Butter Chicken by Ranveer Brar. The Indian Classic I Love
My journey into Indian cooking started in a rather unusual way. One day, my boyfriend at the time announced that he wasn't going to eat Czech slop. I'd rather not comment on his opinion of Czech food, or on some other things I only found out about him later. What matters is that I suddenly had to figure out how to actually cook something I had until then known mostly from restaurants rather than from my own kitchen.
As a European, I grew up on completely different flavours and cooking methods. Czech classics were no great mystery to me, but Indian cuisine was a whole different world. Spices I couldn't even pronounce properly, ingredient combinations that would never have occurred to me, and methods where I had no idea whether I was doing things right. I had already tried a few Indian dishes and all sorts of spices were slowly piling up at home, but I definitely wouldn't have called myself an experienced cook back then. Having the right ingredients at home doesn't automatically mean knowing what to do with them.
So I started searching on YouTube. I was looking for someone who wouldn't just show me what to do, but would also explain why. Someone I wouldn't have to pause every five minutes, desperately wondering what had just happened in the pan. And that's when I came across Ranveer Brar.
I don't know if you can imagine the joy of getting something you consider fairly complicated right on the very first try. That's what happened to me with his Butter Chicken. Ranveer explained the whole process so naturally and clearly that even I managed it, although I was still struggling a bit with Indian cooking. And the result? Absolutely amazing. Since then, his Butter Chicken has been one of the dishes I keep coming back to.
Over time, I started discovering other recipes from his channel too, and I still love going back to them. I don't cook Indian food every week, but every now and then I pick one, get out all the spices I need and get to work. It makes me even happier when the whole family enjoys the result. And even though I find my way around the kitchen much better these days, I still love watching someone who can explain even a seemingly complicated process in a way that makes you brave enough to try it.
And maybe that's exactly why Ranveer Brar isn't just another YouTube chef to me. At a certain point in my life, he became someone who helped me gain confidence in something I didn't believe in myself at all. In a way, he was a little bit of a lifesaver, even though he obviously has no idea I exist. Today I consider him one of my cooking icons, and this article is also my way of thanking him. For the patience with which he explains his recipes, for the joy of discovering new flavours and above all for helping one not-so-experienced Czech woman make her first truly successful Butter Chicken.
And because I think things like that are worth sharing, I'd like to introduce you to his recipe. I'll also add a few notes from my own kitchen that have proved useful over the years.
Before you start, a few words about Indian ingredients
If you've never cooked Indian food before, the list of ingredients might scare you a little. Deggi mirch, kasuri methi, ghee, cardamom... At times you feel like you'll need a dictionary instead of a cookbook. And believe me, I know the feeling. I had to look up a lot of things myself just to understand what to buy, what it looks like and what it's used for.
These days, most of these ingredients can be found in specialist Indian shops or online. You'll even find some of them in an ordinary supermarket. Still, I'd like to stop at a few of them, because their names alone won't tell you much and some of them have a much bigger impact on the final flavour than you'd expect.
Kasuri methi. A herb you may not know at all
The name kasuri methi, sometimes spelled kasoori methi, refers to dried fenugreek leaves. And if even the English name doesn't ring a bell, that's no surprise. Fenugreek is a plant from the legume family, and both its seeds and its leaves are used in cooking. But be careful, they are not two interchangeable versions of the same spice.
The seeds are noticeably more bitter and have a somewhat different character, while the dried leaves are aromatic, slightly bitter and have a distinctive herbal scent with a sweetish undertone that some people say reminds them of maple syrup. It's kasuri methi that helps create the characteristic flavour of many North Indian sauces.
In Butter Chicken we only add it at the very end, when you simply rub the dried leaves lightly between your fingers and stir them into the finished dish. If I had to recommend one lesser-known ingredient that's really worth buying, it would be this one. You can of course cook the dish without it, but it will be missing one of its typical layers of flavour.
Deggi mirch. Red colour isn't everything
Deggi mirch is an Indian red chilli powder, often made as a blend of different chillies. It's used not only for heat, but also for the beautiful red colour it gives marinades and sauces. You may also come across Kashmiri chilli, which is known for its vivid colour and usually milder heat. It's not exactly the same ingredient, but it can work as a reasonable alternative.
