I used to think of things like my One Pot Mac and Cheese as pretty much the ultimate comfort food. But then I tasted Indian Butter Chicken, (while we were living in Calgary where they have amazing Indian food!) and that was all it took for me to change my mind about comfort food. While I’m not saying anything against mac and cheese by any means, there’s just something about butter chicken that I love even more.
And I know I’m not alone in this, because everyone I know loves butter chicken once they’ve first tried it. So of course that means we all need an easy and healthy version to make at home. This one is made in the Instant Pot for ultimate ‘hands off’ approach. But I’ve also included stove top instructions as well below.
You can serve this butter chicken with any side you’d like. To keep it Whole30 try cauliflower rice or spaghetti squash. But I will say there’s really nothing quite like perfectly steamed Jasmine rice with this dish.
For the broccoli pictured here, I just tossed it with a bit of roasted garlic olive oil, sea salt, and black pepper before roasting it at 450ºF until crisp tender. You can also do this with brussels sprouts and green beans. But out of these 3, I think the brussels sprouts have been my favorite so far.
This recipe comes together quickly, so it’s best to have everything prepped and ready to go before starting to cook.
You start by sautéing the chicken, then you add the ginger and garlic. It’s important to sauté the ginger and garlic briefly because the cooking time is so short, that a jump start with the garlic and ginger is always good.
Then the seasonings go in along with the tomatoes and extra liquid from the can of coconut milk. Before you set the timer to cook, be sure and scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. If the Instant Pot senses anything over browning on the bottom of the pan, it will shut down with a ‘BURN’ sign on the front.
After a few minutes of cooking time, you stir in the reserved coconut cream, and lightly thicken it if desired.
And then of course it’s time to serve it up with your choice of sides. If you’re lucky enough to have leftovers, they reheat beautifully. Tyler ended up with some in his lunch twice and loved it!
I just heat up a thermos with boiling hot water while I warm the leftovers together in a pan until piping hot. Then after the thermos has preheated for at least 10 minutes, I scoop the hot leftovers into the thermos. Then he has a hot lunch to go, which is nice in the winter since he’s often outside!
For a stove top version, check out my Easier Butter Chicken! That recipe is slightly different, so you can also just apply the same cooking principles to this recipe if you’d like.
