Creamy Butter Chicken Curry

You know we love a good at-home curry night (with or without a side serving of air fryer veggie samosas) and these past few weeks I’ve been working on a brand new curry recipe to add to our rotation: Creamy Butter Chicken. Similar in flavour to a Chicken Tikka Masala with chunks of chicken, mellow spices and a slick of cream, this butter chicken recipe is made rich with a generous slug of butter melted in at the end, and is given it’s signature flavour with the use of both fenugreek seeds and dried fenugreek (methi) leaves.

This Cream Butter Chicken is such a simple curry to make, so don’t be put off by the relatively long list of ingredients; most of the chopping is done in the food processor, and I also find it really helpful to measure out all of the spices in one pot before I start, as they’re all added to the pan at the same time. It will only take you an hour start to finish, including plenty of down time to do other things, or make a couple of sides.

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Creamy Butter Chicken Curry

• Author: Rachel Phipps
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 45 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour
• Yield: Serves 3-4 1x
• Category: Dinner
• Cuisine: Indian
• Diet: Gluten Free

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Description

This easy, creamy Butter Chicken recipe takes just an hour to make, producing a rich, creamy curry with tender chunks of chicken thigh in a spiced tomato gravy.

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Ingredients

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• 1 brown onion
• 3 large garlic cloves
• thumb sized piece fresh ginger
• 2 tbsp light oil
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 1 1/2 tbsp kashmiri chilli powder (see note)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 1/2 tsp ground turmeric
• 6–8 skinless boneless chicken thighs
• 1 medium tomato
• 1 1/2 tbsp dried fenugreek (methi) leaves
• 250ml passata
• 100ml water
• 100ml double cream
• 30g unsalted butter
• juice of 1/4 lemon
• chopped fresh coriander, to serve

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Instructions

1. In a mini chopper^ad or small food processor, blitz the peeled onion, garlic cloves and ginger until finely chopped.
2. In a large shallow casserole or frying pan set over a medium high heat, warm the oil until shimmering. Add the chopped vegetables along with the bay leaves, and fry for 8-10 minutes until soft and just starting to colour. Meanwhile, cut the chicken into bite-sized chunks, and chop the tomato.
3. Stir in the chilli powder, salt, cumin, garam masala, coriander, cinnamon, fenugreek seeds, and turmeric, and fry for a couple of minutes until the spices are aromatic and toasted.
4. Stir in the chicken until it is well coated in the spiced onions, and cook for 5 minutes until it has taken on some colour, stirring a couple of times.
5. Stir in the tomato and the dried fenugreek leaves, and cook for another few minutes until the tomato has started to break down.
6. Stir in the passata, and use the back of your spoon to scrape any browned bits off the bottom of the pan into the curry.
7. Add the water and double cream, and once the pan is simmering, drop the heat to medium and cook for 15 minutes until the chicken has cooked through and the curry sauce has thickened.
8. Stir in the butter, and cook until it has melted. Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice before scattering with the fresh coriander and serving.

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Notes

I like using kashmiri chilli powder in curries for it’s clean capsum flavour and vibrant colour, but if you can’t find it regular chilli powder (mild) will do!

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