Butter Chicken

This creamy, spiced, and absolutely delicious butter chicken is the perfect low carb meal. Serve it over cauliflower rice or Mashed Cauliflower for a complete meal that is flavorful and filling.

Butter chicken is a creamy and rich chicken dish flavored with Indian spices, and cooked with some tomatoes, and cream. It is rich, vibrant in flavor, and seriously so delicious. It is one of our top family favorite meals, and while we have been making Indian Butter Chicken and Easy Butter Chicken for ages, I wanted to make a low carb or keto-friendly version. And I hit it out of the park!

In early 2018 I got the chance to visit India, you can read a little about it our visit to Delhi here. Anyway, we spent about 10 days exploring India, starting in Delhi, and going to Agra to see the Taj Mahal and Jaipur for the Holi festival. It was an amazing experience, and one of the things I loved was being able to try so many versions of my favorite: Butter Chicken! And Flatbread Naan!

Food in India is so full of flavor. So many spices. So much color. And Butter Chicken is one of my top faves. Probably because I like anything with cream. Mmmm. Anyway, after trying tons of different versions, and after testing and testing, I have come up with what I think is a killer recipe for a low-carb butter chicken. It isn’t lacking in flavor or ease. Just carbs!

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How do you make butter chicken?

Butter Chicken or Indian Butter Chicken is relatively easy to make. The key to making it low carb is to get sweetness from something other than carbohydrate full sugars. So, instead of adding a sweetener or a sugar substitute, I decided to add onions, and let them cook and caramelize so the natural sweetness and sugars get a chance to really shine.

The next thing is making sure you aren’t adding carbs by serving it over rice. So instead, we serve it with cauliflower rice, or as is.

Steps to making Butter Chicken:

Step one: Prep your ingredients.

In this recipe I love using chicken thighs. They are a low cost cut of meat, with tons of flavor. They are hard to ruin or over cook, and have natural fat, which makes them perfect for a veto-friendly diet.

Chicken thighs and spices, the makings of butter chicken

Once you have your chicken chopped up, and your spices ready to go you make a marinade, which is creamy and flavorful. And give your chicken a chance to hang out in it and soak in all the goodness. A good butter chicken is going to have flavor bursts with every bite, which means giving your chicken thighs some time to marinate is key.

Making a marinade. All the spices and creamy yogurt used to make butter chicken

The spices really make the dish here. You have cumin, chili powder, fenugreek, garam masala, and turmeric, which adds flavor and color.

I have a hard time finding garam masala at my regular grocery store. Not sure if it is because of where I live, or what, but I buy it on Amazon, and bought this big jar for only $8 and it has lasted me a year.

Once you have made your marinade, add the chicken and let it linger! I pop it in the fridge to keep it from getting unsafe and ya know…giving my family food poisoning. But to each their own.

Step two: Caramelize the onions.

While the chicken is soaking in all the flavors from the sour cream and spices, it is time to get the onions ready. Remember, because we want this to be low carb, we are using the onions as a sweetener, which means it takes some time. Don’t let that make you feel like it is complicated. It is not. Just chop, stick it on the heat, and let it do its thing.

It takes about 20 minutes to get the nice caramelization you want, where the onions are browned and fragrant.

Caramelize the onions. How to make butter chicken

Step Three: Add Chicken

Your chicken should have been hanging out in its spice bath for the last two hours or so, and now it is time to give it a quick sear. So you are going to pop it into the pan with the onions, and cook for a few minutes. The marinade is going in with it, so don’t stress out when you can’t get a great sear. The sour cream will do that.

But you want to get the cooking process started.

Add chicken to the pan

Step Four: Add Garlic, Ginger, and Tomatoes

We already have this totally amazing flavorful chicken going, but now it is time to start building on the sauce, and adding some more layers or flavor and dimension to the sauce. To do this you are going to add garlic and ginger! The best combo ever. And tomatoes.

