Instant Pot Butter Chicken
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Yes, you can EASILY make restaurant-quality butter chicken right in your pressure cooker! The flavors are amazing and the chicken is perfectly melt-in-your-mouth tender! Serve with rice and naan for the best home-cooked meal ever.
It’s been so good to be home.
With endless cuddles with Butters. And his hot, rancid fish breath right in front of my face.
It’s been absolutely great. That and having this butter chicken in bed.
The best part about it though?
The Instant Pot, of course!
The chicken comes out perfectly every single time, with all the flavors melding just right.
No, wait. I lied.
The best part is all the toasted naan that you get to dip in the leftover sauce.
Instant Pot Butter Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 cup basmati rice
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- ½ sweet onion, diced
- 1 small red bell pepper, diced
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 1 ½ teaspoons garam masala
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ¼ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper, optional
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 (14.5-ounce) can petite diced tomatoes
- 1 (8-ounce) can tomato sauce
- ½ cup chicken stock
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch chunks
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Instructions
- In a large saucepan of 2 cups water, cook rice according to package instructions; set aside.
- Set a 6-qt Instant Pot® to the high saute setting. Add butter, onion and bell pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until tender, about 3-5 minutes. Stir in garlic, ginger, garam masala, turmeric, paprika, cumin and cayenne pepper, if using, until fragrant, about 1 minute; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Stir in diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, chicken stock and chicken.
- Select manual setting; adjust pressure to high, and set time for 10 minutes. When finished cooking, quick-release pressure according to manufacturer’s directions.
- In a small bowl, whisk together heavy cream and flour; set aside.
- Select high sauté setting. Stir in heavy cream mixture and cook, stirring frequently, until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Stir in cilantro; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve immediately with rice.
Did you make this recipe?
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This is now a monthly staple in my home. The 16 year old and 10 year old both give it two thumbs up. I love the quantity it makes, all in one pot and one cutting board. We eat it for 2 days; leftovers are great!
Another great recipe. I followed the recipe and it was wonderful. A keeper and in the dinner rotation.
LOVE LOVE LOVE !!!!
My kiddos love it! ❤️
Thank you for sharing this amazing recipe.
God bless
This turned out amazing. It’s definitely going in our dinner rotation. Substitutions I did- ginger powder instead of fresh & bottled lime juice instead of fresh. We also added some kashmiri chili powder for some spice. It was delicious!!!
Excellent! I added about some yellow raisins (maybe 2T?) just before I put the lid on. Perfect pop of sweetness among the savory! Also – I got a burn notice when it got up to pressure. I released, stirred well, and put back on for 10 minutes and it came out beautifully.
Excellent flavors and super tender chicken. Think next time I make, I will sub crushed tomatoes for the diced for a creamier sauce. Enjoying leftovers for lunch today and it’s even better the next day. Thank you for another awesome recipe
Easy and taste good. I used boneless/ skinless thighs. I used 3lb. of meat instead of 2lb. as per some of the other suggestions but it could easily fit 4lb. of meat for the amount of sauce it makes. I also added a couple spoonfuls of date syrup for a touch of sweetness. Turned out great. I felt the 10 minute cook time was appropriate.
This is my favorite instant pot meal, the only mod I make is bumping the chicken up to 3 pounds, make sure you pre-measure your spices before you start sautéing or else it will burn.
Yum! And easy! My instapot doesn’t have a saute feature so I did that part separately and it was still easy.
This was awesome. However, I think I should have added more salt (I only added a dash because I didn’t want to oversalt with the other spices). How much salt and pepper did others use?
This comes out delicious. I made a few changes. I added some kasuri methi and I cooked for 13 minutes instead of 10 min. Chicken was not tender enough for our taste with 10 min.
Super easy to make and tasted amazing! I used coconut milk instead of heavy cream!
We love this recipe and make it at least once a month! We want to double it to share with friends, how does that change the cooking time?
I was looking for a double recipe response also….
I’ve doubled and even tripled this recipe with much success! It doesn’t much change the pressure cooking time, but it does require a longer sauté time with more meat.
I made this last night and it was great. I added about 3 tsp of chicken Better than Bouillon at the end instead of salt to taste. I also added more garlic, ginger and onion and used a large red bell pepper. I served it with Tzatziki yogurt sauce and garlic naan from Trader Joes because it was easy and I don’t know how to make an Indian yogurt sauce. I thought this was really good and think you could easily add another pound of chicken. I have tried this before with coconut milk and definitely like the heavy cream better. Great recipe for the Instant Pot.
This is an excellent recipe, so easy, and a crowd pleaser everytime and even fussy kids love it. I substitute coconut cream for the heavy cream and it turns out great. Chicken thighs work great too if you dont have chicken breasts.
Quick Question: Do you drain the canned diced tomatoes?
Excellent! Used chicken thighs instead of breasts, and non-dairy creamer instead of heavy cream. This one is a keeper!
Made this for the first time on Sunday and then on Wednesday I made it AGAIN because my boyfriend & I weren’t ready to be done eating it! I wouldn’t say its flavor is super similar to restaurant butter chicken, but it IS damn delicious. And simple to make! I chopped the onion & pepper very fine & even pulsed the diced tomatoes in the blender for a second because I like a smoother consistency. Also, I always use chicken thighs because they have way more flavor than breasts. The spice blend & ginger+garlic smell AMAZING when sautéing & this has just shot to the top of my favorite recipes list!
We love this recipe and make about one a week – thank you!
Made this tonight and everyone loved it. I used coconut milk instead of the cream and cornstarch. Also added some diced, dried apricots.
Thank you for the great recipe!
Can you use frozen chicken?