Murgh Makhani, a mouth watering creamy chicken curry made using stir fried chicken and cashew nut tomato gravy cooked together.
Chicken makhani or murgh makhani is a very popular chicken curry all over the globe.
Check out other chicken recipes such as tandoori chicken recipe, chicken butter masala, chicken do pyaza .

It is usually ordered in many restaurants and it tastes best with any naan, paratha or rumali roti.
Murgh Makhani requires certain steps to make and all the recipes are almost similar that is butter chicken and chicken makhani and chicken tikka masala. All these look similar but all these recipes have slight variations here and there.
I have already posted butter chicken masala and now I have come up with yet another creamy cashew nut flavored chicken gravy which is one of the best recipes liked among all the Indian chicken recipes.
How to make murgh makhani or chicken makhani:
- It is a few steps recipe and needs to be done carefully.
- First step is to marinate the chicken and then cooking or stir frying it until it gets soft.
- Second step is to cook the cashews and tomatoes in some spices and then making a gravy of them which is then used as the base to the chicken gravy.
- The gravy before cooking is slightly tempered in whole spices and then the gravy is nicely cooked and finally chicken is mixed into it and cooked until we get a creamy shiny texture to it.
- The main ingredients that go into making makhani gravies are butter and cream which are added while cooking the gravy.
- Usually, makhani gravies also use onions while making the tomato cashew nut gravy and onions too can be added but this particular makhani gravy recipe is a traditional way of making makhani gravy without the use of onions and can be altered by adding an onion.

We usually find these sort of recipes commonly available in Northern Indian regions like Delhi and Punjab but now these recipes are quite popular in almost every state of India as well as becoming popular globally as this is a mostly ordered Indian chicken curry in some of the International restaurants.
What kind of chicken is used to make makhani gravies?
Basically, one uses boneless chicken to make any kind of creamy gravies but in case of boneless chicken not available, one can use any kind of chicken to add into the gravy.
The main thing is to marinate the chicken well and then the chicken needs to be stir fried well in order to add into the chicken curry.
Below are the recipe details on how to make shiny creamy murgh makhani gravy and I have also shared a video procedure too for this recipe below the recipe do check it out...
Murgh Makhani video procedure:
Check out the step by step recipe below...
How to make murgh makhani or chicken makhani:

Murgh Makhani Recipe, Chicken Makhani Gravy
Ingredients
To marinate chicken:
- 4 tbsp beaten yogurt
- salt to taste
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- ½ tsp red chilli powder
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
- 2 tsp oil to mix while marinating chicken
- 500 gms boneless chicken pieces
- 2 tbsp oil to stir fry the marinated chicken
To make tomato cashew gravy:
- 2 tbsp oil
- ½ tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
- 1 small cinnamon stick (dalchini)
- 2 cloves (loung)
- 1 cardamom (elaichi)
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
- 6 tomatoes, chopped
- 16 cashew nuts
- 3 slit green chillies
- salt to taste
- 1 tsp red chilli powder
- 2 cups water
Other ingredients while cooking the gravy:
- salt to taste
- ½ tsp kashmiri red chilli powder
- ½ tsp garam masala powder
- 1 tbsp tomato sauce
- ¼ tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp cream
- ¼ tsp kasoori methi
- 2 tbsp coriander leaves for garnishing
Instructions
To marinate the chicken:
- Take a mixing bowl, add yogurt into it.
- Add salt as per taste, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, ginger garlic paste, oil.
- Mix well.
- Add boneless chicken pieces into the yogurt mix and mix well.
- Marinate the chicken for about 30 minutes.
- Take a pan, add oil and heat it.
- Add the marinated chicken into it and stir fry the chicken until it is done well.
- Rest the chicken aside for later use.
Making of tomato puree:
- Take a pan, add oil and heat it.
- Add cumin seeds and let them splutter.
- Add cloves, cardamom and cinnamon into it and saute for few seconds.
- Add ginger garlic paste and saute few seconds.
- Add the chopped tomatoes, cashew nuts, green chillies, salt, red chilli powder, water, mix well.
- Cook the gravy until the tomatoes turn soft and pulpy.
- Cool down the mixture.
- Add this mixture into a blending jar.
- Blend into a fine puree.
Cooking of the murgh makhani:
- Take a pan, strain the blended tomato cashew nut puree into the pan using a sieve and discard the seeds.
- Add salt as per taste, kashmiri red chilli powder, garam masala powder, tomato sauce and mix everything.
- Add a pinch of sugar to balance the sourness of the gravy and stir.
- Cook the gravy until oil releases from the sides.
- Add boneless chicken pieces into the gravy.
- Add butter generously into it, add cream and mix well.
- Add kasoori methi into it, stir well.
- Cook the gravy until oil leaves the sides.
- Garnish with chopped coriander leaves, lemon wedges and butter.
- Serve hot with naan or paratha.
Notes
- This gravy is purely made with tomatoes and cashew nuts and one can also add onions while cooking the gravy along with tamatar and kaju which gives even more creamy texture to the gravy.
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