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If you like a LOT of sauce in your butter chicken, then this is the recipe for you – healthy, thick and delicious Clean Eating Butter Chicken.

A kid pleasing, happy faces, more-please-Mom family dinner. This recipe makes a MASSIVE, family sized pot of butter chicken that is surprisingly low in calories and packed with flavor.

Serve it with a side of steamed brown rice and these two ingredient, soft naan bread sub.

I’m sitting at my desk in the middle of a heat wave. There is no air con this side of the house. Just me and the cat. He seems surprisingly chill considering every inch of him is covered in a fut coat.

All I’m thinking right now is – thank goodness I made this Butter Chicken this morning. Because there is no way I’d be in a hot kitchen right now.

The family doesn’t know how lucky they are that they are getting dinner tonight. It was so nearly egg on toast.

How to make Homemade Butter Chicken

There are two parts to this recipe.

Marinating and grilling your chicken breasts
Make up your Butter Chicken Sauce

Marinated Chicken pieces.

Chicken Marinade Ingredients

Grab a large mixing bowl and mix these ingredients together:

1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon garam masala
1 tablespoon tumeric
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon chilli powder (this is where you decide how hot you want your chicken. Anything above 1 teaspoon will take it into the ‘medium’ kind of spicy)

Marinated Chicken Instructions

Mix all the marinade ingredients together to form a smooth paste.

Add your raw chicken breasts to the bowl.

Stir to coat the chicken entirely with marinade.

Cover and pop the chicken in the fridge for no less than 1 hour (3 hours is best). The longer you leave it, the more flavorful the chicken at the end.

{3 HOURS LATER…..}

Preheat your oven to 200’c / 400F.

Line an oven tray with baking paper and lay out your marinated chicken breasts.

Pop your chicken in a hot oven for 12 -15 minutes. Remove from the oven and cut into bite size pieces.

Your chicken will be still slightly undercooked and edges should have blackened a little. You can choose to grill your chicken instead as this will result in more blackened edges. Just be sure to keep an eye on it so that it doesn’t burn.

How to Make Your Butter Chicken Sauce

The best time to make your sauce is while your chicken is grilling/baking in the oven as it takes roughly the same time to cook.

Ingredients for the Butter Chicken Sauce

2 tablepsoons olive oil
2 medium onions, finely sliced
2 teaspoons garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons ginger, minced
1 tablespoon garam masala
2 cups chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned, 250ml)
1/2 cup fresh cream (125ml)
1/4 cup fresh coriander, chopped

Instructions

Heat a large pot on the stove top. Add olive oil and onions and fry for 5 -6 minutes to soften. Stir frequently to prevent onions burning before they soften.

Add ginger and garlic…

and a tablespoon of garam masala spice.

Stir in 2 cups of chopped tomatoes.

Cover and simmer on medium heat for about 15 minutes.

Stir in your fresh cream

To blend or not to blend …. this is totally up to you. I generally don’t blend my sauce as I like a more textured butter chicken sauce where I can see the onion pieces. But when my kids were little, the smooth sauce won every time.

To make your sauce smooth, you can either use a stick blender or transfer to a blender fro a few seconds.

Once blended, it will look like this:

Add your chicken pieces to the sauce and stir through. Return to the heat and simmer for 5 -10 minutes uncovered. The sauce will thicken slightly. Remove from the heat and stir through your fresh coriander.

Serve with a side or brown rice and homemade naan bread (I use this two ingredient recipe for this) to scoop up the sauce. YUM!!