And what about our ordinary paprika? Yes, I've tried it. You can certainly cook with it, but definitely don't expect the same flavour. Sweet paprika lacks some of the typical chilli character and the dish will turn out different. If you don't have deggi mirch, you can try sweet paprika with a little mild chilli. Just keep an eye on the heat, because there can be really big differences between varieties.
Ghee. Butter that behaves a little differently
Ghee, or clarified butter, probably isn't as exotic these days as it once was. It's made by slowly heating butter, which removes the water and most of the milk solids. What's left is fat with a pleasant buttery flavour that handles higher temperatures better.
In Indian cooking it's used for frying spices, vegetables and meat. And that's important, because spices bloom in hot fat and release some of their aromatic compounds. If you don't have ghee, you can use a neutral oil and add a little butter later. But ghee fits beautifully into Butter Chicken, and today you can find it in almost every larger supermarket.
Cardamom. A small green pod with a big aroma
The recipe uses green cardamom, small green pods containing dark aromatic seeds. It smells sweet, spicy, slightly citrusy, and some people even detect a hint of eucalyptus. You may know it from tea or sweet pastries, but in Indian cooking it's also commonly used in savoury dishes.
It's important not to confuse green cardamom with black cardamom. The black one has a stronger, earthier and often smoky aroma. And one more practical detail. When a recipe says three cardamoms, it means three whole pods, not three individual seeds. If you don't want tougher bits left in the sauce, you can remove the pods before blending.
Ginger-garlic paste. A simple thing if you have the right helper
Ginger-garlic paste is one of the most commonly used ingredients in Indian cooking. And yet there's nothing complicated about it. All you really need is fresh ginger and garlic, usually in roughly equal amounts, blended into a smooth paste.
And now my little tip. Get yourself a small electric chopper or a blender designed for making pastes. Ideally one that can handle even small amounts of ingredients. With a regular countertop blender or a stick blender you can really struggle. If there are only a few cloves of garlic and a piece of ginger in the jar, the blades often just fling them against the sides and you won't get a proper paste.
Of course, you can chop everything finely and then crush it in a mortar and pestle. I have one at home too and use it for spices, among other things. But let's be honest, not everyone has the patience or experience to first cut garlic and ginger into really tiny pieces and then grind them down thoroughly.
A small blender will make this job much easier. Cut the ginger into smaller pieces beforehand, peel the garlic and blend both to as smooth a consistency as possible. If the mixture is too dry and the blades spin freely, you can add a little water, but really only as much as you need. The paste will then spread much more evenly through the marinade and the sauce, and you won't have to worry about biting into a big piece of ginger in the finished dish.
Mustard oil. And no, it's not oil with mustard in it
Mustard oil is pressed from mustard seeds and has a strong, pungent flavour. In some Indian cuisines it's one of the traditional cooking fats, and in marinades it gives the meat another dimension of flavour.
It's not ordinary oil with a spoonful of mustard stirred into it. If you can't find it, you can use neutral rapeseed oil, but the flavour will be a bit less pronounced. When buying it, also make sure it really is food-grade oil intended for cooking, because some products sold as mustard oil are labelled for external use only.
Gram flour, or besan
You may be surprised that flour goes into a chicken marinade. Indian cooking commonly uses besan, a flour made from hulled Indian chickpeas, chana dal. In this recipe, a small amount of flour is first dry-roasted to give it a gentle nutty aroma.
In the marinade, it then helps bind excess moisture and creates a mixture that clings to the meat better. If you don't have gram flour, you can leave it out on your first try, but the marinade may be a little runnier. When roasting it, watch the temperature. It's a very small amount of flour, and if you leave it in a pan that's too hot without stirring, it will burn quickly.
Tandoor and tandoori. Why it matters
A tandoor is a traditional oven, often made of clay, used for example to cook meat and naan bread. It works at very high temperatures and gives food a characteristic char and aroma. The word tandoori describes the way of cooking associated with this oven, as in the well-known tandoori chicken.
