Name: Healthy Butter Chicken
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 3 h 30 min
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 160g natural yoghurt; 1 tbsp lemon juice; 3 chicken breasts; 1 tsp minced garlic; 1 tsp minced ginger; 3 tsp tandoori spice paste (I used Patak's); 1/2 tsp turmeric; 3 garlic cloves, finely chopped; 1 1/2 tbsp ghee (or vegetable oil); 2cm ginger, finely chopped; 1 tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp ground coriander; 3 cloves; 1 cardamon pod; 1/2 tsp chilli flakes; 35 g butter; 1 tsp turmeric; 250ml tomato passata; 100ml cream; Freshly chopped coriander

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Creamy butter chicken recipe

This healthy butter chicken recipe is easy to make and will give you a tasty mild curry, known as murg makhani in Hindu. This meal is great served with some pilau rice and some Indian flatbread (here I made some chapatis) or naan.

marinating chicken — Chicken in marinade

This dish was reportedly invented by accident when someone mixed some leftover tandoori chicken in a tomato gravy, and it has become a big favourite, especially in the UK where you will find this in most Indian restaurants.

butter chicken in sauce — Butter chicken in creamy sauce

Of course, a genuine version would have chicken cooked in a traditional tandoori oven. Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of a tandoor oven at home, of course. We find that it is just as easy to cook the chicken on the hob, although it does not give the nice charred effect you would have from a tandoori oven.

What to eat with butter chicken

Well, this is up to you. We like to eat it with some pilau rice and chapati, as shown in these photos. But you could use any Indian bread really, like a naan, basic flatbread or paratha even.

butter chicken with chapati — Butter chicken with pilau rice and chapati

You may also want to use some mango chutney and some raita as an accompaniment, to complement the array of flavours.

How healthy is butter chicken?

This recipe does use all natural ingredients and is perhaps healthier than others you may find in restaurants, as I do limit the amount of butter I use in the sauce. However, I do use cream and natural yoghurt, which obviously increases the fat levels and calories.

indian healthy butter chicken — Healthy Butter Chicken

If you want to make this recipe healthier you could replace the yoghurt with a 0% fat yoghurt and the cream with some low-fat crème fraîche. This will slightly change the taste of the meal but should give you a low-calorie butter chicken.

If you leave out the butter completely then you will be moving more towards a chicken tikka masala dish than a butter chicken dish. And you can’t have a butter chicken without butter now, can you? 😊

I hope you enjoy making this recipe. If you do try it, please let me know how you got on in the comments section below!

How to make healthy butter chicken