Name a more iconic Indian dish. I dare you! Murgh Makhani or Butter Chicken has to be one of the most famous exports from India, and has become a bit of a cult classic for takeaway.
Whilst Murgh Makhani is a standard restaurant order, the recipe is so incredibly simple to make right in the comfort of your home.
What is Murgh Makhani?
It is said that Murgh Makahni originated in the kitchens of Moti Mahal in Delhi where the chef would mix left over Tandoori chicken in a milk tomato gravy at the end of a days work to feed to the kitchen staff. This dish was so popular that it quickly became a feature on the menu and subsequently gained popularity in kitchens across India and then the World.
The gravy is what makes Murgh Makhani what it is – super delicious.
Made with tomatoes, cream, butter (of course! How can you have Butter Chicken without butter?) and the mildest of spices, the Makhani sauce is a rich gravy that pairs beautifully with Chicken and Paneer. Check out my Paneer Makhani recipe for a vegetarian version of this – the Makhani sauce is exactly the same!
What do I need?
There are a couple of ingredients that you will really to need to hunt for, but thankfully you can find everything either online, at your local Grocery store or at your local South Asian Grocer.
Garam Masala
One of the most important ingredients you will need, not just for this recipe, but for all things Indian cooking is Garam Masala. This is a masala blend made with a combination of wonderful whole spices including fennel, bay leaves, black and white peppercorns, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, mace (which is the outer skin of nutmeg), black cardamom, green cardamom, cloves, cassia bark and dried red chilli.
Lucky for you you can easily buy a pre-made blend of all these ingredients and it makes life so much simpler.
Here is Australia you can buy Garam Masala from Woolworths, Coles, or Harris Farm. Alternatively you can find Garam masala online right here.
Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder
This one is really crucial to making Makhani sauce. Kashmiri chillies are very mild, and have a very Earthy, dry flavour. This particular chilli powder is used especially for the deep red colour they provide naturally without a lot of heat.
It is important to note here that thought you could use paprika as a substitute, you need to also be aware that the two spice powders do have very different flavours. Paprika is a much sweeter chilli powder so the end flavour of the dish may not be what you expect!
You can find Kashmiri chilli powder online, or at your local South Asian grocer. To buy it here in Australia, Radhe (a popular South Asian grocery store in Sydney) has started an online store.
Dried Fenugreek Leaves
Before I even begin to talk about the leaves, I want to make a note here and say please do not use Fenugreek seeds as a substitute. The seeds have a very different flavour profile and cannot be used instead of the leaves.
Fenugreek leaves impact a really delicate flavour to the gravy and provide the balance for our 5 taste sensations, most notably Bitterness. In richer recipes like this or any dishes with a lot of overpowering richness, or even tang, Fenugreek leaves help to balance the palate out.
You can find fenugreek leaves at your local South Asian grocer or online.
Preparing the chicken
In South Asian cooking, I always make sure I marinate the chicken. This helps in a couple of ways.
Firstly, it flavours the chicken really well. Secondly, it maks the chicken much harder to overcook!
In this recipe I use yogurt and lemon juice (lime juice also works) as a base to tenderise the chicken along with a simple blend of spices. I recommend marinating the chicken for at least 30 minutes before cooking, leaving the chicken to reach room
You can use either chicken breast or chicken thigh. Generally thigh is much better for South Asian cooking because the meat is fattier and so much more tender but my recipe works wonderfully with breast too – purely because of the marination! EIther way, make sure you have trimmed away any tough tissue and excess fat, and cut the chicken into equal-ish cubes. This will help you get an even cook on all the pieces.
Cooking the chicken
In my recipe, I sear the chicken first to develop some colour on the meat. This is really an extra step I take, but it genuinely makes this recipe a lot closer to the original (remember Tandoori chicken and gravy!). I typically sear the chicken in the pan I plan on using for the Makhani sauce, but you can do this in a grill pan (get some nice lines of char on the meat), on a barbeque or even in the oven. Either way you choose, you want some really beautiful char and colour on the meat. This is what will give you that lightly “smokey” flavour.
During this stage we aren’t focusing on cooking the chicken – rather we just want to get the outside beautifully charred. The rest of the cooking will happen in the gravy!
The Makhani Sauce
I normally just refer to this as THE SAUCE.
It is the most iconic sauce in Indian cooking, and it is actually the star of the show here. To make your makhani sauce you need to follow the steps carefully. Make sure each ingredient is added carefully and at the right time.
This is where I would share a story about my dad teaching me about the concept of layering flavours and how any spice added directly in the pan versus in oil versus in liquid can really change the flavour of the meal.
