The Typical Mom

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Easy Instant Pot Butter Chicken

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This is a really easy Instant Pot butter chicken recipe that is moist and full of flavor. It only takes 5 minutes to cook and the perfect family dinner with a side of naan. If you’re never tried making pressure cooker butter chicken this is an easy one to start with. Add your own spices to make it just right for you!

easy instant pot butter chickenI went out to eat Indian food with a few friends when I went to a conference in Utah last month. I hadn’t had it in years and wasn’t sure what to order so my friend suggested butter chicken since it was a milder dish and she said “everyone loves it”. It. Was. Amazing! Now that I am all about my pressure cooker I was sure I could make a simple version (my take on it), and I came up with this easy Instant Pot butter chicken recipe that tastes pretty similar! One of our favorite chicken Instant Pot recipes.  (originally published 7/17)

Served with a side of Instant Pot white rice and/or naan this easy butter chicken recipe is definitely a winner at our house when I make it!

First of all if you don’t have one of these life changing kitchen appliances, or are scared to use it, let me convince you why it’s amazing.

  • I’m a busy mom with three kids and we both work full time. One thing we love is eating one meal together. It allows us to talk about our days and truly unplug.
  • The more I worked the more our dinners together dropped off, until I got my Instant Pot…..now dinners only took 30 min. MAX including prep time.

You’ve got to try it.

easy instant pot butter chicken 2

I am sure there are a lot of variations of recipes for butter chicken. Of course with any sort of recipe you should adjust the spice level to your liking. I will say this one is on the milder side of things. So if you like more spice or a more pungent flavor, then just add more:

  • chili powder
  • garam masala
  • cumin
  • or all 3

You can use chicken breasts cut up instead of chicken thighs to make our easy Instant Pot butter chicken but thighs are much moister and have a lot of flavor themselves so I prefer them for this recipe.

  • Of course there are many ways to make butter chicken so this may not be totally authentic but it is my take on it and tastes very similar to the one I had last month that I loved.

It’s very much a throw it in and go kinda’ meal and if I am in a real rush I throw on some Minute rice on the stovetop and they are done in less than 10 minutes flat…now that’s a quick dinner!

I haven’t made homemade naan myself yet and haven’t found a store in town that carries it on a regular basis so I use rice but making it myself is on my list of things to do.

  • Until then I found this super easy naan bread recipe you can use and pair with my easy Instant Pot butter chicken, seeing a trend here…EASY. 😉

Like I said, if you have specific spices you use, and amounts, then go with that if it is to your liking but use my timing so you can make it in your pressure cooker.

  • If you don’t have your own specific butter chicken recipe then use mine, we love it! If you’d like to make some healthy butter chicken in your crockpot here’s another recipe to try.

Here are a few things you may not have that you’ll need to make this easy Instant Pot butter chicken:

  1. Garam Masala
  2. Cumin
  3. Chopped Ginger
  4. Chili Powder (optional but good even if you only add a bit, my version is not spicy)
  5. Rice – this is how you make fluffy Instant Pot white rice 

pressure cooker chicken and rice recipes

Looking for more easy Instant Pot chicken recipes?

Here’s a video showing you how we make our easy Instant Pot butter chicken at home

 

Here’s the printable recipe as well:

easy instant pot butter chicken
Print Pin
4.66 from 32 votes

Easy Instant Pot butter chicken

Really easy Instant Pot butter chicken recipe that is moist and full of flavor. Takes just 5 minutes to cook and the perfect family dinner with a side of naan. If you're never tried making pressure cooker butter chicken this is an easy one to start with. Instant Pot Indian food perfection.
Course Entree, Main Course
Cuisine Indian
Keyword butter, chicken noodle soup, easy, indian, instant pot, pressure cooker
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Servings 6
Calories 574kcal
Author The Typical Mom

