Easy Healthy Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)
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Looking for a delicious and easy butter chicken recipe? Look no further! This recipe is perfect for anyone looking to make a restaurant-quality dish at home. Butter chicken for dinner in only 30 minutes? Yes, it is possible! With this easy and healthy recipe.
Healthy butter chicken
Do you like butter chicken? Or should I say Murgh Makhani? I guess you do hence why you are here and reading this recipe. You are probably wondering what is it with the healthy bit. I will tell you in a minute.
Well, like you, I like butter chicken a lot. This is such perfect comfort food. My favourite butter chicken in Melbourne is at Chin Chin restaurant in Flinders Lane. However, every time I savour my favourite Indian dish, I can’t help but think about all the butter and cream that was used to cook this delicious meal.
The Chin Chin original recipe was published on Good Food a while ago, revealing that they use a whopping 300g of butter to make the creamy sauce. While it is ok to savour once in a while, it is definitely not my go-to food for my family. So I needed something that tastes as delicious as the real deal but comes with fewer calories.
This simple recipe doesn’t require a lot of ingredients. All of them are readily available in your local food supermarket or an Indian grocery store.
Butter Chicken Marinade Ingredients:
- Chicken. I use free-range chicken thighs. I find thighs are juicier and tastier than breasts.
- Greek yoghurt. Preferably organic.
- Garam masala or use my recipe below.
- Garlic cloves. This recipe uses a lot of garlic. Great for fighting any kind of inflammation.
- Fresh ginger.
Butter Chicken Creamy Sauce Ingredients:
- Butter or ghee, I always use organic.
- Garlic. Yes, I warned you, this recipe has a lot of garlic 😁
- Fresh ginger. Don’t use ground ginger instead of fresh. It has a totally different flavour.
- Organic raw sugar. We will only need one teaspoon to balance the acidity of the tomatoes.
- Tomato paste.
- Full-fat coconut milk. I used Australia’s Own organic unsweetened coconut milk
- Greek yoghurt.
- Cherry tomatoes
- Some more cherry tomatoes, yoghurt, and coriander to garnish
How to make butter chicken
I said before that this recipe is very easy and it is. The only thing is you have to plan it a little bit ahead and marinate the chicken for at least 30 minutes. At this point, I have to say “preferably overnight”. But I have done this recipe so many times before only marinating the chicken for 30 minutes and the result was always delicious.
If you have time to marinate the chicken, go ahead and do it, but if don’t, don’t worry, just go ahead without.
Marinate the chicken
- To prepare the marinade, simply mix yoghurt, garam masala, crushed garlic, and grated/chopped ginger in a big bowl. Add chicken pieces and mix to coat the chicken. Refrigerate overnight or at least for 30 minutes.
Make the creamy butter chicken sauce
- Heat butter in a large heavy-bottom saucepan or a large frying pan over medium heat. Add garlic and ginger and fry gently until fragrant and butter has a golden colour. Make sure not to burn your butter.
- Add sugar and tomato paste and cook for a couple of minutes so that the tomato paste loses its bitterness.
- Add coconut milk and bring it gently to a simmer. Cook for 10 minutes, and take off the heat until needed.
Cook the chicken
- Heat some olive oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add marinated chicken to the frying pan. Do not put all the excessive marinade into the pan. (A little bit is fine.)
- Fry the chicken on medium-high heat for a couple of minutes, until the chicken is golden.
- Take the chicken out.
Bringing it all together
- Bring the tomato sauce to a simmer if it cooled down too much. Once it is simmering add Greek yoghurt, mix and let it cook for a minute.
- Add cooked chicken to the sauce, along with the cherry tomatoes and cook on very low heat for 10 minutes. Watch out that the sauce doesn’t boil and doesn’t get too thick. Add 1-2 tablespoons of coconut milk if the sauce has thickened too much.
Update: Last time I made this butter chicken recipe I used my Scanpan Griddle. We absolutely loved it because it added a little bit of a smokey flavour to the dish, making it taste even more authentic.
How to serve healthy butter chicken
We love our butter chicken with freshly cooked basmati rice, papadam, yoghurt, and fresh coriander leaves.
For an even healthier version, you can serve it with brown rice or cauliflower rice. I like the cauliflower rice recipe from Minimalist baker.
Substitutions
Chicken. I use chicken thighs but you could use any part of the chicken, including chicken breast.
