Spicy Butter Chicken

If you’re looking for a simple, one pot recipe for authentic Indian butter chicken, you’re in the right place. This super creamy curry with tender pieces of chicken comes together in less than 30 minutes of cooking time, making it the perfect weeknight dinner. Nothing beats this spicy butter chicken recipe when you need a comforting meal to warm you up at the end of the day!

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!

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.

Spicy Butter Chicken Recipe Ingredients

Our spicy butter chicken recipe has two components: tender pieces of chicken marinated in yogurt, lemon juice, and spices; and a spicy, buttery curry made with a tomato base. 

Here’s a complete list of the ingredients you’ll need to make spicy butter chicken:

• Chicken breast
• Lemon juice
• Salt
• Plain Greek yogurt
• Minced garlic
• Ground coriander
• Onion powder
• Kashmiri red chili powder
• Dried oregano
• Turmeric
• Garam masala
• Cumin
• Powdered ginger
• Vegetable oil
• Canned crushed tomatoes
• Heavy cream
• Butter
• Fresh cilantro

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.

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.

Finally, do not 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.

How To Make Spicy Butter Chicken

You can easily make this spicy butter chicken recipe in about 30 minutes or less once the chicken has marinated. Prep the chicken about midday, let it sit in the fridge all afternoon, and then cook everything in one pot for an easy and delicious dinner!

Here’s how to make our spicy butter chicken recipe:

1. First, combine the chicken, lemon juice, and salt in a bowl until the chicken is well coated. 
2. 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.
3. After the chicken has marinated, heat vegetable oil in a dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the marinated chicken and cook until done, about 6 to 8 minutes, stirring occasionally to make sure the chicken is evenly browned. Then, transfer the cooked chicken to a small bowl and set aside.
4. 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.
5. Next, 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.
6. Finally, serve hot with steamed basmati rice and naan.

The color of the marinade can make it hard to tell when the chicken is done cooking. We recommend using a digital meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of the largest piece of chicken after about 5 or 6 minutes – it should be about 160 to 165 degrees F when done.

Be careful when adding the tomatoes and heavy cream to the pan after taking the chicken out – make sure to lower the heat first. When the tomatoes hit the hot dutch oven they may splatter. If you have a gas stove, lowering the flame first should be enough to prevent too much splatter; but if you have an electric stove (which can take longer to respond to changes in temperature) you might want to wait a few minutes between lowering the heat and starting the sauce.

Finally, here’s a helpful tip for adding all the spices to this recipe: measure everything out ahead of time into a small bowl. Since all the same spices that go in the marinade also go into the sauce, you can measure these out after you prep the marinade (while the spices are already on the counter) and then set aside until later. Then, when it’s time to add the seasonings to the sauce, they’re ready for you to easily sprinkle into the pot.

Spicy Butter Chicken Serving Suggestions

What do you eat with butter chicken? 

You can serve butter chicken with steamed basmati rice and freshly baked naan for an authentic experience. Use the naan to scoop up bites of rice, chicken, and curry, or dig into the saucy chicken and rice with a fork and dip the naan into the curry.

You can also serve butter chicken with other Indian dishes like chicken tikka masala, saag paneer, or vegetable pakora for an at-home takeout style spread!

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.

To make your butter chicken spicier, try adding more kashmiri chili powder to the curry. You might need to increase the amounts of the other spices, too, so you don’t throw off the balance of flavors. Similarly, to make your butter chicken less spicy, hold back on the kashmiri chili powder a bit in both the chicken marinade and the curry.

To change the thickness of your butter chicken, you can use more or less heavy cream and butter. More heavy cream and butter equals thicker butter chicken. Less heavy cream and butter equals thinner, less creamy butter chicken.

Don’t be afraid to experiment and have fun with this recipe! We’ve had all sorts of butter chicken with varying flavor profiles, so there’s no one right way to make this dish.

Storing and Reheating Leftovers

You can store leftover butter chicken in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days. Reheat single servings in the microwave for about 2 minutes, stirring halfway through. Or, reheat larger portions (3 or more servings at a time) in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, covered, for about 10 to 15 minutes or until warm.

Spicy Butter Chicken Recipe: Meal Prep

You can also make a bigger batch of this spicy butter chicken for your weekly meal prep. It’s easy to scale and stores well in individual meal prep containers with rice on the side, or in portioned freezer-safe containers like these Souper Cubes.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

This spicy butter chicken is the best easy fix for your takeout cravings! There’s nothing more satisfying than being able to make your favorite takeout style recipes at home, saving you money and the frustration of that inevitably lengthy wait when your Grubhub driver takes a wrong turn. 

It’s creamy, buttery, spicy, and tastes like tomato and cilantro and warm Indian spices. The chicken is so tender and moist, it basically falls apart as soon as it hits your mouth. Serve this butter chicken with steamed rice and naan, and you may never go back to takeout again.

One more thing: you can make our spicy butter chicken in one pot, so cleanup is super easy. In less than 30 minutes of cooking, you’ll have a delicious dinner on the table, and no mess to deal with after. That’s what we call a win-win!

Try our spicy butter chicken recipe and let us know what you think by rating, commenting, and sharing below!