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Butter Chicken Thermomix Skinnymixers

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Skinnymixers Butter Chicken Thermomix Recipe

Butter Chicken also known as Murgh Makhani, this popular dish needs no introduction. While this Butter Chicken may be a decadent treat, it is a healthier Thermomix alternative to take-away versions and well worth the effort. After releasing this recipe, the Skinnymixers Facebook Group begged me to put out my first cookbook ‘A Little Taste of India’ – available in the Skinnymixers Shop or Apple Books.

This viral Butter Chicken Thermomix recipe took the Thermomix Community by storm in 2014 and has been the top Skinnymixers recipe every year since. Don’t be turned off by the length of this recipe – it is written in simple step by step instructions to help even a new user of the Thermomix TM6 TM5 TM31/Bellini / Smith and Noble.

A Little Taste of India Cookbook Skinnymixers
My first Thermomix Cookbook ‘A Little Taste of India’ sold 5,000 copies on launch.

My Butter Chicken Thermomix recipe is mild for those who are sensitive to spice and children seem to love it. One of the ‘must make’ Thermomix recipes, it is easy to follow and will definitely impress.

Naturally gluten free and there are instructions to make it dairy free / vegetarian / keto / LCHF /low fodmap friendly below.

BEFORE YOU START – TIPS FOR THE BEST BUTTER CHICKEN

  • Leave yourself enough time the first time you make it – some beginners take 90 min. Enjoy the process, it isn’t hard or complicated!
  • Check that your Apple Cider Vinegar isn’t double strength. Not all apple cider vinegars are equal in taste, I recommend using Braggs ACV with the mother.
  • Using Pepper Free Garam Marsala helps keep this dish very mild. If you don’t mind a little spice, using one with pepper is fine.
  • Don’t use a tea bag or device to hold your whole spices together. The flavour will be impacted and it can damage your machine.
  • Use fresh spices! You can find all of these spices in all major supermarkets. I prefer to get my spices from Grandma’s Pantry, as they are fresher, gluten free & very high quality.
  • The food colouring, nut meal & honey are optional. If you aren’t used to a thick/creamy sweeter butter chicken then leave any of these out to suit your preference.

If you make this recipe, snap a pic and hashtag it #skinnymixers — We love to see your creations on Instagram & Facebook!

Slow Cooker Method

This recipe makes a lot of sauce. When you transfer this thermomix recipe to the slow cooker, for the best results you double the marinade & chicken but leave the sauce amount the same.

  1. Make the sauce and transfer to the slow cooker with the marinated chicken in Step 10.
  2. Stir through the nuts and cream at the end.

Skinnymixers Butter Chicken in the Slow Cooker

What to serve with your Butter Chicken?

You could serve your Butter Chicken with rice or cauliflower rice. If you are looking for standout recipes to wow your guests and tastebuds – you can’t go past the Garlic, Cheese & Spinach Naan, skinnymixer’s Jeweled Coconut Rice, Vegetarian Biryani or Indian Cauliflower Rice.

Thermomix Naan Bread Recipe
The Thermomumma Guest Recipe for Garlic, Cheese & Spinach Naan Bread is the perfect side dish for the Skinnymixers Butter Chicken
Indian Rice Thermomix Recipe for Biryani
The Vegetarian variation of the Biryani from the cookbook A Little Taste of India – takes this to the next level.

This recipe features in the Thermomix cookbook ‘A Little Taste of India’. Other standout recipes from this cookbook include:

FREE MEAL PLANNER DOWNLOAD: Are you on our Skinnymixers Newsletter? Have all of our latest Thermomix recipes delivered to your Inbox – http://bit.ly/SkinnyNews

Skinnymixers Butter Chicken

skinnymixer's Butter Chicken

Voted as the Best Butter Chicken Thermomix Recipe, you will also find this recipe in the Skinnymixers Cookbook A Little Taste of India. You can access the Butter Chicken FAQ's here.
4.94 from 63 votes
Print Pin Rate Add to Collection
Course: Dinner
Cuisine: Indian
Keyword: Thermomix Recipe
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings: 6
Calories: 672kcal

Ingredients

  • 700 g chicken breast - diced
  • 150 g cashews - or almonds, raw (optional - omit for nut free)
  • 300 g cream - or coconut cream
  • 50 g honey
  • 1 bunch fresh coriander - chopped

Marinade:-

  • ½ Tbsp salt
  • ¼-½ tsp chilli powder
  • 1 tsp garam masala
  • Optional: 1 tsp liquid tandoori colouring OR ¼ tsp red food colouring and 2 drops of yellow food colouring
  • 10 g fresh ginger
  • 1 clove garlic - peeled
  • 15 g apple cider vinegar

