butter chicken with its vegetables on the other. Weeknights when nothing is moving fast enough, I pull one out, tip it into an aluminum tray and slide it into the oven. The kids clean the plate like it is nothing. One afternoon of cooking, suppers for weeks.
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⏱️ What this recipe is, and what it is not
Traditional butter chicken wants a yogurt marinade, garam masala, fresh ginger and usually a turn in the oven before the chicken ever meets the sauce. None of that lives here. Curry powder and a can of condensed tomato soup carry the whole thing in thirty minutes. It is not the plate you get at an Indian restaurant. It is an easy butter chicken recipe for a weeknight, and it is excellent at being exactly that.
🥦 Ten minutes apart, and that is the whole trick
The cauliflower goes in with the coconut milk because it needs the full ten minutes to turn tender and drink up the curry. The green beans wait until the end. Put them in early and they go grey and limp, and you lose the one texture that keeps this dish from being soft all the way through. That ten-minute gap is why you get a melting vegetable and a crunchy one in the same forkful.
🥥 Full-fat coconut milk, not light
Regular coconut milk gives a richer sauce, and more importantly a stable one: it coats the chicken instead of pooling thin at the bottom of the skillet. Light coconut milk works, but you have to reduce it noticeably longer to get there, and some of the silkiness never comes back.
🌶️ Dial the heat to your own table
One tablespoon of curry powder is mild on purpose, so the kids eat what the adults eat. Want more? Go up to 1½ tbsp (22 ml), or drop a few chili flakes in with the spices at the chicken stage. Garam masala instead of curry powder pushes the flavour closer to the traditional version without turning it into a challenge.
🌿 Parsley if cilantro is a problem
For some people cilantro tastes like soap, and that is genetics, not fussiness. Chopped flat-leaf parsley does the same job on top: green, fresh, and nobody pushes their plate away.
🧊 Meal prep is where this recipe earns its keep
This is what I do with it most weeks. Double or triple the batch, then fill freezer containers with a portion of basmati rice and a portion of butter chicken with its vegetables. It keeps for months down there. To serve, tip a container into an aluminum tray and reheat in the oven until it is piping hot all the way through. Coconut milk takes freezing better than cream does, and the sauce does not split.
🍲 The slow cooker version
I make this in a skillet every single time, but butter chicken in a slow cooker works if that suits your day better. Brown the chicken first in a pan with the butter, onion, garlic and curry powder, because that colour is where the flavour comes from and a slow cooker cannot manufacture it. Then everything goes in with the coconut milk, tomato soup and cauliflower: roughly 3 hours on high, or 5 to 6 hours on low. Green beans in the last half hour so they keep their bite.
❄️ Storage
Three to four days in the refrigerator, in an airtight container. If the sauce has tightened up overnight, a splash of water or coconut milk loosens it right back on the reheat.
✅ What to serve with butter chicken?
Basmati rice, and honestly that is it. The vegetables are already in the pan, so the meal is complete without a side. Naan is a nice bonus if there is some in the house, not a requirement. If this is your kind of supper, there is also my chicken curry, my curry rice with chicken, shrimp and vegetables and my dumpling bake with red curry and coconut milk.
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Ingredients
- 3 tbsp (45 ml) butter
- 1 Spanish onion, finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (1½ lb / 675 g), cut into large cubes
- 1 tbsp (15 ml) curry powder
- 1 can (13.5 oz / 400 ml) coconut milk
- 1 can (10 oz / 284 ml) condensed tomato soup
- 2 cups (500 ml) cauliflower, cut into medium florets
- 2 cups (500 ml) green beans, cut in half
- Fresh cilantro, for garnish
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Preparation
- In a large skillet over medium heat, melt the butter and cook the onion and garlic for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add the chicken and the curry powder, season with salt and pepper, then stir well. Cook for 5 minutes to brown the chicken thoroughly.
- Add the coconut milk, the condensed tomato soup and the cauliflower, then stir well. Still over medium heat, cook for 10 minutes, stirring regularly.
- Add the green beans and stir. Continue cooking for 10 minutes to reduce the sauce. Serve over your favourite rice and garnish with fresh cilantro.
Butter chicken, or murgh makhani, came out of Delhi: chicken marinated in yogurt with ginger and garam masala, usually cooked in a tandoor, then finished in a tomato sauce enriched with butter and cream. This is not that, and I am not pretending otherwise. This is a weeknight version built on curry powder, coconut milk and condensed tomato soup, one pan, thirty minutes. Different dish, same corner of the flavour map, and very good on its own terms.
Both are chicken sitting in a creamy tomato sauce, which is exactly why people mix them up. Butter chicken comes from Delhi and leans sweeter and rounder, with butter doing most of the heavy lifting and a smooth sauce. Chicken tikka masala was built in Britain, carries more onion, garlic and ginger in its base, and usually lands spicier and a little less rich. If mild and comforting is what you are after, butter chicken is your side of that line.
Yes, with one non-negotiable step. Brown the chicken in a skillet first, with the butter, onion, garlic and curry powder, because that browning is where the flavour is built and a slow cooker simply cannot do it. Then everything moves over with the coconut milk, tomato soup and cauliflower: about 3 hours on high, or 5 to 6 hours on low. Add the green beans in the last half hour or they turn to mush.
Not the way I make it. One tablespoon (15 ml) of curry powder is deliberately mild so the kids eat the same supper as everyone else, and traditional butter chicken is not a fiery dish either. If you want heat, move up to 1½ tbsp (22 ml) of curry powder, or add a few chili flakes along with the spices at the chicken stage. Swapping in garam masala pushes the flavour closer to the restaurant version without adding burn.
Basmati rice is enough. The cauliflower and green beans cook right in the sauce, so the meal is already complete and there is no separate vegetable to think about. Naan bread is a pleasant bonus, not a must. To stay in curry territory, there is also my chicken curry, my curry rice with chicken, shrimp and vegetables and my braised lamb shank curry.
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