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 was sooo good! Kids loved it. It was even better the next day. I used chicken thigh which I simply adore when using my Instant Pot. Thank you for adding to my Instant Pot recipe collection.
So happy you enjoyed it!
My 13 year old son made this tonight for dinner. It was excellent!! The whole family loved it and had seconds. We really enjoy your recipes which consistently turn out well. Your blog is the first one I turn to try new dishes : ).
That’s so great to hear, Jenny! Thank you for sharing.
Really quick and easy and it’s delicious! Thanks for a great recipe!
Of course!
Made this last night and it was delicious! I substituted the flour with gluten free flour (1:1) and it came out perfect. Even my young sons approved!
Awesome Mandy!
Is there something wrong with the fat content? There’s more saturated fat than there is total fat…
Thank you Leanne, we had a little typo in the nutrition facts. It’s updated now!
We love your crockpot version. This one doesn’t have coconut milk. Can we add it? Or use the recipe from the crockpot one in the instant pot?
Hi Cristy! Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
I made this and it was so good. Wondering Do you know any substitute for the flour for my celiac husband
Hi Kristin! Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
I used gluten free flour tonight and it was perfect: the all purpose blend from knicknick
Great!
Wow, you never stop amazing me. This dish is another of your wonderful amazement.
So I stumbled upon this instant pot recipe as I was looking for a new one to get my hands on, Chungah. I tried it with the exception that I used Jasmine rice instead of basmati and homemade garam masala because I could not find them on our local grocery stores. I can say that the outcome was delicious and my family loved it!
Amazing. This sounds the perfect recipe for weekend fun. BTW may i know how much time it takes to prepare for 4 people? @chungah
Sejal, you can refer to the prep time, cook time and total time in the recipe box. Hope that helps!
New to instant pot and am going to make this tomorrow!
One question though, when cooking the chicken and other ingredients on high pressure for 10 minutes I know it takes some time to heat up – does the heat up process include the 10 minutes or do you take both into consideration so the chicken will actually be cooking for about 20 minutes (heat up + 10 on high)? Will that overcook?
Thanks!
Elizabeth, the timer should be set for 10 minutes. This does not include the time it takes for the Instant Pot to heat up.
I made this dish for dinner, it was amazing. Will definitely be making it again.
I made this the other night. The spices were a terrific blend, though I did add ground cardamon, taken from my other butter chicken recipes. It was very nice to use the pressure cooker (if you don’t have an instant-pot, you can fudge around with your electric pressure cooker to make the saute thing happen). I did actually caramelize the onions (another key flavor enhancement for many Indian dishes) in a separate pan as the pressure cooker would have been too hot and burned. For those who wish to be authentic (I’m not), ground cashews would be added to thicken the sauce. Kids loved it, and are happy any time I make butter chicken. Now I have a recipe I can make right before dinner time, vs crock pot or long simmer. BTW: REMEMBER – you must remember that there is a significant amount of time that the pot come to pressure – so 10 minutes is misleading – it can be closer to 20 if your ingredients are cold (use that microwave and heat up things like chicken stock if you are really pressed for time).
Love this recipe. I was looking for an authentic way to add heat to it. What spice would you recommend?
Chili powder would work very well!
I made this butter chicken and it was off the charts good! My husband absolutely loved it and this is one of my first dinners in the instant pot and I have to say I am so wowed by this recipe. Thank you so much for sharing and I look forward to making many more of your dishes. You rock!!
Yum! Butter chicken is one of my favorite meals!
Paige
http://thehappyflammily.com
Sounds Delicious! Is there a way to substitute the dairy used in this recipe and if so, what would you recommend?
Unfortunately, without further recipe testing, I cannot answer with certainty. As always, please use your best judgment regarding substitutions and modifications.
I would use full fat coconut milk! I’ve made other butter chicken recipes where I subbed that and they came out amazing. I’m making this recipe tonight, planning to use the coconut milk. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Did you ever end up trying it with the coconut milk?? I know you posted this a while ago but just wanted to check!
Hi Chungah,
Does your cookbook include all these recipes and do they have the nutrition value listed?
My cookbook includes exclusive recipes with nutritional information listed for each recipe.
Thank you for all the Instant Pot Recipes! I really appreciate it. They are yum, yum, yummy!
Do you put the chicken into the Instant Pot raw?
Yes, that is correct.
Making this tomorrow! Cheers! 🙂