Tomato paste:-

  • 2 clove garlic
  • 10 g fresh ginger
  • 30 g apple cider vinegar
  • 400 g tin of Ardmona chopped tomatoes
  • 100 g tomato paste

Gravy:-

  • 200 g brown onions - peeled, halved
  • 125 g butter
  • 1 stick cinnamon
  • 3 cloves
  • 5 cardamom pods - bruised
  • 1 star anise
  • 1 tsp cumin powder
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp garam masala - pepper free

Instructions

  • Add nuts to mixer bowl, mill 10 sec/speed 9/MC on. Set aside.
  • Without washing the bowl, (change to blunt blades for bellini and use speed 1 instead of reverse) add marinade ingredients to mixer bowl. Blend for 2 sec/speed 9/MC on. Scrape bowl down and repeat 3 times.
  • Add the chicken and stir through marinade for 10 sec/speed 2/reverse/MC on. Scrape mixer bowl out completely, set aside in a separate bowl to allow chicken to marinate.
  • Without washing the bowl, add tomato paste ingredients to mixer bowl. Blend 1 min/speed 8/MC on. Set tomato paste aside in a separate bowl again.
  • Without washing the bowl, add onions to mixer bowl and chop 5 sec/speed 5/MC on. Scrape bowl down.
  • Add 60 g or 2.1 oz butter to mixer bowl, cook 10 min/100°C or 212°F/speed 2/butterfly/MC on.
  • Add remaining butter (65 g or 2.3 oz), cinnamon, whole cloves, cardamom, star anise, cumin and paprika to mixer bowl.
  • Cook 5 min/100°C or 212°F/slowest speed/reverse/butterfly/MC on.
  • Add reserved tomato paste mixture, garam masala and 2 tsp salt to mixer bowl. Cook for 4 min/steaming temperature/slowest speed/reverse/butterfly/MC on.
  • Add reserved marinated chicken mixture to mixer bowl. Cook for 12 min/100°C or 212°F/slowest speed/reverse/butterfly/MC on.
  • Add reserved nut meal, cream and honey to mixer bowl. Cook for 4 min/100°C or 212°F/slowest speed/reverse/butterfly/MC on. While cooking, use your spatula to stir the curry occasionally.
  • Pour curry into an insulated server, remove whole spices, stir through chopped coriander and let it sit covered for 10 min.

Notes

Original Recipe: If you want to add fenugreek, its 1 tsp at step 7.
Dairy Free: Use coconut cream & 100 g of oil.
Keto / LCHF: Omit honey & nuts or use macadamias/almonds.
Low Fodmap: Replace the garlic with a little garlic infused olive oil & use the green part of leeks to replace the onions. Omit the nuts & use Rice Malt Syrup instead of honey.
Vegetarian: Replace Chicken with vegetables such as pumpkin, cauliflower and beans and cook until tender. You can also add some drained tinned chickpeas when adding the cream & honey.
Important note: DO NOT increase the quantities of any ingredients - this will avoid overloading your mixer. Unless you are cooking chicken on the stovetop or slow cooker.
This is one of our most popular healthy thermomix recipes.
Bellini: Do not use the butterfly / mixing tool.
Use the blunt blade, speed 1, chop the meat in 3-4cm cubes or wide strips. After the first 5 mins or so of cooking stop the machine and release the meat that has got tangled around the blade. Be sure to not overcook.
Tried this recipe?Mention @skinnymixer or tag #skinnymixers!

Nutrition

Calories: 672kcal | Carbohydrates: 19.8g | Protein: 34.6g | Fat: 49.4g | Saturated Fat: 25.4g | Sodium: 1370mg | Sugar: 15.1g

Frequently Asked Butter Chicken Questions

Can I use Ground Spices?

  • 1 tsp ground ginger powder
  • 2 pinches of cardamon powder or 1 tsp cardamon seeds
  • 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon powder
  • a pinch of the clove

How can I remove the spices easily?

  • As you are slowly pouring the Butter Chicken into the thermal server – using a silicone spatula you can usually find a few easy spices, then use it to look for the rest prior to adding the coriander.

Can I add more Chicken?

  • The Butter Chicken recipe makes a lot of sauce, but the chicken is at maximum weight capacity. If you need to make more we recommend cooking on the stovetop or slow cooker (see Slow Cooker Tips below). Some Skinnies like to freeze the extra sauce for a quick meal or use it for butter chicken pizza or even Butter Chicken Kievs!

