Creamy Spicy Melt In Mouth Instapot Butter Chicken

Creamy spicy butter chicken with hot rice and fluffy naan. Yes! You’ve got it.  If you’re thinking Indian comfort food, butter chicken is a definite yes! In my own family, butter chicken is a popular item, so much so, this is the third recipe I’ve blogged. Its different from the other two versions but unique in it’s own way. First, I have this heart healthy version made with yogurt & olive oil. Then this dairy free version using coconut cream and nuts. Well, this version is full fat, with whipping cream and tastes like you’re eating at an authentic Indian restaurant. I could call it the keto, paleo version or just the restaurant version. Throw it over some salad which is really delish by the way (a kind of exotic salad dressing) or eat it with an almond flour crepe and it could fit nicely with the keto or paleo diet. My family eats it with chapati, rice and dosa.

I did a fair amount of cooking this weekend and butter chicken certainly topped my list. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that my college kid asked me to bring her some food and some extra for her friends. Believe me, my mother’s heart did a somersault 😊 😊! Its not that she doesn’t have food since she is enrolled in the cafeteria program but when she wants mom’s cooking, yeah, that’s reason enough to cook! When I stocked up her tiny fridge at her dorm room Sunday night with small containers of food to last a week 😊 it felt good. This butter chicken is an instant pot version but can be made stovetop too.

I have a confession to make! Although I have used the instant pot for more than a year this is the very first time, I am making the whole dish in the instant pot. I guess I am kind of old school when it comes to cooking so I prefer to sauté everything stove top and then cook it in the instant pot with the meat. This time I used the instant pot like I would, if I had just this one cooking gadget. It was great! I found the sauté mode to be powerful and only one pot to clean up, sure felt good.

When you’re cooking meats in the instant pot you must be careful about time, temperature and texture. I have the basic “lux” version and it does not have a separate mode for cooking chicken. When I set it for “less done” it switched to 20 minutes and from experience I know 20 minutes would overcook the chicken, so I used the adjust mode and made it 10 minutes. If you’re working with bone chicken, you can set it for 15 minutes but anything more than that would overcook the chicken unless you’re making chili. I started with the sauté mode, switched to pressure cook mode and ended with the sauté mode. The second sauté mode is the time you add a thickener to get that creamy gravy. I used almond flour and heavy cream. You can use any nut flour, corn starch, or regular flour. Nut flours make it creamy and that’s the texture you’re looking for. Butter chicken can be served the next day and it actually tastes great since the spice sets in but I highly recommend adding a dollop of cream, a pinch of garam masala and some fresh cilantro before you reheat, because that taste of fresh cream mingled with hot spice, when it hits your tongue, is what makes butter chicken awesome. From my kitchen to yours: My instant pot butter chicken.

instapot butter chicken

Print recipe

Ingredients

• 2 Lbs Boneless chicken
• 4 Tbsp butter or ghee
• 1 Cuo tomato puree
• 2 Ripe tomatoes
• 1 onion (diced)
• 1 Tsp coriander powder
• 1 Tsp cumi powder
• 1 Tsp chilli powder
• 4 Tsp garam masala
• 1 Tbsp paprika
• 1 Tbsp ginger paste
• 1 Tbsp garlic paste
• 1 Tsp salt
• 6-8 curry leaves
• 2 Tbsp almond flour
• 1 cup heavy cream or whipping cream
• 1/2 cup Fresh cilantro

Directions

	Set the instapot to saute mode. Add the butter and cook until butter melts. Add curry leaves and onion and saute about 5 minutes till onion is soft and translucent. Add ginger garlic, dry spice except garam masala , tomatoes and cook about 3 minutes till oil floats on top
	Add chicken pieces , salt and water or chicken stock if needed. There should be enough liquid to cover the chicken. Close the lid and set it on the " less " mode. adjust to set it for 10 minutes under pressure.
	Once the cycle is complete you can wait for natural release or follow manufacturer's instructions for quick release.
	Open the instapot and set it on saute mode again. Add almond flour or any other flour and cook about 3 - 4 minutes till the gravy thickens. Add garam masala, heavy cream and cilantro and switch to warm mode.
	Serve warm over rice or with Indian bread

Week 6 of my social media fast and its really going well. I have put out less blog posts than I thought I would but one a week is more than I used to, so that’s great. Life has been insanely busy the last couple weeks especially since I added mindful meditation and I am not sure how time goes by. Right now, I am physed to be heading to the soup kitchen. They had closed for a year due to renovation and today they reopened and since I am on the cooking crew, I get to make soup in huge cauldrons using whatever they have and that to me is very exciting!

PS: I wrote this post 2 days back but sometimes you delay publish till the time seems right to you! The soup kitchen was awesome but my current life update: yesterday evening I had one of the coolest date nights I have had in a while. Both hubby and I were working in DC for the day so evening, we met up downtown grabbed a bite to eat and sip at happy hour, caught an uber and went to see the cherry blossoms. Walking among rows of the cherry blossoms and breathing in the heady scent of the flowers and nature all around felt serene and beautiful! Thankful for these times when you stop and smell the blossoms so to speak. If you’re in the DC area, stop by the cherry blossoms. They’re all around the tidal basin. Have a good week everyone. Enjoy your life and thanks for stopping by! Love

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