World Butter Chicken

If you’re looking for the only butter chicken recipe you’ll ever need, we’re pretty sure this is it. Created especially for the first-ever World Butter Chicken Day, October 20, 2020, our murgh makhani (authentic butter chicken) recipe is adapted from chef Monish Gujral’s recipe from The Moti Mahal Cookbook: On the Butter Chicken Trail. Gujral is the grandson of Kundan Lal Gujral, the chef who invented tandoori chicken in the early 1920s at Moti Mahal, in Peshawar (then India, now Pakistan). Shortly after, he created a rich, creamy, aromatically spiced gravy to sauce tandoori chickens: Murgh makhani — butter chicken — was born. World Butter Chicken Day commemorates the founding of Moti Mahal in October, 1920. Read all about it here.

Serve the butter chicken with basmati rice or naan for soaking up the delicious sauce. Raita, sautéed spinach or other greens and a chutney make excellent plate-fellows.

Serves 4 to 6.

Ingredients

For the tandoori chicken thighs:

1 ½ tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice

½ teaspoon paprika, preferably smoked

½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs

½ cup yogurt (whole milk or low-fat)

2 tablespoons Ginger-Garlic Paste

1 teaspoon Punjabi-style garam masala, commercial (Penzey’s makes an excellent one) or homemade

For the butter chicken:

2 tablespoons canola or other neutral oil

1 medium onion, diced (about 1 ¼ cups)

One 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, preferably fire-roasted, including the juices

1 ½ teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon Ginger-Garlic Paste

2 teaspoons paprika, preferably smoked

1/2 - 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (depending on how spicy you like it)

1 tablespoon garam masala, preferably Punjabi-style* or home-made

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 recipe Tandoori Chicken Thighs

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into a few pieces

½ cup heavy cream (plus additional to swirl in for garnish, if you like)

Cilantro leaves for garnish

Instructions

1. Make the tandoori chicken thighs: In a small bowl, combine the lime juice, paprika, cayenne and 1 teaspoon of the salt. Pat the chicken thighs dry, place them in a shallow dish, unfold them, and distribute half the marinade over them, rubbing it into the flesh. Turn the thighs over and repeat with the rest of the marinade. Set aside.

2. In the same small bowl (no need to wash it), combine the yogurt, garlic-ginger paste, the remaining 1/2 teaspoon of salt and the garam masala. Rub the mixture onto both sides of the chicken thighs (yes, on top of that first marinade), cover with plastic film and refrigerate 1 hour.

3. Heat the oven to 475 F. with a rack set in the middle of the oven, and set a rack on a rimmed baking sheet. When the oven is hot, place the chicken thighs on the rack, folding them back up like thighs and leaving space between them. Roast until they’re cooked through (an instant-read thermometer stuck in the thickest part should read 165 degrees), 20 to 35 minutes depending on the size of the thighs. Remove from the oven and set aside.

4. While the chicken roasts, prepare the sauce. In a Dutch oven or heavy medium-large sauce saucepan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and sauté until the onion is soft and translucent, about 6 minutes.

5. Stir in the diced tomatoes and their liquid and the salt, and simmer, stirring occasionally, over medium heat about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in ½ cup of water and use an immersion blender to purée the mixture to a smooth sauce. Alternatively, transfer the mixture to a blender or food processor, using a rubber spatula so nothing’s left on the sides, pureé to smooth and return the sauce to the pot. Stir in the Ginger-Garlic Paste, paprika, cayenne, garam masala and cumin. Stir in the accumulated juices from the chicken’s baking sheet (if any), bring back to a simmer over medium heat and cook for two minutes. (At this point you can remove from heat and reheat when you’re nearly ready to serve.)

6. When you’re nearly ready to serve, transfer the chicken thighs to the sauce, bring back to a simmer and cook for three or four minutes, or until the chicken is heated through. Add the butter and cook over medium-low heat, stirring, till it melts. Taste and adjust seasoning. Stir in the cream and remove from heat immediately.

7. Garnish with cilantro leaves, drizzle on a little more cream, if you like, and serve with rice and/or naan.

Recipe notes

To approximate tandoori chicken without a tandoori (wood- or charcoal-burning clay oven), Monish Gujral’s 2009 recipe outlined a two-step, four-hour marination process for a whole, skinless chicken, followed by roasting in a regular home oven. Our April 2020 recipe followed that version pretty closely, with tweaks along the way, and taking a cue from a Washington Post story that adapted Gujral’s recipe using chicken thighs.

We’re super fond of that April recipe, but felt some of the steps could be streamlined and simplified, and a few shortcuts allowed. Most notably, we compressed the four hours of marination in just an hour, and actually preferred the tandoori chicken thighs that resulted. (They’re pretty fabulous eaten on their own, without any sauce.)

• Another shortcut involves garam masala. There’s something absolutely transporting about toasting all the spices and grinding them into Monish Gujral’s recipe for Punjabi garam masala, the spice mix that gives murgh makhani its gorgeous aromatics. And we highly recommend doing this, simply because it’s so sensorially rewarding. But recently we tried a commercial Punjabi garam masala from the spice company Penzey’s that knocked us out — and it could save you time both in collecting the spices and toasting and grinding them.

• Although commercial ginger-garlic paste — a staple in Indian cooking — is available, it’s not a product we love, as those we’ve tried (including an organic one) are very salty, and the ginger loses some of its liveliness. If you do use a commercial one, you’ll need to reduce the salt in the sauce recipe accordingly. We recommend making your own. The recipe, a simple 1-1-1 ratio of ginger, garlic and water that gets pulverized in a blender or mini-chop, is found here.

• Finally, after comparing versions of the dish made using Kashmiri chile powder, Deggi Mirch or a combination of paprika and cayenne, we feel it’s easier to achieve the gentler spicing the dish is known for using a combination of paprika and cayenne — which was suggested by the Washington Post’s adaptation. Our innovation is using smoked paprika, which brings back a hint of the missing tandoori oven’s smoke. We suggest using fire-roasted canned tomatoes rather than regular ones for the same reason.