I don't have a tandoor, so I cook the chicken in a regular oven. I won't pretend the result will be exactly the same as from a traditional Indian oven. But that certainly doesn't mean I should give up on Butter Chicken because of it. And if you manage to get a nice sear on the surface of the meat, you'll get at least some of the flavours that would otherwise come from traditional cooking.
And what about those cashews?
You might have expected a butter sauce to consist mainly of butter and cream. But in Ranveer's recipe you'll also find cashew nuts, which have a slightly different job.
Once cooked and blended, they help thicken the sauce naturally and give it a smooth, creamy consistency. They're not there to make the dish taste like a nutty dessert. Together with the tomatoes, onions, yoghurt and butter, they create the smooth base that is typical of this kind of sauce. That's why I definitely wouldn't leave them out the first time you cook it.
Butter Chicken by Ranveer Brar
This recipe is based on the original version by Indian chef Ranveer Brar. I keep the ingredients and their proportions, but I cook the chicken in my own regular oven and add explanations throughout that I would have appreciated during my own first attempts.
Servings | Marinating | Cooking |
|---|---|---|
4 to 5 | about 20 minutes | 1 to 1.5 hours |
What you'll need
Amount | First marinade |
|---|---|
2 | whole chickens, halved |
2 tsp | lemon juice |
2 tsp | ginger-garlic paste |
to taste | salt |
Amount | Second marinade |
|---|---|
3 tbsp | food-grade mustard oil in total |
300 ml | thick strained plain yoghurt |
2 tbsp | deggi mirch |
½ tbsp | dry-roasted gram flour |
1 tsp | crushed black pepper |
1 heaped tbsp | ginger-garlic paste |
to taste | salt |
Amount | Sauce base |
|---|---|
2 heaped tbsp | ghee |
2 | bay leaves |
about 1.3 cm | cinnamon stick |
3 large | onions |
6 large | tomatoes |
1 tbsp | oil |
½ tsp | turmeric |
2 tbsp | deggi mirch |
1 tbsp | ground coriander |
240 ml | water |
240 ml | whisked plain yoghurt |
3 | green cardamom pods |
another 480 ml | water |
10 to 12 | cashew nuts |
to taste | salt |
Amount | Finishing |
|---|---|
2 tbsp | ghee, if you sear the meat in a grill pan as in the original |
up to 240 ml | water to adjust the thickness of the sauce |
2 tbsp | honey |
3 to 4 tbsp | butter |
60 ml | whipping cream |
another 2 to 3 tbsp | butter |
1 tbsp | dried kasuri methi leaves |
to taste | salt |
to garnish | a little cream, fresh coriander and kasuri methi |
Quick method
Before you start, have all the ingredients chopped and measured. That way you won't have to look for anything while cooking and you can add the spices exactly when they're needed.
Salt the chicken, rub it with lemon juice and ginger-garlic paste and leave it to marinate in the fridge for 15 to 20 minutes.
Dry-roast the gram flour and mix it with the yoghurt, mustard oil, deggi mirch, pepper, ginger-garlic paste and salt. Coat the chicken thoroughly in this marinade.
Heat the ghee in a pot, briefly bloom the bay leaves and cinnamon in it, then add the onion. Fry until golden.
Add the tomatoes, oil, turmeric, deggi mirch, coriander and salt and fry for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring constantly.
Lower the heat and pour in 240 ml of water. Gradually stir in the whisked yoghurt, then add the cardamom, another 480 ml of water and the cashews. Let it simmer gently for 10 to 12 minutes.
Let the base cool slightly, blend it until smooth and, if you like, pass it through a sieve.
Bake the chicken in an oven preheated to 220 °C, or 200 °C fan, until it has a nice colour. As in the original, you can also sear it in ghee in a grill pan for 5 to 6 minutes on each side.
Heat the sauce with the honey, the first portion of butter, salt and a little water if needed. Add the chicken, the cream and the rest of the butter and cook over a low heat until the meat reaches 74 °C inside. Finally, stir in the crushed kasuri methi and serve with basmati rice or naan.
