A creamy and delicious Butter chicken or Murgh Makhani made in the Instant Pot. Chicken cooked in a mildly spiced tomato gravy with aromatic ginger, garlic and spices.
Make a spice pouch by adding the whole spices to a cheesecloth. Tie it such that the spices cannot come out of it.
Except chicken, cream, honey and cilantro, add all ingredients and spice pouch to the Instant Pot including the spices. Place chicken thighs on top of the ingredients. Close lid with vent in sealing position.
Set the instant pot to manual or pressure cook mode for 8 minutes. After the instant pot beeps, do a 10 minute natural pressure release. This means let the pressure release naturally for 10 minutes, then manually release the pressure.
Remove the spice pouch and chicken carefully. Blend the contents in the instant pot with an immersion blender or regular blender to a smooth paste. If using regular blender, you may need to cool the ingredients before blending. Get the contents back to the instant pot.
Add the cream and honey. Stir into the sauce.
Cut chicken to smaller pieces and add back to the sauce. Stir them into the sauce.
Butter Chicken is ready to be served. Garnish with cilantro.
Video
Notes
The sauce thickens as it cools, and taste even better the next day. If you want a more reddish color sauce, you can reduce tomatoes and add some tomato paste.
This sauce freezes well. Skip adding the chicken and keep this sauce handy to prepare this or other curries.
Variations: Butter Paneer / Matar Paneer / Mushroom Matar / Roasted Cauliflower - You can also add different veggies to this sauce and make delicious curries. All of the veggies can be added after making the sauce. Simmer for 3-4 minutes on saute mode to cook the veggies.
Love this gravy? Make it a dip with naan and serve it as an appetizer.
Vegan Variation: To make this curry vegan, replace cream with coconut cream, butter with oil and chicken with tofu or vegetables (add them after making the sauce).
Make it a meal: Cook white basmati rice pot-in-pot (PIP) when pressure cooking the curry. Check measurements here.
This recipe has been updated to make it even easier to make in the Pressure Cooker.