We start with some oil and butter, followed by all of the whole spices and some fenugreek leaves. These infuse in the butter and oil mixture and release their natural oils too, after-which we add in the ginger and garlic. These need to be cooked until the raw smell has been cooked off – which trust me does not take a long time! Now we go in with the ground spice, followed soon after by the tomato puree.
Let’s pause a moment here.
Tomato puree
Now I usually purchase pureed tomatoes in a jar or I buy tomato passata just to make my life a little bit easy. You could make your own puree at home, however you absolutely must make sure that the puree is VERY smooth and doesn’t have any chunky bits – this is super important in order to get that smooth, rich and glossy finish to your recipe.
Another important note here is that every tomato is different, every brand of puree and/or passata is different. With this in mind take caution when cooking and adjust cooking times accordingly. The biggest concern in this recipe is making a gravy that is too sour – if the gravy has a sour note to it, add a pinch of salt to the base and cook the tomatoes for another 5 minutes. You want the tomatoes to still have that rich tomato flavour, without an overpowering sour hit to it.
It took me a few failed attempts quite early into my cooking journey to learn this.
Okay back to Makhani
The dish is finished up with cream, some more dried fenugreek leaves and then the chicken to heat up and finish cooking in the gravy.
And then we serve!
Here is the recipe!
Murgh Makhani
Equipment
- Saucepot
- Wooden spoon
- Tongs
- 2 bowls
- Plate lined with paper towels
Ingredients
For the chicken and marinade
- 500 g boneless, skinless chicken thigh or breast
- ½ inch stick of ginger, made into a paste
- 4 cloves of garlic, made into a paste
- ⅛ tsp red chilli powder
- ⅛ tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp ground coriander
- ½ tsp garam masala
- ½ tsp chopped coriander leaves cilantro
- 1 tsp lime juice
- 1½ tbsp. full fat Greek yogurt
- pinch of salt
- vegetable oil for cooking
For the Makhani sauce
- 700 g tomato puree or tomato passata This is just about one bottle of passata, or roughly 4-5 tomatoes
- ½ tsp tomato paste
- 40 g butter
- 1 tsp ground Kashmiri chilli
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tbsp. honey
- 4-6 green cardamom pods
- ½ inch stick of cinnamon bark
- ½ inch stick of ginger, made into a paste
- 4-5 cloves of garlic, made into a paste
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves
- 120 mL cream and extra according to your taste
For garnishing
- 1 tbsp. roasted cashews
- 1 tsp pomegranate arils
- 1 tsp fresh coriander leaves cilantro
- a pinch of dried fenugreek leaves
Instructions
Preparing the chicken
- Wash and pat dry the chicken
- In a bowl combine all the marinade ingredients, then add the chicken and stir through
- Set the bowl aside for 30 minutes to marinate before continuing
- Heat ½ tsp of vegetable oil in a saucepot over a medium high to high ehat
- Add the chicken to the pot and cook to sear each side of the chicken until brown. We want to develop colour on the chicken not necessarily cook it all the way through
- Remove the chicken and set aside on a plate lined with paper towel
Preparing the Makhani sauce
- Heat 1 tsp of oil over a low heat in the pot and then add the butter in
- Add the whole spices )cinnamon, cardamom and bay leaves) and half of the fenugreek leaves and mix until fragrant
- Reduce the heat to the lowest setting, then add the ginger paste and garlic paste. The residual moisture of the ginger and garlic can cause sputtering so be very careful. Cook the garlic and ginger until the raw smell is gone
- Add the ground spices and cook for 20 seconds, then add in the tomato paste and puree (or passata). Mix everything through well and bring to a bowl with a good pinch of salt
- Sprinkle half of the remaining fenugreek leaves over the top and cover the pot with a lid. Let the sauce continue to cook for 5 minutes. Taste the sauce to check if the tomato has completely cooked and if it needs more salt
- Add in ¾of the cream and stir it through. Cover and cook for another 5 minutes
- Taste the gravy for salt, pepper and creaminess ensuring that the tomato has completely cooked through. Typically you can tell the gravy is cooked once the oil starts to separate from the gravy
- Add the chicken to the pot, and cover the pot with the lid. Cook the chicken in the gravy for a further 5 minutes
- Serve the makhani hot with a garnish or toasted cashews, pomegranate arils, coriander leaves, the remaining dried fenugreek leaves and a drizzle of cream. Serve along with fresh rice or roti.
And there is my recipe for butter chicken! I hope you enjoyed this recipe – be sure to leave me a comment below
