No need to visit your local Indian restaurant to cure your curry cravings! Tender, juicy chicken swims in a thick, rich, and creamy curry sauce that is well balanced. This Instant Pot Butter Chicken gets those authentic flavors just right for a medley of spice and richness that’s as real as it gets.
Indian food is hard not to love. Those bold spices create a sensational and unique flavor that makes me adore these dishes.
Like many people, I adore butter chicken. And that’s why I worked hard to find a way to fix my cravings for Indian food whenever I want it. My Instant Pot Butter Chicken can help you conquer your fears of cooking a different style of cuisine with ease. In fact, you won’t believe you can get that truly authentic taste with just a bit of effort in your own kitchen.
Marinated in Greek yogurt and simmered in a bold sauce sauce, the chicken stays perfectly juicy and bursts with flavor. Bite after bite, you’re going to love it!
Why this recipe
This is not the easiest butter chicken recipe, but I promise the result is so close to the authentic version that you’ll find it worth the effort.
- It uses a Greek yogurt based marinade to create a more flavorful and juicier chicken.
- The marinade helps to brown the chicken beautifully, adding another layer of flavor.
- The curry mix is true to the authentic butter chicken.
- It has the perfect liquid ratio, so the butter chicken sauce will come out creamy and thick.
We made so many batches to test out the recipe, so I gave away some to my friends. They told me it tastes SO GOOD, that it’s even better than the restaurant version.
Marinate the chicken
Marinating the chicken in the curry and Greek yogurt based sauce will keep the chicken flavorful and juicy. It also helps with the browning.
Ingredients
Your table should have the ingredients below before you start cooking.
I grouped the onion, ginger, and garlic in one bowl, because you will add them in the same step.
Cooking process
Brown the chicken
I highly recommend browning the chicken in a nonstick pan. Do not use Instant Pot for this step. The yogurt coating burns easily in the Instant Pot and it doesn’t brown evenly.
While the browning step isn’t a must, I strongly urge you to make time for it. We’ve tried making the dish with both methods, and the browning version makes a big difference. It produces a very appetizing looking chicken, a richer taste, and thicker sauce.
Cook in Instant Pot
The rest is easy:
- Saute the aromatics
- Cook the curry mix
- Deglaze the pot with lemon juice and tomato sauce
- Add the heavy cream
- Add chicken and cook at high pressure for 5 minutes
- Natural release for 10 minutes, then fast release
Now your curry is ready to serve! Scoop a big ladle of chicken with the sauce onto your steamed rice and enjoy!
Afterthoughts
I was hesitant to publish such a long and complicated recipe. But after so much testing, we decided this was the way to create the best result. If the steps look a bit daunting, you can make the dish on a weekend. I love my Instant Pot Butter Chicken for meal-prep. It holds up well in the fridge and in the freezer, and tastes just as great after thawing. It’s exotic and flavorful, perfect with steamed rice to soak up the thick, rich, and balanced curry sauce.
More delicious Instant Pot recipes
- Chinese Style Instant Pot Meatballs
- Easy Instant Pot Lentil Soup (Chinese Style)
- Instant Pot Braised Beef (Chinese-Style)
- Chinese Instant Pot Chinese Sausage Rice
- Instant Pot Pork Ribs (Chinese-Style)
If you give this recipe a try, let us know! Leave a comment, rate it (once you’ve tried it), and take a picture and tag it @omnivorescookbook on Instagram! I’d love to see what you come up with.
Instant Pot Butter Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 lbs (900 g) boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 tablespoon butter (Optional)
Marinade
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt
- 1/2 lemon , juiced
- 2 teaspoons Garam Masala
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika , smoked
- 1 teaspoon salt
Curry mix
- 1 tablespoon Garam Masala
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne (Optional)
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instant Pot
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter , divided
- 1 onion , minced
- 1 tablespoon ginger , grated
- 4 cloves garlic , grated
- 1/2 lemon , juiced
- 1 cup tomato puree (or canned tomato sauce) (*Footnote 1)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 cup heavy cream
- Chopped cilantro , for garnish (Optional)
Instructions
Marinade chicken
- Cut the chicken into 2” (5 cm) chunks, trimming the excess fat and discarding it as you do, and place the chicken pieces into a large bowl.
- Add all the marinade ingredients into the bowl with the chicken. Mix until everything is evenly coated. Cover the bowl and marinate at least half an hour at room temperature, or up to overnight in the fridge.
Cook
- Combine the curry mix ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.
- (Optional) Heat the 1 extra tablespoon of butter in a large nonstick pan over high heat until the butter melts. Add the chicken into the pan in a single layer (you might need to cook it in two batches). Cook it until the bottom browns, 2 minutes or so. Flip to brown the other side, then transfer the chicken onto a big plate. (* Footnote 2)
- Turn the Instant Pot to the saute function and add 2 tablespoons of butter. Once melted, add the onion, ginger, and garlic. Saute until it starts to brown, around 3 minutes.
- Add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and allow it to melt. Add the curry spices and salt. Cook until fragrant, another minute.
- Deglaze the pot with the lemon juice, being careful to scrape up everything from the pot. If there is caramelization left on the bottom of the pot it may burn during the cooking process.
- Add the tomato puree and sugar. Stir everything together. Cook the tomato mixture down, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Turn off the saute function and add the heavy cream. Mix until the curry base is a uniform orange color.
- Add the chicken to the Instant Pot and seal the lid. Make sure the valve on the lid is pointed to lock. Set to “Manual” and “High pressure”. For browned chicken, set the timer for 5 minutes. For unbrowned chicken, set the timer for 10 minutes.
- Once the cooking is finished, let the Instant Pot release naturally for at least 10 minutes before using the fast release.
- Spoon the hot chicken curry over steamed rice, garnish with cilantro if using, and serve as a main dish.
- Store the leftovers in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months.
Notes
- Tomato puree is unseasoned and unsalted, while canned tomato sauce is slightly seasoned. I prefer tomato puree, but you can use canned tomato sauce as well.
- Browning the chicken before adding it to the curry adds an extra layer of flavor and seals the moisture into the chicken, leading to a thicker curry at the end of the recipe. This recipe still works great without browning. Your curry will just be a bit looser. Avoid browning the meat in the Instant Pot – this can increase the likelihood of burning the bottom and doesn’t brown the meat evenly, so I don’t recommend it.
Nutrition
Lilja Walter is a part of the Omnivore’s Cookbook team and worked closely with Maggie to develop and test this recipe.
Fantastic butter chicken! Am a big fan of yours (and your recipes, of course). Even more delicious reheated. Thank you so much.
As someone who’s tried quite a number of butter chicken recipes in the past, this is the only one that had the depth of flavour I was looking for. Even my husband (who has not been a fan of my past curries) was very complimentary of the dish. It all came together quite quickly too; simple, easy and tasty. Can’t wait to try the other instant pot recipes on the site!