Butter chicken is a gateway food into the pantheon of Indian cuisine – yet a classic recipe for the dish is far from approachable. With an ingredient list a mile long and a cook time that’s like a work shift, you’d think this dish is reserved only for restaurants, that is until you try this recipe for Quick Butter Chicken. This will yield results in twenty minutes flat and give you a dreamy restaurant-style curry. 

Origin stories are always hard to pinpoint, and butter chicken isn’t an exception to the rules. Some pin its start to the northwest town of Peshawar near a British military garrison or further down in the country at a roadside as a way to revive dry, unsold tandoori chicken. There’s even a raging legal lawsuit between two families over the origins of butter chicken. However, it is clear that butter chicken is not an Indian dish in any traditional sense. Its heavy use of butter instead of ghee and the mild hand of spices definitely lean towards butter chicken being a dish catering to British people living in India. Despite it being made for a foreign palate, it doesn’t mean it isn’t loved by Indians. It is a fusion food that is put on pizza, pasta, and tacos. Butter chicken is even one of the first meat dishes Hindus eat when quitting a vegetarian diet. The boneless chicken is so neutral and drowned by the sauce so much so that the meat goes unnoticed in taste and texture.

Just because butter chicken isn’t as spicy as your average Indian dish, doesn’t mean it’s void of flavor. After you brown the chicken, add an array of kitchen pantry dry spices. Garam masala, cumin, paprika, and turmeric inject loads of warm complex flavor. Fresh garlic and ginger give the curry component of the sauce a bright and refreshing edge. After a bit of salt is added, tomato sauce or purée is added to be the foundation of the curry sauce. 

Simmer everything for ten to fifteen minutes. This simmering time will allow the sauce just enough time to incorporate with the spices and aromatics.

Heavy cream is the last addition to this curry, which will give the Quick Butter Chicken its traditional creamy orange color.  

This Quick Butter Chicken tastes less like a homemade kitchen creation and more like a dish you’d find at your nearest restaurant, it’s that good! The sauce is smooth, getting complex with flavor with a bit of spice to pique your interest but not enough to overwhelm your mouth and have you desperately reaching for a glass of milk. Searing the chicken locks in the juiciness of the chicken, and the short simmer time gives it a wonderfully tender texture. 

Served over rice, this Quick Butter Chicken is a great way to have the taste of takeout, but with the control of a homemade meal. The amounts of cream and butter are quite reduced when compared to your average takeout version, and it comes together at a fraction of the cost. The spices can be prepared ahead in little bags ready to pour into the pan. 

It’s so easy that you might ditch the takeout version for good!