Easy Butter Chicken

A little spicy, rich, and creamy. This recipe is based off of Megha’s butter chicken recipe over at Keto Connect and has been slightly modified. My version calls for already cooked chicken (and some spice adjustments), making this a super easy and fast weeknight meal. I used my handy Instant Pot to cook some chicken thighs for about 10 minutes. Pressure cooking ensures that the meat is super tender, but you can cook your chicken any way you’d like ahead of time or choose to stew the chicken in the sauce. To balance the heat and richness, we’re eating the butter chicken with Smitten Kitchen’s cucumber yogurt raita salad, cauliflower rice, and some homemade keto garlic naan (also from Keto Connect). For the cucumber salad, I just cut an English cucumber lengthwise on a mandolin to make long thin ribbons, something you don’t have to do, but I think cutting it this way makes the yogurt cling on and coat better to the cucumber (and prettier to eat).

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Easy Butter Chicken

Ingredients

• 1.5 pounds of cooked boneless chicken thighs (cut into cubes)
• 1 cup of heavy whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 5 tablespoons of tomato paste
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1/4 medium onion (chopped)
• 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1/4 teaspoon of chili powder
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of garam masala

Preparation

1. Melt butter in a deep pan and cook garlic and onion until soft and fragrant.
2. Add chicken, spices, tomato paste, and cream and mix.
3. Let chicken stew in the sauce with a lid until the sauce reduces to a creamy and thick consistency, about 15-20 minutes.