Stovetop Butter Chicken

Two of the ingredients for Indian butter chicken are probably pretty easy to guess, right? Butter—yes, butter chicken has butter in it—and chicken! But what else? Unlike many Indian recipes, butter chicken can be made quite authentically without having to hunt down any special spices! While we love an excuse to try cooking with new herbs and spices, we also love being able to easily recreate our favorite restaurant recipes at home, and butter chicken has a really approachable ingredients list for those of us who are new to making Indian food at home. Here’s everything you’ll need to make our creamy butter chicken recipe:

• Olive oil

• Garlic

• Ginger

• Yellow onions

• Chicken stock

• Tomato paste

• Cinnamon

• Cumin

• Garam masala

• Turmeric

• Boneless, skinless chicken breast

• Lemon juice

• Heavy cream

How to Make Butter Chicken on the Stovetop

Grab yourself about 30 minutes and your favorite skillet, and get ready to make the best butter chicken ever! We mention this tip a lot, but it’s a good one—it’ll be easier to cut that chicken into cubes if it’s just a bit frozen. So, if you can remember to pop the chicken breasts into the freezer about an hour before you start cooking, yay! If not, no biggie. Oh! And one more thing! If you’d like to make this butter chicken recipe dairy-free—or are simply looking to cut back on animal fats—you can swap coconut oil for the butter and full-fat coconut milk for the heavy cream and still get a delicious version of butter chicken. Whether you use heavy cream or coconut milk, here’s how easy it is to make our stovetop butter chicken:

1. Sauté onions, garlic and ginger for a few minutes.

2. Stir in butter, stock, tomato paste, all of the spices—the flavorful base of the butter chicken sauce!—followed by all of the chicken pieces.

3. Pop a lid on the pan and simmer until the chicken is done.

4. Stir in lemon juice and heavy cream, and simmer on low for just a few minutes to let everything cohere.

5. You’re done! We love this with plain, steamed basmati rice, and serve some warm naan on the side if you’ve got it!