What to serve with butter chicken besides rice

Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani) is one of the most popular curries in the world and yet happens to be one of the easiest! No hunting down hard to find ingredients, this chef recipe that makes the most incredible curry sauce.

This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!

Butter Chicken – a chef recipe!

As someone who loves food with big, BIG flavours, it’s no surprise that Indian is one of my favourite foods. A good curry and binge watching Netflix is pretty much my idea of a perfect Friday night. #NanaAlert! 😂

As much as I love making Indian food at home, sometimes I find the list of ingredients daunting. It’s easy enough to make once I gather all the ingredients, but that’s where I usually fall short because it requires a trip to an Indian grocery store – and my closest one is a fair drive away.

Butter Chicken is one of the few exceptions. I was elated when I discovered a Chef recipe for Butter Chicken and realised how easy it is. But more importantly, you can get all the ingredients from any supermarket. Yes!

Is Butter Chicken really Indian??

YES it is! It’s called Murgh Makhani and it hails from Northern India. It’s quite a mild curry compared to many Indian curries, and outside of India, it’s become just about everybody’s favourite curry!

How to make Butter Chicken – in 3 Simple Steps

1. Make Butter Chicken Marinade and marinate chicken for 3+ hours (overnight is best)

2. Cook chicken

3. Make sauce in the same skillet

The secret to the tender, flavour infused chicken is a spice infused yogurt marinade made with fresh ginger, garlic, lemon juice and spices. The spices in Butter Chicken are turmeric, garam masala, chilli powder and cumin.

Did you know….You don’t need copious amounts of butter for a great Butter Chicken!

The beautiful Butter Chicken Sauce mostly gets its richness from cream. While some restaurants take it over the top by stirring in a (very!) generous amount of butter into the sauce at the end, I find that it’s rich enough as it is. The Butter Chicken flavour and experience – but less oily than restaurant versions!

The sauce will initially be a pale orange colour but as it simmers and thickens, the colour will deepen to a rich orange colour.

What to serve with Butter Chicken

To make a proper Indian feast, sides and starters are essentials! Because every curry needs papadums for dunking and naan to scoop up the sauce with, right?

• No-fry quick papadums – just microwave them! Place the papadums around the edge of the microwave turntable and cook on high for 45 seconds to 1 minute or until they are puffed up. They’ll be soft while warm but as soon as they cool down, they crisp up. They don’t expand as much as when deep fried, but neither will your thighs. 😂

• Samosas! The ultimate Indian appetiser. Leftovers make great snacks or even lunch!

• Proper naan – A recipe in the works for 5 years, I’m thrilled to finally share my proper naan recipe that can be easily made at home (no tandoor needed!)

• Shortcut “naan” – For a simpler, no-yeast flatbread that’s just as good, my Easy No Yeast Flatbread looks and tastes very similar to real naan (except it’s much faster and easier!). Try telling me this doesn’t look like it belongs in this feast!

And it’s MADE for dunking in that creamy Butter Chicken Sauce!!

Readers have also asked for Vegetable Side options – to add some greens to a meal. Indian food doesn’t really have fresh side salads like in Western cuisine. Partly because so much Indian food is vegetarian, so you get plenty of veggies in your diet!

But here are some Vegetable Side Options you can add on the side of Butter Chicken:

• Indian Tomato Salad – with a refreshing minted yogurt dressing;

• Cucumber salad with lemon yogurt dressing – another great refreshing salad that goes perfectly with curries;

• Just some sliced cucumber and wedges of tomato – not dressed. Nice cool, refreshing side

• South Indian Thoran-style Cabbage and Carrot Salad with Coconut is fresh, crunchy and shot through with gentle spices and coconut!

• For a simpler cabbage salad, try my Everyday Cabbage Salad

I hope this has inspired you to try your hand at making an Indian feast at home! You will honestly be amazed how much depth of flavour there is in the Butter Chicken despite how few ingredients are in it. – Nagi x

Watch How To Make It

This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!

Originally published July 2015. Updated for housekeeping matters and a new video added January 2019. But most importantly, Life of Dozer section added!

Life of Dozer

Flashback: Dozer’s first time in water. Look at those wild eyes!!! 😂 Fear? Excitement??

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Top 6 what to serve with butter chicken besides rice edited by Family Cuisine