This keto butter chicken is ridiculously tasty, aromatic, and a breeze to whip up! Plus, it just so happens to be a naturally low carb dish (and we’ve since added a dairy free and paleo option too!).
Oh, and be sure not to forget the keto naan!
Paleo & Keto Butter Chicken
Suuuper Creamy (& Easy!)
Butter chicken might just be the most famous curry export from India, wow-ing palates wherever it goes. Plus, it also happens to be incredibly easy to get just right!
And while there are a myriad of versions out there, it’s in essence a yogurt-with-spices-and-lime marinated chicken, cooked up in a mildly spiced and incredible curry sauce. And for a paleo version, coconut yoghurt and cream work wonderful with the flavors!
Said curry sauce is also a breeze to make. Think sautéed onions cooked up with the incredibly aromatic ginger, garam masala, cumin, turmeric and just a hint of cinnamon. All naturally keto ingredients, whoop whop!
Oh! And be sure not to forget to whip up a batch of our keto naan (with yeast!).
The Method 🔍
For exceptional butter chicken, browning each ingredient before adding on the next is paramount. You see this over and over again in cuisines worldwide: from Mexican mole, to American chili, Italian ragù, or French bourguignon.
The one thing all these stellar dishes have in common? Browning each ingredient fully before you add in the next one. The complexity of flavors that you get by doing this, simply cannot be replicated any other way.
So repeat after me: browning is truly essential.
The good news? This keto butter chicken ain’t mole or chili! i.e. you won’t need to leave it cooking all day. Think an hour tops, but more like 45 mins or so.
Serving Suggestions
If keto or low carb, I cannot recommend enough to serve it up with cauliflower rice. It’s wonderful this way, trust me. Just keep in mind that I prefer to rice our cauliflower slightly bigger here, so you get more of a ‘mouthful’ and it doesn’t completely blend into the butter chicken.
And once again, don’t forget the naan!
Paleo, Low Carb & Keto Butter Chicken
Ingredients
For the chicken marinade:
- 1 cup plain full-fat Greek-style yogurt or plain coconut yogurt
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 2 teaspoons ground turmeric
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- kosher salt to taste
- 900 g boneless chicken skinless chicken, diced into bite-sized pieces*
For the butter sauce:
- 60 g butter or ghee
- 1 tablespoon vegetable oil such as avocado
- 1 medium onion peeled and diced
- 3 cloves garlic ran through a press
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 2 teaspoons cumin seeds optional
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 14-ounce can diced tomatoes or 2 medium-sized tomatoes diced
- 1 jalapeno pepper seeded and diced
- kosher salt to taste
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1/2-1 cup heavy cream or coconut cream/full-fat milk, to taste
- 2 tablespoons almond flour
To serve:
- our keto naan (with yeast!) brushed with garlic-infused ghee
- 1/2 bunch cilantro leaves roughly chopped
- cauliflower rice
Instructions
- Mix in a bowl yogurt, lemon juice, garam masala, turmeric, cumin, and season with salt to taste. Stir in chicken pieces. If possible, cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours (or up to a day).
- Melt butter with oil in a large pan over medium heat until bubbly. Add in onion and cook, stirring often, until translucent. Add in garlic, ginger, cumin seeds and cinnamon. Continue to cook until onions are browned, stirring frequently.
- Add in tomatoes, chili and season with salt. Cook until the tomatoes are fully cooked and the chili soft, about 10 minutes.
- Add in the chicken with the yogurt marinade into the pan and cook for 5 minutes. Pour in stock and bring the mixture to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes.*
- Stir in cream and almond flour and continue to simmer for 10-15 minutes until chicken is fully cooked. Season to taste.
- Serve right away over a bed of cauliflower rice and garnished with cilantro leaves.
My yogurt curdled too, grainy texture as well…
Ever had butter chicken before so I have nothing to compare this dish with but my family loves this recipe. I made it because I’m so tired of the same foods and needed a different flavor. My family asked for it to be in our rotation. Oh and the naan was delicious. I will have to make the recipe bigger for my family. Was absolutely delicious. Thank you!