Why is there Food Colouring in the recipe?

  • The food colouring can be left out for those who don’t like to use it, BUT a little secret…this is how the Indian take-away shops get their butter chicken to look that vibrant (unnatural) red colour! (You can find proper tandoori colouring at Indian grocers/supermarkets)

What is the Super Skinny version of the Butter Chicken?

Butter Chicken FAQ Page

Skinnymixers Butter Chicken Pin

  1. Thank you for this recipe. I’d never tried butter chicken from scratch. Made this into a vege dish by omitting chicken and using the same amount in pumpkin, cauliflower and beans (pumpkin first then the rest & had to cook for at least another 15 mins – in increments). For that reason I believe, I then had to add more honey and could have done with a little more cream. Also didn’t need to use all the almond to thicken but again this may have been because I used veges instead of chicken. I can imagine that it would be quicker each time you made this.

  2. 5 stars
    I love this recipe. As we are moving to a vegan/vegetarian diet. I substituted Chicken for cauliflower. I followed the recipe exactly and it worked perfectly.

  3. 5 stars
    Yum! My two year old loved it too. I cooked rice & steamed some veg in the rice cooker so it will easily serve 5 portions. Will absolutely be making this again.

  4. 5 stars
    This is still one of our favourites. It is a regular in our house hold. It is definitely worth the time it takes to make.

  5. When I first got my thermo, I was intimidated by this recipe (even though everyone was raving about it). It has such a long ingredients list, and quite a few steps.
    I finally made it and it took me a long time, as Nik says above, almost 90 minutes. I make it so regularly now, it feels pretty speedy… I’ve made different variations over the years, dairy free, nut free, I never use honey or coriander at the end. If I omit the nuts, I just thicken with a cornflour or tapioca slurry, which works just as well.

  6. 5 stars
    Firstly… Wow…
    I have tried around 4 slow cooker Butter Chicken recipes and 2 or 3 TM recipes and have been let down every time. This hit the spot, and then some! I made the sauce in the TM and transferred to slow cooker at end of step 9 as per instructions. I kept all quantities the same as I like lots of sauce and it was perfect.
    Nik, thanks for this recipe – it’s brilliant! Do you think it would be possible to double the sauce quantities in a TM31? It took me about an hour, so it’d be useful to do 2 batches and freeze one to throw into the slow cooker for a quick meal 😀

  7. 5 stars
    Best Butter chicken ever!!!

    My whole family of 5 absolutely love this recipe. My 9yr old requests it almost every week.

  8. Absolutely LOVE this recipe, cook it often as a show stopping veggie dish subbing the chicken for chickpeas. I have never had a complaint, and the day after it is even more delicious!

  9. 5 stars
    I love this recipe. It makes enough for our family of 5 for TWO whole meals.
    This is better than the indian shops. 5 Stars from me!!!

  10. 5 stars
    So, so good! I have foolishly tried other butter chicken recipes to see if I can find one we like better, you know, FOMO! But this is a firm favourite with our family and is requested often, I don’t bother with other recipes, you can’t top this one, so delicious!

  11. 5 stars
    Amazing! We make this at least once a month if not every 2 weeks. The kids devour it and the hubby loves it. Worth the effort as it is so much tastier than all of the other butter chicken recipes I have tried before.

  12. 5 stars
    Best butter chicken recipe ever! Even better than our local indian restaurant. Everyone who has it raves about how good it is. One word Yummmmmy😋

  13. 5 stars
    Absolutely delicious! Tried a butter chicken from another popular website and this version was much more flavoursome!! Will absolutely make again. My parents shared dinner with us tonight and both went back for seconds! Yummo! Made it dairy free by using nuttelex instead of butter.

  14. 5 stars
    Made this on the weekend for a Large Crowd (90) was a huge hit and went down a treat. Prepped 2 x sauce and 3 x marinade (3kg Chicken) in Thermi then added to pots on the stove to finish it off, stirred cream and cashew/almond meal together then added as a slurry to the pots when they had warmed through. Delightful !!!

  15. 5 stars
    Very tasty and very fresh….. My husband is a big fan of Butter Chicken and he thought this was as good as anything he had eaten in the best Indian restaurants.

  16. 5 stars
    This is the best tasting Butter Chicken recipe that we have ever tasted. It’s worth doing the preparation and spices properly to get a perfect result, every time. My family love this Butter Chicken.

  17. 5 stars
    This is family favourite is the most requested in meal from skinnymixers. I can’t recommend it enough. It’s worth the time it takes.

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