Murgh Makhani

Creamy tomato butter chicken

मुर्ग़ मक्खनी

murgh = chicken, makhan(i) = butter

Active: ~40 min (Path A) · ~50 min (Path B)
Yield
Plan ahead: marinate 20 min–overnight (Path B)
Spice blend
Pairs with: , , .

Start Cook Mode

Your recipe is kept exactly (Path A, with the packet), plus a from-scratch Path B for when you have no packet.

Ingredients

500 g chicken, cut into pieces
100 g , puréed
120 g tomato, puréed
10 blanched + ¼ cup water → paste _(alt: 20 g or poppy seeds)_
50 g neutral oil
15 g
water, as needed
salt, to taste
1 tsp (garnish)

Steps

1.Cut the chicken into pieces.
2.Blend the onion to a purée; purée the tomato separately. .
3.Heat the oil. Add the chicken and onion purée; fry ~10 min, until the onion looks glassy.
4.Add the tomato purée, nut paste, and the 15 g Butter Chicken Masala. Stir.
5.Add water; cook ~15 min to the thickness you want.
6.Taste, adjust salt, garnish with cream.

Variations

Vegetarian twin: fried instead of chicken → .

Heat: Kashmiri chili is for colour; add a pinch of hot for fire.

Butter chicken is younger than it tastes. In the 1950s Kundan Lal Gujral, founder of Moti Mahal in New Delhi, made it almost by accident — leftover tandoori chicken stirred into a tomato gravy loaded with butter (makhan). The home trick is the hard : it chars the yogurt marinade and fakes the tandoor's smoke. It's the most-ordered Indian dish abroad.