I have been following your recipes along with suggestions and hints to the “tee” for a few years now – love your site ! But very disappointed that the yogurt curdled and separated, and a got a grainy texture at the end. There was no warning or hints about this possibility !!
Max this def (def!) shouldn’t have happened. And since this hasn’t been an issue that has come up for you guys yet, I could use more deets from you to help diagnose what could’ve gone wrong. What type of yogurt did you use? Full fat? Greek? And most important, at what stage did it curdle?
OOOOOOHHHHHH! This recipe is over the top delicious!
I made this and it did not thicken, is it supposed to? it ia a very tasty dish. I would make it again.
Hi Debbie! It probably just means that you needed to reduce it further (i.e. cook it a bit longer so the water evaporates and you end up with a thicker dish) xo!
Is there a true “dairy free” version of this recipe?
This is on my menu planning rotation now. One of my family’s faves. Wonderfully layered flavor.
🙂
What is browning and what do you mean with “browning each ingredients”?
Browning is really just cooking it a little bit, in this case letting it cook for a few minutes (usually gets a little brown color on things like onions or garlic) before adding the next ingredient. It lets the individual flavor of each ingredient intensify a little.
Hubby and I are craving indian food since we started keto. I found this recipe just before dinner and oh boy! It was amazing! Tasty, creamy and so delicious we almost ate the full recipe! If I could I would have give 10 stars!!! Next time I’ll try to leave the turkey in the yogurt marinade more than an hour in the fridge.
I have tried many keto butter chicken recipes over the past year and have been disappointed until tonight! You got the flavors SPOT ON, Paola. You impress me more and more with each new gnom gnom recipe I try! I’m continuously impressed with both the flavor profiles AND the textures in your recipes. Your Butter Chicken is now in rotation at my house. Thank you for all you do for keto!
Thank you so much for taking the time to write Shannon! Glad to hear you loved 😉 xo!
Would I be able to sub the almond flour for coconut flour? (My boyfriend has an almond allergy 🙁 ).
today was day one of my keto diet and not gonna lie i prepared myself to be disappointed cus in my head i convinced myself diet food is just not worth it. I just made this for me and my dad and its safe to say thanks to this recipe im really excited to try this whole keto lifestyle. The recipe was honestly so good, and cauliflower rice didnt seem like i was eating a cauliflower. I did end up changing a few things cus of the quarantine, like i added powdered cashew instead of almonds, and standard indian green chillies instead, but it still tasted SO GOOD.
definitely gonna recommend this to my friends who (just like i used to) think keto is more expensive, more time consuming, and not worth it.
Thank you!
how many servings is this?
Says 6, just before the recipe.
I made this several times but not in the last six months or so. Has it changed? I recall using many more spices and no pre-made garam masala. Is that version of the recipe still available?
This was delicious. I doubled the recipe for visitors and the leftovers are fabulous. Made raita, eggplant Baghi and cauliflower rice to go with.
Does anyone have a suggestion for a cauli rice sub? I would love to have something rice-like with the Butter Chicken but me and cauli are not friends. Thanks in advance.
Hi Cynthia!
Sorry this is so late – shirataki rice-shaped noodles are a great sub. They’re not a perfect replica texture-wise, but they’re low-carb and keto friendly. you can buy them packaged in the health food section of most grocery stores.
shirataki rice is my go to if I don’t want cauliflower rice for some reason. The non drain odorless
ones are quite good.
Agreed! I’ve also been experimenting with making resistant starch rice (and working in actual GI numbers to share with you guys!) xo!
The intro talks about the chicken being ‘spice and lime marinated’ … but I’m glad to see that lemon juice is actually used instead. And, as others have asked, is the ‘chili’ – listed in the ingredients – meant to be chili powder?
Thanks
PS I love your website Paola, but is there a way to prevent your recipe pages having SO many auto-play videos/music? It’s a little offputting suddenly having music playing, and scrolling up and down like a crazy person, trying to find out which video or advert is making the noise so I can shut it down!
The chili is the jalapeño pepper
I made made this for the first time tonight- absolutely delicious! My husband and I both loved it just as written. A great recipe whether you are keto or not. Thank you!