Spicy Butter Chicken

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You can make this authentic spicy butter chicken recipe in 30 minutes or less of cooking, with just one pot for easy cleanup! Nothing beats this super creamy curry with tender pieces of chicken when you need a comforting meal to warm you up at the end of the day. Use any leftovers for our butter chicken pizza or butter chicken sandwich!

Butter chicken is one of our go-to dishes when we go out for Indian food. The curry is creamy and silky, and the tender pieces of chicken just melt in your mouth. But since moving to Vermont, it’s (not surprisingly) been more difficult to find authentic Indian food.

Cut to us developing a spicy Indian tomato soup recipe inspired by our favorite butter chicken from California. The flavor profile was perfect; now all we needed to figure out was how to make juicy, tender chicken and tweak the soup into curry for our authentic spicy butter chicken recipe. A few months later, here we are!

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What Is Butter Chicken?

Butter chicken is an Indian dish made with marinated chicken in a creamy, tomato based curry. Although similar to chicken tikka masala, butter chicken is typically creamier and more mild in flavor.

However, we like our food spicy, so our butter chicken recipe has a bit of a kick to it! It’s more similar to the butter chicken we’ve had from authentic Indian and Nepalese restaurants, where a “mild” dish still makes your mouth glow.

Key Ingredients

• Chicken breast – Cubing the chicken before marinating helps it to tenderize and soak up all the flavor while it sits in the marinade. This is key to getting an authentic butter chicken that melts in your mouth.
• Plain Greek yogurt – We recommend using a thicker, creamier Greek yogurt brand for the chicken marinade, like Fage 5% (or even Icelandic skyr like siggi’s). We’ve found this makes the chicken more moist and tender versus thinner styles of Greek yogurt.
• Kashmiri red chili powder – Our spicy butter chicken gets most of its heat (and color) from the kashmiri red chili powder. This is a spicy chili powder made with Indian red chili peppers. You can find it at specialty spice stores and most Indian grocery stores, and some Middle Eastern stores as well. If you can’t find this ingredient, you can substitute with ground red cayenne pepper.
• Garam masala – If you’re not familiar with garam masala, it’s a blend of spices that’s used in a lot of Indian cooking. You should be able to easily find it in the spice section of any major grocery store.
• Fresh cilantro – Don’t skip the fresh cilantro! We know it can be tempting to pass over fresh herbs in recipes, but the cilantro is more than just a garnish here. It adds a ton of freshness to the curry and brightens the dish, which balances out the heat and the buttery, creamy texture. Trust us, this ingredient makes a huge difference.

See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.

Spicy Butter Chicken Variations

It took a lot of trial and error to find the right balance of spices and perfect the texture of our butter chicken recipe. Like, a lot of trial and error (including a few majorly failed attempts). While we think our final version is just as good as the butter chicken we’ve had at our favorite Indian and Nepalese restaurants, you might prefer a different style.

Our spicy butter chicken recipe is the perfect starting point for any changes you might want to make as you work on perfecting your own homemade butter chicken. You can easily experiment with our recipe to learn how to make your butter chicken spicier, less spicy, thicker, or thinner – it’s all easy to adjust on the fly as you make the curry.

• Make it spicier – Add more kashmiri chili powder to the curry. You might want to increase the amounts of the other spices, too, so you don’t throw off the balance of the flavors.
• Make it less spicy – Reduce the amount of kashmiri. But leave the other spices as they are so you don’t lose the bold flavor of the dish.
• Make it thicker and creamier – Add more butter and heavy cream. This will dilute the flavors some, so you may want to increase the amount of spices. But you’ll end up with a thicker curry perfect for dipping naan into.

How To Make Spicy Butter Chicken

1. Marinate the chicken – First, combine the chicken, lemon juice, and salt in a bowl until the chicken is well coated. Then, add the Greek yogurt, minced garlic, coriander, onion powder, kashmiri red chili powder, oregano, turmeric, garam masala, cumin, and powdered ginger. Stir to combine, making sure the chicken is completely coated. Cover and marinate in the fridge for 4 to 6 hours.
2. Cook the chicken – Heat vegetable oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the marinated chicken and cook until done, stirring occasionally to make sure the chicken is evenly browned. Then, transfer the cooked chicken to a small bowl and set aside.
3. Make the curry – Turn the heat to medium-low and add the crushed tomatoes, heavy cream, and butter to the dutch oven. Then, stir in the coriander, onion powder, kashmiri red chili powder, oregano, turmeric, salt, garam masala, cumin, and powdered ginger. Continue stirring until the butter is melted and the spices are fully incorporated into the sauce, then simmer for 10 minutes to let the flavor develop, stirring occasionally.
4. Combine – Stir in the fresh cilantro and add the chicken back into the pot. Stir to combine and simmer for another 5 minutes to warm the chicken through.
5. Serve – Enjoy hot with steamed basmati rice and naan.

Butter Chicken FAQs