Weeknight · Instant Pot · About 30 minutes

Butter Chicken

Name: Butter Chicken
Total time: 30 min
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients: 120 ml water; 1 can diced tomatoes; 2 tbsp dried chopped onion; 1 ½ tsp granulated garlic; 1 tsp ground ginger; 1 tsp ground turmeric; ¼ tsp cayenne; 1 tsp paprika; 1 tsp garam masala; 1 tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp ground coriander; 2 cans chunk chicken breast; 113 g butter; 120 ml heavy cream; 1 tsp garam masala; ¼ cup fresh cilantro; Basmati rice and naan, to serve

The fast, pantry butter chicken — a silky tomato-and-spice sauce blended smooth, enriched with butter and cream, with pre-cooked chicken stirred in. Weeknight Indian in about half an hour.

~30 min total 10 min prep Instant Pot method

Effort ●●○○ Time ●○○○ Anytime

Instant PotGluten-Free

Servingsamounts scale to match

Units

Ingredients

Blend the base smooth, then add the dairy and chicken off the boil. The tomatoes and spices cook down into the sauce; blending makes it silky. Stir in the butter, cream, and pre-cooked chicken at the end — gently, off a hard boil — so the sauce stays rich and the chicken just warms through (it's already cooked).

Easier, if you like

Canned chunk chicken (undrained) is the whole shortcut — no raw meat to cook. Rotisserie or leftover chicken works too.
Cook the rice pot-in-pot: set a trivet and a metal pan of 1 cup rice + 1¼ cups water above the sauce, and it steams while the base pressure-cooks.

Method

Cook's notes

This is the fast, pantry version — canned (or pre-cooked) chicken and dried spices mean dinner in about 30 minutes.

Blend the sauce for the classic silky texture; an immersion blender right in the pot is easiest.

Fresh chicken: layer 2 bone-in split breasts (or 1.5 lb thighs) over the tomato-spice base, pressure-cook, then shred and stir back in. On the stovetop, simmer diced chicken in the sauce until cooked through (165°F).

Full-fat coconut milk makes it dairy-free without losing the richness — lite coconut milk leaves the sauce thin.

Make it dairy-free or vegetarian (it's already gluten-free)

Dairy-free: use coconut oil for the butter and full-fat coconut milk for the cream.

Vegetarian: swap the chicken for chickpeas or seared paneer — it becomes more of a makhani.

Gluten-free: the curry is gluten-free; serve with rice (naan is the only wheat, so skip it or use a gluten-free flatbread).