Instant Pot Butter Chicken

Made with tender chicken and a richly spiced tomato sauce, this recipe for Instant Pot Butter Chicken, also known as Makhan Murg, delivers flavor with ease!

Instant Pot Butter Chicken allows you to enjoy the traditional flavors of Butter Chicken using easy-to-find ingredients in a fraction of the time the classic recipe takes!

One of my closest friends shared with me her authentic recipe for Butter Chicken, also known as Makhan murg, several decades ago. It came straight from her grandmother's kitchen in India, and I have to say, it was better than any Butter Chicken I had ever eaten at any Indian restaurant.

The downside to my friend's recipe is that it takes FOREVER to make and features many ingredients that may be difficult to find at local grocery stores.

I have taken that authentic recipe and changed it up a bit to deliver very, very similar flavors using ingredients you can find at any grocery store and in record time. Even my friend approves of my recipe for Instant Pot Butter Chicken.

It delivers authentic classic flavors with ease! The sauce is perfectly spiced with all the authentic flavors you crave in Butter Chicken, just minus the hard work, lengthy time, and hard-to-find ingredients.

Notes on Ingredients

• Chicken: Use boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs to make this butter chicken recipe.
• Spices: The spices in this recipe for butter chicken are easy to find in any grocery store and include, ground coriander, ground cumin, turmeric, paprika, and garam masala.
• Aromatics: Diced onion, minced garlic, and grated peeled gingerroot all work to add immense flavor and dimension to the rich sauce.
• Butter: Unsalted butter is best to control the level of sodium in the final dish. While you can replace the butter with nondairy butter, butter is classic in butter chicken 😉
• Tomatoes: This recipe calls for both tomato paste and crushed tomatoes. The crushed tomatoes help to create a luscious, thick sauce, and the tomato paste helps to deliver a really rich tomato flavor.
• Chicken Broth: Use your favorite low-sodium store-bought or homemade chicken broth. Keep in mind this recipe uses less broth than most of my other instant pot chicken recipes. The liquid from the melted butter and onions will help to give this recipe the liquid it needs to maintain pressure.
• Cream: Use heavy cream, not half and half or milk to finish the butter chicken. It will help to balance out the acidity of the tomatoes, thicken the sauce, and give the dish a rich, creamy finish.

How to Make Instant Pot Butter Chicken

While this is an incredibly simple recipe, if you are unfamiliar with cooking in an Instant Pot or the functions of your Instant Pot, be sure to start with How to Use an Instant Pot for the best results on this and future recipes. You will find the full recipe in detail in the recipe card below.

Step One: Toast Aromatics and Spices

The key to developing the authentic flavor of Butter Chicken quickly is to toast the onions, ginger, garlic, spices, and tomato paste in butter. This will help to enhance the flavor of the dried spices and aromatics.

• Turn the Instant Pot to saute, add in the butter, and allow the butter to melt as the Instant Pot heats up.
• To the melted butter, add the minced onion and saute for just a couple of minutes or just to start to soften the onion.
• Once the onion has begun to soften, add in the minced garlic and ginger and saute briefly. You want to just begin to smell the garlic and ginger, but be very careful to not burn them--burnt garlic and ginger will ruin a dish FAST!
• To the inner pot, add the tomato paste and spices. Saute them together for 1-2 minutes.

Step Two: Deglaze the Inner Pot

Any time you use the saute function on the Instant Pot, you must scrape up any browned bits off the bottom of the inner pot to prevent a burn notice from occurring.

• Turn the saute function off on the Instant Pot by hitting cancel.
• Add the chicken broth into the inner pan and use a spatula or wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits off the bottom of the pan.

Step Three: Add Chicken

I find it is best to not sear the chicken before pressure cooking. This allows the chicken to really absorb all the flavors of the sauce. Not to mention, it speeds up the recipe, making Instant Pot Chicken perfect for any day of the week.

• Add in the diced, raw chicken and crushed tomatoes and gently fold the mixture together.

Step Four: Pressure Cook

This recipe cooks extremely quickly, but you will need to account for an additional 10 minutes for the pressure to release naturally after the cooking time has elapsed. This will ensure that your chicken stays tender!

• Seal the Instant Pot and set it to cook on HIGH pressure for 5 minutes.
• Once the cooking time has elapsed, let the pressure release naturally for at least 10 minutes.

Step Five: Thicken the Sauce

After pressure cooking, the Butter Chicken is NOT quite ready. While already delicious, by finishing the sauce with heavy cream, the sauce becomes thickened, richer, and perfectly balanced.

• Turn the Instant Pot back to saute.
• Add the cream and saute until the sauce is just thickened, stirring constantly. It will only take a couple of minutes.

Step Six: Serve

Serve Instant Pot Butter Chicken with Instant Pot Brown Rice, Instant Pot White Rice, Instant Pot Quinoa, cauliflower rice, and/or Naan bread, and chopped cilantro if desired. You want something to soak up all that delicious sauce.

Preparing Rice with the Butter Chicken

I love serving Instant Pot Butter Chicken with a side of rice to soak up the rich sauce. While you can prepare rice separately, the timing of this recipe allows you the option of cooking white rice using the pot-in-pot method at the same time as the butter chicken cooks. Talk about an easy dinner!

To do this, place rinsed long-grain white rice (not brown rice!) in a stainless steel bowl with an equal amount of water. Place a trivet above the chicken mixture and set the bowl with the rice on the trivet. The rice needs a bit longer to account for the stainless steel bowl, so the cooking time of 5 minutes with at least 10 minutes of natural pressure release works perfectly to cook the rice.

Recipe FAQs

More Instant Pot Chicken Recipes

• Instant Pot Chicken Breast
• Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken
• Instant Pot Chicken Tacos
• Instant Pot Teriyaki Chicken
• Instant Pot Chicken and Rice
• Instant Pot Chicken Cacciatore
• Instant Pot Whole Chicken

Need more inspiration for planning meals that your family will love? Sign up for my FREE Meal Plans and each week you will get a meal plan with a shopping list.

If you tried this recipe for Instant Pot Butter Chicken, I would love for you to leave a comment and review below.

This recipe was originally published in 2019 and updated in 2022 with a new video.