Add tomatoes to a pan of butter chicken and let it simmer

Then you let it simmer and just soak in and layer up all the flavor. You guys, my mouth is watering just typing this because I can smell this dish in my memory and I know how stinking tasty it is, and I am so excited for you guys to try it!

When it is done simmering for about 20 minutes, that is when you are going to move to the next step.

Indian Butter Chicken, low carb and keto friendly, simmering with spices and tomato

Step five: Add cream to your butter chicken

The very last step besides garnishing the dish is adding in the heavy whipping cream. I love how creamy and fantastic it makes it, and I love the extra flavor and smoothness this adds. You do not want to add it while you are still simmering and cooking or the cream will separate and you will get a lumpy butter chicken. Not what you want.

Slowly add it and stir it in, and then make sure you heat through, but then remove from the heat.

Adding cream to the butter chicken recipe

Step six: Garnish and Enjoy!

Once you have everything stirred up, give it a quick taste, and if you want salt or pepper add some. Then garnish with cilantro (if you like it, I love it but I know not everyone does), and enjoy.

I like to serve it over cauliflower rice, but it could be over cabbage noodles, zucchini noodles, or just eat it on its own. Yum!

Indian butter chicken, garnished with fresh cilantro

How do you make Indian butter chicken sauce?

The thing about the Indian butter chicken recipe sauce is that it is made by layering components and flavors. It starts with the marinade with spices and sour cream or greek yogurt, and then you add aromatics like garlic and ginger, and of course some tomatoes. But it is finished with a heavy cream.

If you wanted to make the sauce ahead of time, and separate from the rest, you would need to create the marinade, but instead of marinating the chicken in it, you would combine it with the other ingredients, likely after simmering the tomatoes and garlic and ginger.

So it looks like this:

Saute garlic and ginger.
Add tomatoes
Simmer for 20 minutes.
Add in marinade (spices and sour cream, lemon juice, etc. )
Stir it all up, and add in heavy cream.
Heat and serve over already cooked chicken.

The flavors will still be great, but it won’t be as complex or layered because the chicken won’t be cooked with the flavors. I recommend making it all together as the recipe states. But I love mixing up a little extra to have for those busy nights when I don’t have time to cook.

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Low Carb (Keto) Indian Butter Chicken

This Indian Butter Chicken is a great low carb choice and delicious main dish.

4.85 from 19 votes

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Course: Chicken, Main Dish

Cuisine: Indian

Keyword: indian butter chicken, indian butter chicken recipe

Prep Time: 25

Cook Time: 35

Marinate: 2

Total Time: 3

Servings:

Calories: 694kcal

Author: Rachael

Ingredients

Chicken:

1 ½ lbs chicken thighs boneless, skinless chicken thighs, chunked into one inch pieces
½ cup sour cream
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp Garam Masala
½ tsp chili powder
¼ tsp fenugreek
1 tsp ground cumin

Sauce:

1 Tbs olive oil
1 yellow onion medium
1/2 Tbs ginger paste or 1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp garlic minced
1 cup tomatoes pureed
1 tsp salt
1 cup heavy cream

Garnish (optional):

Fresh cilantro leaves

Instructions

In a gallon sized zip top bag, add all ingredients for chicken Squeeze the bag to mix it all together and coat the chicken. Refrigerate for 2 hours minimum.
Heat 1 Tbs olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat, and add onions to the skillet, cook until softened and starting to caramelize, about 20 minutes.
Then add the chicken (with the marinade) to the same skillet, and cook 3-4 minutes.
Stir in the garlic, ginger, and pureed tomatoes.
Turn temperature to low, put lid on, let simmer 20-25 minutes until chicken is cooked through and sauce is reduced and thicker.
Stir the heavy whipping cream into the sauce.
Serve garnished with fresh cilantro, if desired.

Notes

Adapted from: https://theketoqueens.com/low-carb-keto-indian-butter-chicken/?cn-reloaded=1

Nutrition

Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.

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Butter Chicken (Low Carb, Keto)

Butter Chicken

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