Skip to Content

Easy Butter Chicken

Easy butter chicken, the ultimate in homemade takeaways. Just 20 minutes to prepare and cook this classic curry dinner (cook rice the cheats way).

Easy butter chicken in a white bowl
Easy butter chicken

How to Cook Butter Chicken (the Easy Way)

This easy butter chicken recipe is ready in just 20 minutes. Perfect if you have a hankering for that creamy spiced tomato sauce, but can’t get out to get takeaways!

I have only used simple spices for this recipe, as I was limited by what I had in the pantry. Turmeric, cinnamon, chili powder and a little fresh ginger, all work together to get this dish just the right amount of zing. Crushed ginger from a jar will also work if you don’t have fresh.

If you need to cook rice from scratch start it cooking just before you start cooking the butter chicken sauce (do the prep first). If you are a bit of a lazy cook like moi, then I would recommend using pre-cooked microwave rice (e.g. Uncle Ben’s), or precooking your own in a big batch when you have time and freezing it.

Easy butter chicken
Butter chicken, ready in 20 minutes.
Easy butter chicken in a white bowl
Yield: 2 Servings

Easy Butter Chicken

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Total Time: 20 minutes

How to cook butter chicken, the quick and easy way.

Ingredients

  • 10 oz chicken breast, diced, 1 inch
  • 1 tsp grated ginger
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1½ tbsp butter
  • ½ brown onion
  • 1 clove garlic
  • ½ cup cream
  • ½ cup milk
  • 4 tbsp tomato paste
  • ½ tsp salt

To serve

  • 2 cups cooked rice, (use precooked, or start rice cooking prior to cooking the curry)
  • ½ bunch fresh coriander, (chopped)

Instructions

Prepare

  1. Pat chicken dry and dice into 1 inch pieces.
  2. Place in a bowl with the turmeric, cinnamon, chili powder, ginger and salt. Mix to combine.

Cook chicken

  1. Heat butter in a fry pan over a medium heat.
  2. Cook onions in butter until soft (approx. 4 minutes).
  3. Add garlic and cook for a further minute.
  4. Add chicken and cook until browned and almost cooked through (approx. 4-5 minutes).

Make curry sauce

  1. Add cream, milk and tomato paste to the pan.
  2. Bring to a simmer, then reduce heat to medium/low. Simmer until chicken is cooked through and sauce is thickened (approx. 5 minutes).

Serve

  1. Serve butter chicken over rice, top with coriander.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

2

Amount Per Serving: Calories: 687Unsaturated Fat: 0g

*This blog post contains affiliate links, which means if you click on a link and go on to buy the product I recommend, I will get a small commission, but you will not be charged a cent more – thanks in advance for your support!

Skip to Recipe