Ingredients

  • 6 chicken thighs boneless, skinless, cut into cubes
  • 1 1/2 c heavy cream
  • 1 1/2 c tomato sauce
  • 1/2 onion
  • 5 tbsp butter
  • 1 tbsp garlic minced
  • 1 tbsp ginger chopped
  • 1 1/2 tsp chili powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp cumin
  • 3 tsp garam masala
  • 2 tbsp corn starch optional to thicken sauce at the end

Instructions

  • Turn your Instant Pot to saute, medium, and add butter.
  • When butter is melted add cubed chicken and onion.
  • Cook just enough for chicken pieces to cook just a touch on the outside.
  • Add all other ingredients into your Instant Pot or pressure cooker and mix together well.
  • Put lid on and close steam valve.
  • Set Instant Pot to manual, pressure, low, for 5 minutes. (enough time if cut into bite size pieces, if larger pieces increase time)
  • When done move steam valve just slightly so steam comes out slowly.
  • Carefully lift lid. Serve immediately or remove chicken and set to saute low for just a few minutes. Put some of the hot liquid in a small bowl with 1 tbsp of cornstarch and whisk together, add back into the pot and stir. May do this again with another tbsp. depending on how thick you want the sauce to be.
  • Sauce will thicken more as it sits. Turn off, add chicken back in, and serve with rice and/or naan.
Nutrition Facts
Easy Instant Pot butter chicken
Amount Per Serving (6 oz)
Calories 574 Calories from Fat 450
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 50g 77%
Saturated Fat 24g 120%
Cholesterol 217mg 72%
Sodium 527mg 22%
Potassium 514mg 15%
Total Carbohydrates 9g 3%
Dietary Fiber 1g 4%
Sugars 3g
Protein 20g 40%
Vitamin A 34.5%
Vitamin C 6.5%
Calcium 6.8%
Iron 10.2%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.

 

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Comments

  1. Just to let everyone know.
    I get my Naan bread at Aldi grocery store for about $3.00 for 4 large pieces. Our Publix stock Naan here, only three pieces all the time in the deli area near the sandwich wraps and Hawaiian rolls. Although Publix is high price. They are both good.
    I cannot wait to try this recipe out this week. Purchased my Naan at Aldi today.

    Reply

  2. Oh my! I hate indian type of spices. But i have to say this is amazing!! I didn’t have the garam masala but i read the ingredients and made my own. I also forgot the cream so I used milk and melted butter. Word to the wise do not substitute the cream. It was way to buttery. I wish I could post a photo so I coukd show my finished dish. But suffice it to say…..its going into my recipe box. Will def make it again. Thank you for sharing.

    Reply

  3. Turned out ok I used only 1/2tsp of chili powder so my kids would eat it. I also put the dry spices in and let them sit and cook on the chicken before adding the tomato sauce and cream. It turned out well but was lacking the bold curry flavor that you get in your typical butter chicken. I add some curry powder after the fact.

    Reply

    • I get the burn notice a lot and have started to ignore it. For me I keep the thin liquid on the bottom, the chicken on the rack and everything else on top. I do not stir. I get the burn notice less this way. When it is done, I stir. I will say when I ignore the notice the food cooks up just fine but a little may stick to the bottom.

      Reply

  5. This was my second instant pot dish and my first one with chicken. I used a pack of Costco boneless/skinless chicken breasts (the kind that comes in individual packs of 6) weighing in at 1lb 13oz in place of the chicken thighs, and this amount worked perfectly. The chicken was surprisingly moist! My dish turned out brown – mostly likely because I used chipotle chili powder instead of red chili powder? It looked more like chicken curry, but still tasted great. Next time, I might lose the chili powder altogether since I like things mild. I cooked up basmati rice but tried it first with flour tortillas (the kind you buy as ready-to-cook flattened dough and cook yourself – we use these in place of naan for Indian dishes); my husband and I both thought the flavor was better with the tortillas, but the rice was just fine, too! I’ll probably only make this every once in a while since over half of the sauce is cream and butter (eek!), but it definitely hit the spot and smells a-maz-ing.

