How to Make Murgh Makhani (Indian Butter Chicken) 

1 onion chopped fine 4 tsp ginger grated 1 serrano pepper chopped fine 5 cloves garlic minced or pressed 1 tbsp garam masala 1 tsp ground coriander ½ tsp ground cumin ½ tsp ground black pepper 4 tbsp butter 1 1/2 cup water ½ cup tomato paste 1 tbsp sugar 2 tsp table salt (1 for sauce, 1 for chicken) 1 cup cream 2 lb chicken thighs (about 8 thighs) ½ cup thick Greek yogurt 2-4 tbsp cilantro

While marinating the chicken with yogurt you should add a spoon of turmeric powder salt garam masala powder n red pepper power. Then that baked chicken would look and taste better. The sauce required another ingredients that is kasuri methi. Dri fenugreek leaves. 1.Any Indian cuisine turmeric powder is must thing. 2. Any north Indian food dry fenugreek herb or leaves is a must thing.

This video to me as an Indian is what BBC's egg fried rice video was to Uncle Roger.

Humbly, if one is going to call this Murgh Makhani, one must (must) also include Khasoori Methi (fenugreek). That’s THE butter chicken taste. It’s ok to raise the bar and ask us to use it. Even if we live far away from groceries that’d carry it, we have Amazon ;) I wish ATK would at least mention that important ingredient…

The yoghurt and chicken mix would have been better imo if it had some ginger garlic paste, Kashmiri chilli powder, garam masala and maybe turmeric.

I love that your wooden spoon looks like a guitar!

I love the dichotomy of the sub-$10 guitar-shaped wooden spoon, and the $400-700 chef's knife and ~$5,000 oven/range ;)

In my humble opinion, this is one of the best recipes that America's Test Kitchen has ever produced. I can't tell you how many times I have made this since I first discovered it nearly two years ago. Even my young kids get excited when I tell them it's on the menu, not only because they like the dish itself, but because they know I am going to be making naan to go on the side. Yes, even with the rice.

I made this tonight and it’s easy and absolutely delicious!

While making the sauce, make sure to first cook the tomato paste with the onions for a minute before you add the water. This process is important because in doing so you are letting it’s essential oils seep into the onions and the spices, helping layer the flavor. When you put water first and then the tomato paste you are only boiling the paste and not properly giving it its purpose.

Looks great!

Will need this too. Will try soon

YUM!!!! thank you for this recipe!!!!

Delicious! Merry Christmas 🎄🎄🎄

I’m Indian and rarely very puritanical about the authenticity of recipes used by such shows but the absence of dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi) is too big a flaw to overlook. I’ve seen ATK make many Mexican dishes with very specific ingredients (banana leaves anyone?) so I’m surprised with this miss. Anyway, all that’s needed is about 1 tbsp of dried fenugreek leaves. You need to rub the dried leaves between your palms and add it right in the end. It will really elevate this dish.

Looks delicious

Excellent!

Great preparation

Julia is very pleasant to listen to. Nicely explained.

Looks delicious!

Love your videos!

I love the guitar cooking spoon!

That looks soooooo good. I had to share this video with my brother in law because he loves indian food but cant quite get it right while trying to make it at home.

My self a seasoned cook. Its simply the best recipe!!

This looks great n yummy..👍👍😋😋🤝

Please people's just buy ginger+garlic paste at your Asian grocer. Use it in Indian cuisine, use it in soups, use it in marinades, use it with tomatoe sauce. Many uses for ginger+garlic paste just buy a bottle, it should not cost you above $5 for 250 ml, read the bottles amount and compare if you don't understand the measurements. Quicker, cheaper, easier go get some GG paste.

YUMMY THANKS ! HAVE ENJOYED THIS AT A LOCAL RESTAURANT ! NOW I MAKE MY OWN WITH YOUR RECIPE...REMEMBER, 10 SECONDS IN MICROWAVE AND GARLIC PEELS PRONTO

Just here to admire the recipe and that amazing spatula.

You can also fry a little bit of the tomato paste with the spices for deeper flavor too.

It's past 1:00 in the morning, and I'm craving butter chicken

Made this for a work potluck and I have Indian coworkers. They LOVED it!

Love the guitar shaped wooden spoon!

This was so nice to see you cooking in a non set kitchen…thank you for this video

If you want to next-level the chicken and have a charcoal grill, grill it outside over lump (hardwood) charcoal. You can achieve 900° F pretty easily and get a great char and smoke flavor. As others have suggested, adding spice to the yogurt marinade and letting it sit for a bit (maybe an hour) is very helpful as well.

now I know how to do it...GOD bless.

Love It

Oh my god I love your wooden spoon! I need one!

The little guitar spatula is adorable omg I want one. Also, I’ve only just used the premade sauce, and every recipe I’ve seen calls for a million different things. Plus, now I can just leave the cream out.