You'll find the detailed method with all the tips right below the recipe.
How to make Butter Chicken step by step
Before you start cooking, I recommend preparing everything in advance. Chop the onions and tomatoes, measure out the spices, water and yoghurt, and lay everything out on the counter in the order you'll need it. When the onion is frying in the pot and you need to add several spices at once, you'll be glad you don't have to look for or measure anything. Chefs call this mise en place, and with Indian cooking it really pays off.
First marinade
Put the chicken in a large bowl. Add salt, lemon juice and ginger-garlic paste. Rub everything thoroughly into the meat, including into any cuts you made in the thicker parts, and leave it to marinate in the fridge for about 15 to 20 minutes.
You may be surprised that the first marinade has only a few ingredients. But this is where we give the meat its basic flavour and prepare it for the next layer of spices. There's no need to add anything else or try to speed up the process with a higher temperature. Just let the meat rest.
Second marinade
First, prepare the gram flour. Heat a small pan over a low heat and add half a tablespoon of flour. Roast it briefly, stirring constantly, until it starts to smell pleasantly nutty. It shouldn't brown much. If it starts darkening too quickly or you smell burning, take it off the heat immediately. With such a small amount, a moment of inattention is really all it takes.
In another bowl, mix the thick yoghurt, mustard oil, deggi mirch, roasted gram flour, crushed pepper, ginger-garlic paste and salt. In the original recipe the mustard oil is added gradually, two tablespoons and then one more, so you don't have to pour it all in at once.
The mixture should be thick and cling well to the meat. If it runs straight off the chicken, the problem is usually yoghurt that's too thin. That's why I recommend really thick yoghurt, or straining ordinary plain yoghurt through a fine sieve beforehand.
Add the chicken to the finished marinade and coat it thoroughly all over. If you have time, you can leave it to rest in the fridge for a few hours. It's not a required part of Ranveer's method, but it's a practical option when cooking at home.
The sauce base. Watch the temperature here
Heat the ghee in a larger pot over a medium heat. As soon as it's melted and hot, add the bay leaves and the piece of cinnamon stick. Let them bloom briefly. You don't need to wait for the spices to darken much, and we definitely don't want them to start turning black.
Then add the roughly chopped onion and stir regularly. The goal is a golden colour, not burnt edges. The onion needs a bit of time, so there's no reason to turn the hob up to maximum. If it starts sticking to the bottom before it softens, lower the heat a little.
Once the onion has turned a nice golden colour, add the roughly chopped tomatoes, a tablespoon of oil, turmeric, deggi mirch, ground coriander and salt. Mix everything well and fry for about five to six minutes over a medium to low heat.
I'd like to point out one important thing here. Ground spices can burn much faster than whole ones. That's why we add them together with the juicy tomatoes rather than to a hot, empty pot. The tomatoes gradually release juice that helps prevent burning, but you still need to keep stirring.
If the mixture starts sticking too much or drying out, add a small amount of water and lower the heat. Don't try to rescue a burnt taste by adding more spices. Once the base is truly burnt, there's practically no way to get rid of the bitterness.
Yoghurt, cardamom and cashews
Once the tomatoes are soft and the base smells wonderful, pour in about 240 ml of water and lower the heat. Now it's time for the whisked yoghurt.
And here I recommend a little caution. Yoghurt isn't cream, and it can curdle if heated too quickly. That's why it's better to whisk it thoroughly first and then add it gradually while stirring constantly. If your base is really very hot, feel free to take it off the heat for a moment before stirring in the yoghurt.
Then add the green cardamom, another 480 ml of water and the cashews. Let everything simmer gently for about 10 to 12 minutes, until the onions and tomatoes are soft enough to blend easily.
You don't need a rolling boil. It's enough for small bubbles to appear on the surface and for the mixture to cook slowly. If the water is evaporating too quickly, lower the heat.
How to make a truly silky sauce
Let the finished base cool slightly and transfer it to a more powerful blender that can turn the cooked vegetables, cashews and spices into a smooth consistency.
