Butter Chicken Masala
The Quirky Foodster Team
Prepared as a wet sauce, similar to tikka masala
Servings
Ingredients
- Similar to tikka masala's spice base
- with a generally milder chile presence and a heavier emphasis on butter
- cream
- and a touch of sugar to balance the tomato's acidity
Method
- Bloom ground spices in butter (rather than neutral oil) at the start of sauce preparation.
- Bloom ground spices briefly in hot oil at the start of sauce preparation.
Origin: Delhi, North India — closely related to tikka masala and often confused with or considered a direct variant of it.
Use: The base flavoring for the dish’s signature creamy tomato-butter sauce.
Classic Dishes: Butter chicken (murgh makhani), one of the most internationally recognized North Indian dishes.
Storage: As a prepared sauce, keeps 3-4 days refrigerated.
Variations: The distinction between butter chicken masala and tikka masala is genuinely blurry in casual use — many recipes and restaurants treat the two as effectively the same dish family with different names.
Substitutions: Tandoori masala plus tomato purée and cream. Tikka masala as a near-direct substitute.
- Similar to tikka masala's spice base
- with a generally milder chile presence and a heavier emphasis on butter
- cream
- and a touch of sugar to balance the tomato's acidity
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