Awesome

Hello I really love cooking

Thanks you all! Love this channel and all the cooks, testers, dishwashers, etc. Learn every day. Have you done any videos on gluten free? You have such a great menu I can usually adjust to my GF. Food is not my friend, well, gluten is not my friend....keep on cooking..I will keep on learning...winner, winner..chicken dinner..lol💟💟

I really like your recipes mam😃👑💯

Great👌🙏

The wonderful thing about butter chicken is that "IF", you own a Vitamix Blender you can cook right in the blender. As well. You can sautay for a while in it too. It comes out waaaay more fragrant and tasty without ruining a bunch of pots and stirers. And the chicken. The ONLY reason chicken thighs were used as because it was originally a dish made out of leftovers that the British used to seem to like when they came over

Hi I love butter chicken and I am eager to make Test Kitchens recipe!

Just a few things that we cook our butter chicken, marinated and sauce with that was omitted. Season the chicken with the same mixup you made the sauce with, ginger and garlic. Two cardamom pods, cinnamon sticks, turmeric, fenugreek, and clove should have been added to sauce. Marinated the chicken for at least 4 four hours. After you cook the chicken put everything together.

Very nice recipe. I was thinking of adding the tomato paste with the spices and cooking that (before adding water) until the tomato paste darkened somewhat. I think that might improve the flavor.

I made this tonight and I have to report that this is a 10/10 recipe. The only tweak I'd make is to use a little more of the spices, but even following to the letter, this is amazing.

Brilliant, thanks Julia! I made this a few days ago for the family and last Saturday for guests. However they are sensitive to too much spice and tomato so I cut the spices by half and only used one little can of tomato paste, but they still loved it and were happy to take leftovers even. So it's pretty good toned down as well. I had your video playing on 50% playback speed while I was cooking and you sounded humorously menacing, unlike your real lovely self.

One of my favourite restaurants here in the UK serve this with a bed of ground almonds and topped with slices of banana and then garnished with some celantro on top Superb X

after watching so many videos this is the best one. perfectly explained, precise, exact and easy.

I loved the video, but the guitar shaped spoon totally stole the show! Now I absolutely have to have one!

Excellent tasting and simple recipe. I grilled chicken reverse sear style because I was too lazy to use the oven. My understanding, Indian recipes and spice mixtures vary widely from North to South, I wouldn’t change a thing!

I’m gonna try this again! the last recipe I followed was horrible it came out tasting more Mexican, kind of a chili flavor. I just found this channel, did used to have a show on tv??? Anyway love your recipes! The corn fritters were a hit !!!

Serrated knife and ginger go very well together towards peeling ❤ Wonder this is not so known ❤❤❤

yummy

OMG. I have made many butter chicken recipes. My daughter loves it, her husband doesn't like spicy or curry. I replaced the Serrano pepper with some sweet red pepper. This was FABULOUS 😍 Everyone cleaned their plates and asked we have again soon. DYI, I brunoise mirepoix and add to rice before cooking to add more vegetables 😋

its all good

I pressed play, only to hear how she pronounced the name of the dish. I wasn’t disappointed. 😂 Nothing wrong with using a rice cooker, but it really doesn’t take long to make steamed rice. Not sure why she said it would take longer than cooking the main dish. Not so. We usually cook rice about 10 mins before we’re ready to serve up,

I just made this last night and holy smokes is it amazing. I didn't realize the path to a delicious curry was so short and simple. I had leftovers again for lunch today and it's even better. One quick note - my supermarket didn't have cream! So I bought half and half instead (I despise making substitutions, fyi), and was concerned how it might turn out...but yeah, it was amazing and I'll probably continue to make it with half and half since it has a third the fat (3 grams vs 10 grams per 2 Tbsp) and I didn't feel like it was missing anything.

The chicken needs to be marinated in the spice mixture, with fenugreek as well before baking.

I love this meal. But realy need the guitar spoon.

This is my husband’s favorite meal! I use the recipe for chicken tikka masala for the chicken part.

We tried it for the first time last night. OMFG it was delicious. It's now on our permanent weeknight menu. The kids liked it, my wife adored it, success. I think I'll try and find fenogreco next time, there's a spice shop at the downtown market that might carry it.

Yummi yummi

This is one of the best and easiest-to-follow butter chicken recipe videos I’ve ever watched.

The butter chicken looks fine it used thighs, it's well brown from the yogurt and broiling, it's seasoned well but always taste for salt, it's garnish with cilantro (coriander) the sauce looks okay but there are things missing that is crucial for butter chicken the cashew nuts for richness, Kashmiri chili powder for color, and fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi) that takes the butter chicken to the next level. I also like to marinade the chicken thighs with not only the yogurt but mix it with garlic, ginger, garam masala, Kashmiri chili powder for more added flavor in the marinade and to let it rest overnight. And I used either crushed tomatoes or San Marzano tomatoes for the sauce as long as it's good quality. I also served it with basmati rice and naan which is delicious. Not a bad butter chicken maybe this recipe is easier for anyone wanting to make it for the first time.