This is no longer a small batch of ginger-garlic paste, so you can use a regular countertop blender or a sufficiently powerful stick blender. Just be careful with the hot liquid. With a countertop blender, follow the manufacturer's instructions and don't leave the hot mixture sealed in a container where pressure could build up.
Blend really thoroughly. If you want the sauce even smoother, you can then pass it through a fine sieve. That will remove any remaining bits of skin, fibres or tougher pieces of spice.
This smooth consistency is one of the reasons Butter Chicken is so enjoyable. It's not a sauce with big chunks of onion or tomato floating in it. We want a smooth, creamy base to which we'll add the meat later.
Chicken from a regular oven
In the original recipe, Ranveer sears the marinated chicken in a grill pan with ghee for about five to six minutes on each side, until it's partly cooked. He then finishes it directly in the sauce.
At home, though, I use an ordinary oven, and this method works for me. Preheat the oven to 220 °C with top and bottom heat, or to about 200 °C on the fan setting. Spread the marinated chicken on a baking tray or on a rack set over a roasting tin so that the pieces have enough space around them.
And one more thing from my own kitchen. Ranveer uses whole chickens cut in half, but I often simply buy chicken breast fillets and cut them into cubes. It's quicker, the marinade coats the smaller pieces better and the meat bakes much faster than chicken halves, so keep an eye on it so it doesn't dry out. The amount of marinade and sauce stays the same.
Keep an eye on the meat while it bakes. The marinade contains yoghurt and spices, so the surface will gradually take on colour. We want a nice roasted finish, not a black, burnt layer. If the surface darkens too quickly, lower the temperature or move the tray down a shelf.
The baking time depends on the size of the chicken. Smaller pieces will be done faster than whole chicken halves, so don't rely on the timer alone. If you're going to finish cooking the meat in the sauce, you can take it out before it's fully cooked and finish it in the pot straight away. Before serving, however, the thickest part of the chicken must reach at least 74 °C, ideally checked with a kitchen thermometer.
And this is where it's important not to pretend that a regular oven works like a tandoor. You won't get exactly the same aroma or char, but you can still make beautifully spiced, juicy chicken that will go wonderfully with the butter sauce.
In the original recipe, Ranveer uses one more interesting technique, giving the finished dish a smoky aroma with a piece of glowing charcoal. I skip this step at home. Not only do I have no desire to handle hot coals in my kitchen, but I honestly think it's an unnecessary risk for someone with no experience of this kind of technique. And because I'm also writing this recipe for people who are just starting out with Indian cooking, I don't want to encourage them to do something that could go badly wrong with a moment's inattention. Besides, I can tell you from my own experience that Butter Chicken tastes absolutely wonderful even without this step.
Finally, Butter Chicken
Return the blended sauce to a larger pot and start heating it gently. If it's too thick, add some of the roughly 240 ml of water set aside for finishing. You don't have to use all of it. It depends on how much water evaporated during cooking and what consistency you like.
Add the honey, the first portion of butter and salt to taste. Heat briefly so the butter melts and the flavours come together. The sauce shouldn't be watery, but it shouldn't be so thick that it sticks to the bottom of the pot when you stir.
Then add the prepared chicken, pour in the cream and add the rest of the butter. Now keep the heat low to medium and stir the sauce regularly. There's no need for a rolling boil, especially now that it contains yoghurt, cream and butter.
If you only part-baked the chicken in the oven, keep cooking until it's cooked through. Ranveer gives about seven to eight minutes in his method, but larger pieces of meat may need longer. If you baked the chicken fully, just heat it through well in the sauce and let the flavours come together.
Finally, rub the dried kasuri methi leaves between your fingers and stir them into the finished dish. I wouldn't add them too early. Their characteristic aroma comes through best right as you finish the sauce.
Why is my Butter Chicken more yellow than orange?
Your sauce may not turn out the deep orange colour you know from restaurants, but more yellowish. Don't worry, you haven't made a mistake and it won't affect the taste at all.
