As much as I love making Indian food at home, sometimes I find the list of ingredients daunting. It’s easy enough to make once I gather all the ingredients, but that’s where I usually fall short because it requires a trip to an Indian grocery store – and my closest one is a fair drive away.

Butter Chicken is one of the few exceptions. I was elated when I discovered a Chef recipe for Butter Chicken and realised how easy it is. But more importantly, you can get all the ingredients from any supermarket. Yes!

How to make Butter Chicken – in 3 Simple Steps

1. Make Butter Chicken Marinade and marinate chicken for 3+ hours (overnight is best)
2. Cook chicken
3. Make sauce in the same skillet

The secret to the tender, flavour infused chicken is a spice infused yogurt marinade made with fresh ginger, garlic, lemon juice and spices. The spices in Butter Chicken are turmeric, garam masala, chilli powder and cumin.

Ingredients

Marinade

• 1/2 cup plain yoghurt , full fat
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp tumeric powder
• 2 tsp garam masala (Note 1)
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder or cayenne pepper powder (Note 2)
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp ginger, freshly grated
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1.5 lb / 750 g chicken thigh fillets, cut into bite size pieces

Curry

• 2 tbsp (30 g) ghee or butter, OR 1 tbsp vegetable oil (Note 3)
• 1 cup tomato passata (aka tomato puree) (Note 4)
• 1 cup heavy / thickened cream (Note 5)
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp salt

To serve – chooseTo serve – choose

Coriander/cilantro (optional)

Basmati rice

White rice