Butter chicken with basmati rice
Mild, rich and a genuine crowd pleaser. Chicken thigh simmered in a spiced tomato and coconut sauce until it turns a proper deep orange.
Notable for: antioxidants, B vitamins
Ingredients
- 850 gchicken breast, cubed
- 320 gbasmati rice
- 250 gbrown onions, diced
- 200 gtomato puree
- 200 mlcoconut milk
- 15 gcurry powder
- 10 gground cumin
- 10 gsmoked paprika
- 15 gcrushed garlic
- 10 gcrushed ginger
- 1stock cubes, in 150 ml water
- 10 mlolive oil
Method
Put the rice on to cook.
Heat the oil in a pot and cook the onion for 6 minutes until soft and golden.
Add the curry powder, cumin, paprika, garlic and ginger and cook for a minute until fragrant.
Add the tomato puree and cook for 3 minutes to lose its raw edge.
Add the chicken, stock and coconut milk, and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes, stirring now and then, until the sauce thickens and turns a deep orange.
Season hard and serve over the rice.
Cook the puree before the liquid goes in
Tomato puree tastes sharp and tinny straight from the tube. A few minutes in the hot spiced onion before anything else joins it is what turns it into a proper sauce base rather than a thin tomato soup.
Storage
Keeps four days in the fridge and freezes well.
The sauce thickens further overnight, so loosen with a splash of water when reheating.
Cost per serving is indicative, based on New Zealand supermarket prices as at September 2026. Batch prices your own week against your own store on the day. Nutrition figures, including calories, are estimates rather than label readings, so always check the packet if you have an allergy. "Notable for" reflects well-established qualities of the ingredients used, not a lab measurement of this exact dish.