Craving rich, creamy, and flavorful Indian food at home? This Instant Pot Butter Chicken is the answer! It’s a simple and quick recipe that delivers tender chicken in a perfectly spiced, buttery tomato sauce. Best of all, using the Instant Pot makes it super convenient for busy weeknights. You’ll love how easy it is to whip up this restaurant-quality dish without leaving your kitchen!
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Why This Recipe Works
- Rich and Creamy: This best butter chicken recipe offers a perfect blend of spices, butter, and cream.
- Time-Saver: The Instant Pot reduces cooking time without compromising the depth of flavors.
- Restaurant Quality: Enjoy authentic, restaurant-style butter chicken right in your own kitchen.
📋 Ingredients
- Tomato Sauce: Provides a rich and flavorful base for the butter chicken, adding a tangy and savory element to the dish.
- Garlic: Infuses the butter chicken with a deliciously aromatic flavor, enhancing the overall taste profile and adding depth to the sauce.
- Curry Powder: Adds a warm and fragrant blend of spices, bringing an authentic Indian taste to the butter chicken.
- Garam Masala: Aromatic spice blend that contributes complex flavors and enhances the overall depth and richness of the dish.
- Paprika: Adds a subtle smoky and slightly sweet flavor to the butter chicken, balancing out the spices and adding a beautiful color.
- Onion Powder: Enhances the savory notes of the dish, adding a hint of sweetness and depth to the butter chicken.
- Sugar: Balances out the acidity from the tomato sauce, adding a touch of sweetness to round out the flavors.
- Salt: Elevates the taste of each ingredient, bringing out their natural flavors and ensuring a well-seasoned and delicious butter chicken.
- Unsalted Butter: Provides a creamy and rich texture to the sauce, adding a luxurious and indulgent element to the butter chicken.
- Skinless Chicken Thighs: Offers tender and juicy meat that absorbs the flavors of the sauce, resulting in a succulent and flavorful butter chicken.
- Heavy Cream: Adds a luscious and velvety texture to the sauce, creating a creamy and smooth consistency that perfectly complements the spices and flavors of the dish.
For the complete list of ingredients with measurements and instructions, please see the recipe card at the bottom of the post.
🔀 Substitutions & Variations
- Chicken Breast: We use boneless chicken thighs in this recipe but you can easily substitute this with boneless skinless chicken breast. Chicken breasts are a great cut to use in butter chicken.
- Coconut Milk Instead of Coconut Cream: If you’d like to make a little healthier version of butter chicken, try substituting the coconut cream with full fat coconut milk. Full fat milk will stop the dish from getting too thin.
- Diced Tomatoes Vs Puree: You can use either diced tomatoes or tomato puree in your Instant Pot butter chicken recipe. Diced tomatoes will give the dish a chunkier texture, while pureed tomatoes will make it smoother and creamier.
🔪How to Make Instant Pot Butter Chicken
- Step 1: Add the tomato sauce, minced garlic, curry powder, Garam Masala, paprika, onion powder, sugar and salt to the Instant Pot and stir together.
- Step 2: Add the diced chicken thighs and butter on top. Cover your Instant Pot and seal. Pressure cook on high pressure for 6 minutes, then naturally for 5 minutes, then quickly pressure release the remaining pressure.
- Step 3: Set the Instant Pot to the Sauté mode, mix in the heavy cream, and simmer till the butter sauce thickens to your taste.
- Step 4: Switch off the heat and prepare to serve. Serve this Instant Pot butter chicken recipe with rice and garnish with chopped fresh cilantro.
👩🍳 Expert Tips
- If using Frozen chicken add an extra 4 minutes of pressure cooking time to the Instant Pot.
- If cooking Instant Pot Rice with this dish, cook the rice before hand and transfer into a container before making your butter chicken. We like to eat our butter chicken with Brown Rice for a crunchier texture.
💭 FAQs
This butter chicken recipe has a creamy, savory flavor thanks to the combination of spices and tomatoes in the sauce. The dish has a slight sweetness that comes from the brown sugar.
If your pressure cooked chicken is rubbery, it could be because you overcooked the chicken. It can also happen if the chicken isn’t cooked evenly or if you used too much water in the cooking process.
To prevent pressure cooking chicken for too long, follow the recipe instructions closely. If you find that the chicken is still rubbery, try adding a few tablespoons of cream or butter to the pot and cooking for an additional minute. This should help make it more tender.
If you have leftover sauce, it’s best to store it in an airtight container and keep in the fridge for up to three days. The sauce will thicken as it cools, so be sure to add a bit of water or broth when reheating if necessary. You can also freeze butter chicken for up to three months. When ready to eat, just thaw and reheat in the microwave or on the stovetop. Let the Instant Pot butter chicken cool completely before transferring to an airtight container.
Yes, boneless, skinless chicken breasts can be used as a substitute for thighs. However, chicken breasts may cook faster and can be less tender than thighs. If using breasts, consider reducing the cooking time by a couple of minutes to prevent overcooking.
To modify the heat level, you can adjust the amount of chili powder or omit it entirely for a milder flavor. Additionally, using Kashmiri chili powder adds color and mild heat; substituting it with regular chili powder will increase the spiciness.
No, marinating is not required for this Instant Pot recipe. The pressure cooking process allows the chicken to absorb all the flavors without the need for prior marination.
Yes, to make the dish dairy-free, you can substitute the butter with ghee (clarified butter) and use coconut cream instead of heavy cream. This will maintain the richness of the sauce without any dairy.
Serving Suggestions
These are my favorite sides to serve with Butter Chicken:
- Butter chicken pairs perfectly with Indian-style rice dishes such as cumin rice and Jeera Rice.
- You can also serve it over naan, roti, or chapati.
- For a lighter option, try pairing your Instant Pot Butter Chicken with a Broccoli Salad.
- If serving a number of dishes, you might want to pair this butter chicken with Instant Pot Chow Mein or Instant Pot Ramen Noodles.
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Instant Pot Butter Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 16 Ounces Tomato Sauce
- 3 Garlic Cloves Minced
- A tablespoon Curry Powder
- 1 teaspoon Garam Masala
- 1 teaspoon Paprika
- ½ teaspoon Onion Powder
- ½ teaspoon Sugar
- Salt To Taste
- 2 tablespoon Unsalted Butter cubed
- 2 lb Diced Skinless Chicken Thighs
- ⅔ Cup Heavy Cream
Instructions
- Add the tomato sauce, minced garlic, curry powder, Garam Masala, paprika, onion powder, sugar and salt to the Instant Pot and stir together.
- Add the diced chicken thighs and butter on top.
- Cover your Instant Pot and seal. Select the pressure cook button and set pressure cook on high pressure for 6 minutes.
- When done, let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes then quickly pressure release the remaining pressure.
- Set the Instant Pot to the Sauté mode mix in the heavy cream and simmer till the
- Switch off the heat and prepare to serve.
- Serve this Instant Pot butter chicken recipe with rice and garnish with chopped fresh cilantro and a dollop of butter. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
More Instant Pot Recipes You Might Love:
If you love this Instant Pot recipe then try making more Chinese, Mexican and Indian food in your pressure cooker.
Absolutely love this recipe, it’s so easy to cook and it’s a dish the whole family loves. It’s a great one to have stored away for those days where you’re just not feeling up to cooking too!
I'm glad you love it Jade. We do too!