Several things affect the colour. Out-of-season tomatoes tend to be paler and less juicy, so they add less red. Yoghurt, cashews and cream lighten the sauce considerably once it's blended. And turmeric adds a yellow tone, even though the recipe uses only half a teaspoon. On top of that, restaurants often reach for more Kashmiri chilli or simply use food colouring.
If you want a deeper colour, you can add a tablespoon of tomato purée to the tomatoes, use Kashmiri chilli, which colours more strongly and is less hot, or add just a pinch of turmeric. A simple trick can also help: at the end, heat a little butter or ghee, briefly bloom a teaspoon of deggi mirch in it and stir it into the finished sauce.
What can be substituted, and where it's better to find the original?
When I was starting out with Indian cooking, I gradually found that some ingredients really are easy to substitute, while others matter much more for the final flavour. And honestly, you don't always feel like running around specialist shops, or have the chance to, just for a single ingredient.
If you don't have deggi mirch, you can try sweet paprika with a little mild chilli. I've used paprika myself and I know it works, but the flavour won't be quite the same. Mustard oil can be replaced with neutral rapeseed oil, although you'll lose its stronger aroma. Instead of ghee, you can fry in oil and add butter later, and you can easily make ginger-garlic paste at home.
I'd be more careful with kasuri methi. If you leave it out, you can of course still make the sauce, but it will be missing its characteristic herbal note. And I definitely wouldn't replace it with the same amount of fenugreek seeds, because they behave and taste differently.
If you don't have gram flour, you can leave out the small amount, just bear in mind that the marinade may be a little runnier. Thick strained yoghurt can be replaced with thick Greek yoghurt, or you can strain ordinary plain yoghurt yourself. I would recommend getting green cardamom, though, because its aroma is quite specific and black cardamom is not an equivalent substitute.
And above all, remember that a substitute isn't automatically bad. It's just fair to know that you're changing the original recipe. Sometimes the difference will be barely noticeable, other times you'll end up with a noticeably different flavour. If you start enjoying Indian cooking, I recommend gradually stocking up on some of the basic ingredients. You'll use them in plenty of other dishes too.
What to serve Butter Chicken with?
Once you've gone to the trouble of making such a wonderfully fragrant sauce, it would be a shame not to have something to scoop it up with. Basmati rice works perfectly, with its delicate flavour that lets the Butter Chicken itself shine. If you like bread, I also recommend Indian naan, ideally still warm.
And if you're cooking for someone who isn't used to spicy food, pay particular attention to the amount and type of chilli. Starting with a milder version is completely fine. You can adjust the heat gradually, but once you've added a spice that's too hot, there's no getting it back out of the pot.
A final thank you
It may sound strange to write a whole article about the recipe of someone you don't know personally. But to me, Ranveer Brar is much more than someone whose recipes I cook from time to time.
His videos showed me that a cuisine that once seemed out of reach and complicated can actually be a wonderful adventure. That I don't have to know everything in advance, that I can learn as I go, and that sometimes all it takes is someone who can explain well what they're doing.
So please take this recipe as my small thank you to the man who helped me discover a whole new world of flavours. And if Indian cooking tempts you but you haven't dared to try it yet, maybe his Butter Chicken will be the first recipe that gives you the courage.
I got it right on my very first try. And if I managed it back then, I believe you have a very good chance too.
This recipe is based on the work of Indian chef Ranveer Brar. The ingredients and basic cooking methods come from his original. The text, ingredient explanations, practical tips and the adaptation of the chicken for an ordinary home oven are my own.
Yours, Mimosa
Mimosa Confiante
By day, I work somewhere between marketing, copy and campaigns; by night, I usually end up somewhere between fanfiction, cosplay and yet another “what if” that refuses to leave me alone. I write mainly in the Harry Potter and Mo Dao Zu Shi fandoms, most often Snarry, Snamione, HarryLu and WangXian. My healthcare background means that anatomy, medicine and far too much research occasionally find their way into my stories. Cosplay is another way for me to play with the characters I love, whether I stay close to canon or turn them into my own fanfiction and AU versions. In Diary of a Slytherin Girl with ADHD, I write openly about life with a brain that usually has far too many tabs open at once.
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