Chicken · Slow cooker adaptation

Slow Cooker Butter Chicken (ThatDudeCanCook)

ThatDudeCanCook's butter chicken leans authentic: no onions, spice-toasted butter, sugar bomb tomatoes blended into a velvet sauce, finished with cashews, cream and a slick of fenugreek. We've moved the long tomato reduction into the slow cooker so the chicken, spices and cream meld gently while you crack on with the garlic naan.

R By Richard · Adapted from ThatDudeCanCook · Published 23 June 2026
👁 6.1M source views ❤️ 155.3k source likes
⏱Prep 30 min
🍲Slow cook 4 hr (Low) / 2 hr (High)
🍽Serves 4
Restaurant Style Butter Chicken With Homemade Garlic Naan

Source video by ThatDudeCanCook on YouTube. This recipe was adapted with strict source-fidelity rules and is marked for human review.

ThatDudeCanCook builds his butter chicken the authentic way: no onions, two stages of marinade on the chicken, and a sauce built from whole spices toasted in butter, a puree of sweet tomatoes, cashews, cream and a final hit of garam masala and fenugreek. We've kept the spice-toasting and tomato reduction on the hob because a slow cooker cannot do either, then handed the long, gentle meld of chicken, sauce and cream over to the pot. Serve with rice or the garlic naan from the original video.

Slow cooker notes: Source is a hob and grill (grill) recipe. The two marinades, the spice-toasting in butter, the tomato puree reduction and the grill-charring of the chicken are all kept off the slow cooker because slow cookers cannot toast spices, reduce a sauce or brown meat. The completed sauce base and grill-charred chicken are then transferred to the slow cooker for a long gentle meld in place of the chef's 2 to 3 minute warm-through on the hob. Cream, cold butter, extra garam masala and fenugreek are stirred in at the end so the dairy does not split and the aromatics stay bright. Default servings set to 4 as the chef does not state a yield.

Ingredients

Chicken and first marinade
  • chicken breast, trimmed, tenders removed, cut into large cubes
  • lemon juice
  • Kashmiri chilli powder
  • salt
Second marinade
  • Greek yogurt
  • neutral oil
  • ground fenugreek
  • ground turmeric
  • ginger and garlic paste, ground to a fine paste
  • garam masala
Curry sauce
  • 1 wholecinnamon stick
  • 1 wholegreen chilli, slit lengthways to release heat
  • cardamom pods
  • whole cloves
  • unsalted butter
  • ginger and garlic paste, ground to a fine paste
  • sweet tomatoes, blended into a rough puree
  • 1 tspsalt
  • Kashmiri chilli powder
  • 1 tspgranulated sugar
  • cashew nuts
  • water
To finish
  • garam masala (add late)
  • toasted fenugreek seeds (add late)
  • unsalted butter, cold (add late)
  • double cream (add late)
To serve
  • double cream, cold, for swirling (add late)
  • fresh coriander, chopped (add late)

Method

  1. Trim the chicken breasts and remove the small tenders. Cut everything into large bite-sized cubes so each forkful is a proper piece of chicken.

    ~10 min

  2. First marinade: toss the chicken with the lemon juice, Kashmiri chilli powder and salt. Mix well and leave for 20 minutes.

    ~20 min

  3. Second marinade: add the Greek yogurt, neutral oil, ground fenugreek, turmeric, ginger and garlic paste and garam masala to the chicken. Mix until every piece is coated.

    ~5 min

  4. Cover and marinate. A couple of hours is fine, overnight (12 hours) is better, and a full 24 hours is best.

    ~120 min

  5. Line a baking tray with foil and spread the marinated chicken out in a single layer with no large clumps. Slide under a hot grill for about 5 minutes, watching closely, until the edges char a little. You want colour, not fully cooked through, as it will finish in the sauce.

    ~6 min

  6. Roughly blend the tomatoes (about 10 seconds) into a slightly chunky puree.

    ~2 min

  7. Set a wide pan over low to medium heat. Add the cinnamon stick, slit chilli, cardamom pods and clove pieces and toast dry for 4 to 5 minutes until fragrant.

    ~5 min

  8. Add the unsalted butter and let the whole spices continue to toast in the foaming butter for about 2 minutes. Fish out and discard the whole spices; the butter is now flavoured.

    ~3 min

  9. Stir in the second batch of ginger and garlic paste and cook for about a minute until fragrant.

    ~1 min

  10. Tip in the tomato puree, the teaspoon of salt, a pinch more Kashmiri chilli powder, the teaspoon of sugar and the reserved chicken juices. Stir, raise the heat a touch above medium and let the sauce reduce, stirring now and then.

    ~15 min

  11. After about 20 minutes the puree should look like a loose paste. Add the cashews and continue reducing for another 5 minutes or so, until the sound shifts from bubbling water to a sizzle of tomato frying in butter.

    ~8 min

  12. Pour in enough water to loosen the sauce back to a simmer, then tip everything into a blender and blitz on high for about a minute. For a really silky finish, push the sauce through a fine sieve or chinois.

    ~5 min

  13. Transfer the strained sauce and the grilled chicken to the slow cooker. Cover and cook on Low for 3 to 4 hours or High for 1.5 to 2 hours, until the chicken is tender and the sauce has had a chance to meld.

    ~240 min

  14. Stir in the extra garam masala, the toasted fenugreek seeds, the cold cubed butter and the double cream. Let everything melt through on the slow cooker's residual heat for a few minutes, then taste and adjust the salt.

    ~5 min

  15. Ladle into warm bowls. Finish with a swirl of cold cream, a scatter of fenugreek seeds and chopped coriander. Serve with garlic naan or rice.

    ~3 min

Frequently asked

Why are there no onions in this butter chicken?
ThatDudeCanCook is going for the authentic restaurant style, which traditionally has no onions. He points out that chicken tikka masala is the curry with onions; butter chicken's body comes from butter, tomato and cashews. Add onions if you prefer, but you don't need them.
Do I have to toast the whole spices and reduce the sauce on the hob first?
Yes. Slow cookers cannot toast whole spices in butter or reduce a watery tomato puree to a paste. Those two steps build the depth of flavour, so they stay on the hob. The slow cooker then takes over for the gentle meld of chicken, spices and cream.
Why grill the chicken before it goes in the sauce?
Slow cookers steam rather than brown, so the chef's char marks would never form in the pot. A few minutes under a hot grill gives the chicken pieces those scorched edges that taste of tandoor, then they finish in the sauce.
Can I use chicken thighs instead of breasts?
Yes. The chef says thighs work just as well and they actually stand up to the longer slow cooker time a little better than breast, which can dry out if pushed too far.
I can't find Kashmiri chilli powder or dried fenugreek; what now?
Substitute a mild paprika with a small pinch of cayenne for the Kashmiri chilli (you'll lose some of the deep red colour but keep the warmth). For dried fenugreek leaves or seeds, ground fenugreek works at a pinch, used sparingly because it is more bitter.
Extraction notes (transparency): Source narrates method in detail but states almost no measured quantities. Chicken, yogurt, oil, ginger and garlic paste, ground fenugreek, turmeric, garam masala, butter, tomatoes, cashews, water and cream are all named with no amount, so those quantities are null. The only quantities explicitly given are 'about a teaspoon' of salt and 'just a teaspoon' of sugar added during the tomato reduction, a 20 minute first marinade and a 2 to 24 hour second marinade. The garlic naan that shares the video title is a separate bread recipe and is not extracted here; only the butter chicken curry is captured. Default servings is a guess (4) as no yield is stated.