Garam masala. If you don’t have garam masala on hand, you can mix
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder (leave it out if cooking for young kids, or if you don’t like it spicy)
How to store butter chicken
This easy butter chicken recipe is a perfect meal-plan option. Once cooked, cool it down and refrigerate it in an air-tight container for up to 3 days.
You can also freeze it in a Ziploc or a freezer-safe container for up to 3 months. Simply defrost naturally overnight and heat it up in the saucepan or in the microwave until heated through.
You can also marinate the chicken and freeze it ready to go for a quick and easy family dinner.
More easy chicken recipes that are better than takeaway:
Frequently asked questions
This butter chicken is a healthier alternative to the Indian classic dish. I used WAY less butter than the traditional recipe, in fact only 50 grams. I also swapped heavy cream for coconut milk and added some Greek yogurt for creaminess.
Butter chicken is one of the mild curries in Indian cuisine. This is why it is so popular with families all over the world. The spiciness of your butter chicken will totally depend on what spices and how much of it you use.
Garam masala is the spice blend that is typically used for butter chicken and can vary in spiciness.
If you want to make sure you get all the big flavors of traditional Indian dishes without the heat, use my spice blend in the recipe card. It might be not the most authentic, but it is delicious and is guaranteed to be enjoyed by the entire family, including the little ones.
This butter chicken recipe is 100% gluten-free, like all the other recipes on my blog. If you are missing naan bread to go with it, try papadams instead. They are made with chickpea flour and are a great alternative to naan bread.
Yes, you can make the spice blend yourself. Combine:
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground chilli (leave it out if cooking for young kids, or you don’t like spicy)
What makes this butter chicken healthy?
I would recommend sticking with tomato paste. The paste is more concentrated than passata and will provide more flavour to the sauce.
Trust me, this easy recipe is better than any takeaway you have ever had!! It is not too sweet, not too spicy, and not too heavy. It is silky and creamy and tastes just right! A REALLY good family dinner.
Watch how to make healthy butter chicken
Easy Healthy Butter Chicken
Ingredients
Butter Chicken Marinade:
- 6 chicken thighs skin removed, cut into bite-sized chunks
- 1 cup of organic Greek yoghurt
- 1 tbsp garam masala
- 4 garlic cloves crushed
- 2 cm fresh ginger root grated or finely chopped
Butter Chicken Sauce:
- 50 g butter I always use organic
- 4 garlic cloves crushed
- 2 cm ginger root grated
- 1 tbsp of organic raw sugar
- 140 g tomato paste
- 1 cup of coconut milk I used Australia’s Own organic unsweetened coconut milk
- 2-3 tbsp of Greek yoghurt or fresh cream
- 8-10 cherry tomatoes quartered
- Some more cherry tomatoes yoghurt and coriander to garnish.
Instructions
MARINADE:
- Mix yoghurt, garam masala, crushed garlic and grated/chopped ginger in a big bowl.
- Add chicken pieces and mix to coat the chicken.
- Refrigerate overnight or at least for 3 hours.
SAUCE
- Heat the butter in the large heavy-bottom saucepan or large frying pan over medium heat.
- Add garlic and ginger and fry gently until fragrant and butter has a golden colour. Make sure not to burn your butter.
- Add sugar and tomato paste and cook for a couple of minutes so that the tomato paste loses its bitterness.
- Add coconut milk and bring it gently to a simmer.
- Add fresh cream/yoghurt and bring to a simmer again. Let simmer on a VERY low heat while you are frying the chicken.
CHICKEN
- Heat some olive oil in a frying pan.
- Add marinated chicken to the frying pan. Do not put all the excessive marinade into the pan. (A little bit is fine.)
- Fry the chicken on medium heat for a couple of minutes, until the chicken is golden.
- Take the chicken out.
- Add cherry tomatoes and chicken to the sauce and cook on very low heat for 10-15 minutes. Watch out that the sauce doesn’t boil and doesn’t get too thick. Add 1-2 tablespoons of coconut milk if the sauce does get too thick.
- Serve with basmati rice, papadams, yoghurt and fresh coriander leaves. Enjoy!!
Notes
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground chilli (leave it out if cooking for young kids, or you don’t like spicy)
Did you make this recipe? Please give me a star rating and leave a comment below. I would love to hear from you!
Looks so good. Can’t wait to try it.
So glad you like it, Kate!
Ok, I love butter chicken and tried many recipes before. This one is REALLY good! Thank you for sharing.
So happy to hear that, Judy!
The best butter chicken recipe ever! Delicious!