    Reply

  6. Used 1/2 cup tomato paste paste instead of tomato sauce, and then used 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth. The sauce turned out darker, But the taste and smell we’re just like Indian Restaurant chicken. Made it Pot-in-pot with white rice cooking on trivet in separate pot for same 10 minutes. Soooooo good!

    Reply

  7. Holy WOW! This is my new favorite recipe for my instant pot. Especially since there are ZERO Indian restaurants where I live (very sad). This definitely gives me the quick fix for my Indian food cravings! Thank you soooo much!

    Reply

  9. I am just about to open the IP to see how it turned out. The colour did not look like the picture.
    wish me luck!

    Reply

    • What is the flavor profile of this dish. Ive had butter chicken one time in my life and it had a very tomato soup like taste. I followed another recipe I found, but the flavors were to strong and was not like the recipe I tried from an authentic restaurant. Does this recipe have a tomatoes soup sort of taste?

      Reply

      • No this isn’t a tomato base flavor, creamier. That is another way of making it, I didn’t add tomato to this one.

      • There really is no “authentic” Indian flavour. Most families in India tends to make up their own garam masala, which is a blend of different spices. They are all a bit different. I have eaten at dozens of different Indian restaurants, and each time, the basic flavours are different. Doesn’t mean the taste isn’t great though!

  14. I LOVE this recipe. I put in on my blog for a review, and gave you 4.5/5 on the Angie rating!!

    http://angiecooksinportland.blogspot.com/2018/09/instant-pot-butter-chicken-review-and.html

    This was the first time I ever used the instant pot, and I loved it so much. Thank you so much for sharing. Please let me know if you want me to change anything on my blog about what I’ve written. I think it is very clear that this recipe is yours, and I’m not claiming it as mine.

    Angie

    Reply

  15. Every time I add any cream products to IP while pressure cooking, it ends up spitting out pressure valve and making a huge mess. I see you add heavy cream and then turn on. Am I reading that right?

    Reply

  16. This was so good! I’ve made this twice. The first time I followed the recipe exactly. The second time I used boneless chicken breast instead of thighs. I also replaced the heavy cream with a can of full fat coconut milk. It wasn’t as thick when using the coconut milk so I did use the cornstarch which I don’t feel it needed when using the heavy cream. It was just as good the second time with the substitutions I made.

    Reply

  17. OMg this recipe was amazing!! Definitely going into my Instant Pot favorites. Can’t imagine how anyone could think this was bland. Very saucy which we lapped up w/ garlic naan & basmati rice.

    Reply

  18. i keep getting a burn notice. i had to open it up and add water. we will see how this turns out.

    Reply

    • That’s what I thought reading the recipe. Instead of tomato sauce and heavy cream, I add chicken broth, tomato paste and coconut milk and mix it well. (so thinner liquid)

      Reply

  19. This meal was AMAZING! I added a little cayenne pepper for some kick and it worked great. Thanks for posting this recipe!

    Reply

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    Reply

  21. I was disappointed in that it was rather bland. I’m not sure why. My husband was afraid it was going to be like curry chicken or too spicy but he was okay with it. Maybe the Fenugreek spice that was mentioned might make a difference?

    Reply

  22. I am not a cook, so I made the mistake of putting the cornstarch in with all the otherr ingredients as it read to mix all ingredients in after chicken and onion cooked. Eeek! I hope I don’t mess up the whole dish because of this one mistake. Let’s see….

    Reply

  24. Making this tonight. A favorite past time dish and so grateful you’ve adapted it to the Instant Pot! The nutrition info…is that just for the chicken or chicken and rice together?

    Reply

    • So glad. The info is generated by the recipe widget so I don’t know how accurate it is. It calculates using everything listed in ingredients.

      Reply

  25. Made it tonight; was good! However, the butter ended up separating so the final dish looked greasy, with a lot of the butter swirling around in puddles. It needed constant mixing to look good. I found a slow cooker butter chicken recipe that includes flour; I think putting a tablespoon or two in the pot toward the end of the sauté stage might help. And I agree with another comment about the taste not quite like butter chicken should be. Fenugreek might be the answer! I’ll try it next time.