I will make dinner for you.❣️ from Scotland 🍾🎄👍😁

Love your guitar wooden spoon

I made this the traditional way with the other spices that are used that I went to get at an Indian store. She's made this in a way that is somewhat close to the traditional way. I like that she's puts it in the oven as I do to mine but in a different technique. I frowned upon other recipes of this dish made. This would be another recipe besides the traditional way I make it that I would definitely try. It's a favorite of mine. ❤️🙂

I made this today, and I pleased with the result. I did find it to be noticeably sweeter than I like, and I omitted the sugar in your recipe. Still too sweet, so I added the juice of one lime and that offset it some. I suppose the sweetness is coming from the tomato paste?

Rock n roll guitar wooden spoon. I like it.

As someone who is of Indian decent and whose grandparents used to make something similar I can't ever remember them using "greek yogurt" in this dish. It was always plain yogurt but interesting take, worth trying! Do like the simplicity of this version though!

Have you tried freezing the ginger to grate it? I saw it on another page and have been wondering

I'm sure this is delicious ( as all ATK recipes are) but this made me want to make butter chicken,so. ..I of course forgot about it. Sometime later I remembered and researched a multitude of authentic recipes. Now, some weeks later runningvinto this video again,I have to say that this I a. VERSION of butter chichen,but,not close to the recipes I've seen. Lije I said though,I'm sure this is delicious as well,but some key denominators are missing. But still,I know it wouldn't have made the cut if it weren't tasty. So thanks as always for the recipe and inspiration

I'm reeling in shock. It may have tasted fine but to imply this bears any relation to butter chicken... Its like if I publish a recipe for pumpkin pie using naan for the crust or something.

I’m going to make this now….wish me luck 😁🤞🏼.

When u put it under broiler are we using high, or low?

I like how you grilled the chicken not sear in pan. That’s as close as it can get to authentic Murgh Makhani with smokey flavor. 😍

When i make curry, i let the dish cook longer than the rice. So the dish is made and set on the stove and THEN i turn on the rice cooker. Makes it so much more flavorful to let it sit on low for an hour or so.

It works, it's the real deal. It tastes like butter chicken. No more sauce out of the jar that never quite tastes right. Thank you for this.

i think you could improve this recipe by: - tempering the butter at the beginning with whole spices (cinnamon, cardamom, cumin, coriander, star anise, cloves, bay leaf), also add some cashews at this stage - adding the ginger garlic paste after the onions are done frying so you just cook off the raw flavor - marinating the chicken with garam masala, turmeric, garlic, kashmiri chili powder - adding fenugreek near the end but in a pinch this probably tastes great!

I made this two days in a row, its fantastic! Easy Peazy. I used cauliflower rice and no sugar in the mix, I added two jalapenos (i didnt have a serrano on hand). I see comments below about using Fenugreek, will try that later. I wonder what role the yogurt plays on the chicken if we are only covering it and not marinating it? I agree with another commenter below that adding the tomato paste before the water and allowing it to coat the bottom of the pan would allow for a deeper flavor. I can always depend on ATK for some good cookin!

A Stratocaster spoon... Cool🎸

I like the electric guitar shaped wooden spoon. Nice way to quietly demonstrate how punk rock that you were back in the day!

Indian food is the best :)

just a tip. a healthier replacement for cream is oat milk it thicken better than cream.

At the 8:30 minute I declared out loud, “That’s it!!!” I would eat this meal often in Nashville at one of its many Indian restaurant buffets. Indeed, it’s my favorite. Although, I never ate it over rice, I used the naan to soak up all the delicious sauce after enjoying the tasty chicken.

This is gonna be another delish meal I cant wait to get stuffed thanks for sharing it.😘😊

Do I need a Telecaster-shaped wooden stirrer like yours, or will a Gibson SG do?

I love cooking because I Got though the chef school in Jackson square ì passed the cook basic level one program at liĺàson college in the mall at the chef school in Jackson square.

I'm just waiting for confirmation from the comments section that it's close enough.

Made this recipe and while it was good, it wasn't as spiced as I'm used to having it. Will probably up the amount next time.

The recipe is quite authentic but one ingredient missing (Kasuri Methi! Dried Fenugreek) very important in butter chicken gravy!

Wow watching this after Jamie Oliver's butchered Butter chicken.. I can tell you that you are the rock star.

Thighs are my favorite part of the chicken. This looks like a really good recipe even i could do :)

If you do not taste 👅 the sauce until after everything is cooked & assembled, is this a risk for not being able to add some of the spices you cooked with the veg mix?

Can you give me info on the knife used in this video? Thank you in advance!

Kasuri methi AND Kashmiri chili powder

Killer recipe. The sauce can accommodate double the chicken.