    Reply

      • So I just made this tonight for the family and we have no leftovers…. so that’s a good thing and also a very bad one. I substituted the heavy cream for a can of coconut cream and it definitely made the dish better. I also incorporated 2 tea spoons of tapioca flour as an emulsifier and there was no separation of butter from the rest of the ingredients. so if you need a more gluten or dairy free way of doing it both of these methods seem to work, I also added 2 teaspoons of turmeric but this was more for color than for taste.

    • Last night, I made a lemon chicken recipe and i added 1 1/2 C. Uncle Bens rice and
      1 1/2 C chicken stock to the pot, then I put the chicken on top. Same pressure time. I think you could add rice and some extra water.. maybe not the whole cup and a half because the butter chicken recipe is pretty saucy. Maybe 1 cup.. anyway, the recipe i did came out perfect. Just try adding the rice. If it’s not quite the right consistency, so what. It’s going to taste fantastic. Ive decided to just go for it with this magic pot.

      Reply

      • Sorry, I should have said that the rice was not in the chicken recipe. I just wanted all that flavour in my rice too.

  29. Real Butter Chicken has the spice Fenugreek (methi in Indian Groceries). The taste isn’t quite right without it.

    Reply

    • Would you add the Fenugreek in addition to the other ingredients? 1.5 tsp? Thanks. Really liked it but wouldn’t mind just a little more something

      Reply

  30. I’m new to cooking with my Instant Pot. I’ve learnt that there are 2 ways to release the pressure. one is to do a quick release and then other is natural release. Do i do a quick releases in this case?

    Reply

    • I just move slightly so steam comes out slowly as stated. You can do a quick release too, that would be fine.

      Reply

  31. I did this and it was amazibg. i find it has a bit of bite to it but not to the point i cant eat it. My daughter however will not eat it. What can i take out or reduce to make it more milder.

    Reply

  32. Has anyone ever used regular, thawed chicken breasts instead of thighs? Any feedback would be appreciated.

    Reply

  34. This was the 2nd recipe I tried in my new Instant Pot. It turned out fantastic!

    I mixed a tablespoon of water with a tablespoon of organic cornstarch and added it at the end to thicken it up the sauce and served it over organic short grain brown rice. I didn’t add the chili powder this time. Maybe I’ll get brave and try it with the chili powder next time. It was delicious without it.

    This recipe will definitely get added to my regular recipe list!

    Reply

  37. I made this last night and the family loved the flavors and the meal was just fantastic. However, I changed it a little from the original – we like spice and so I increased all the spices by a third. I also added a sweet yellow bell pepper for color and a mini eggplant along with the chicken.
    I also added 1 can of Rotel’s diced tomatoes and green Chili peppers and left the rest. My wife who eats very little had second helpings of the dish – very good.

    Reply

  38. Will try this as soon as we get back from this darn Hurricane. Just an fyi, many years ago I bought a microwave rice steamer. Makes amazing rice and have never cooked it any other way since 😊

    Reply

      • Hi… Received my IP today. Just finished the “water test”.
        Looking forward to steel cut oats for breakfast and your butter chicken for dinner in which I will increases the seasoning (as per several comments below-thank u)
        Thanks for great recipes for an IP beginner.

  39. Bland for my family. I set the pot to sauté and just kept adding Chile powder, cumin, Garam masala until we got real flavor. I prob tripled the spices. And it thickened nicely on sauté. Very good. All six family members liked it!

    Reply

    • No it’s not spicy! I used curry powder instead of cumin and I didn’t think it was spicy at all. And I am a wimp when it comes to spicy things!

      Reply

  41. This will be my first Instant Pot meal. If I double the amount of chicken, will there be enough sauce, or should I double the entire recipe? I have the 8 qt. pot.
    Thanks!

    Reply

    • There is a decent amount of sauce so depending on how much you prefer it should be okay.

      Reply

    • Haven’t used frozen yet and you wouldn’t be able to cut into chunks that way. If put in whole I’d increase time 2-3 minutes and check on it.

      Reply

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