If you need a magical family recipe that will make dinner disappear at your house, look no further than this delicious Slow Cooker Butter Chicken! Amazingly fast and easy to prepare and packed full of flavor!
I don’t know about you, but pretty much any time of year, it feels like the busiest time of year to me. No matter if it’s back to school time, summer time, or the holidays, our schedules are filled with extra activities and it takes a little planning on my part to make sure we have dinner on the table. Thank goodness, as always, for my slow cooker! Of all of the slow cooker chicken recipes on my site, I love this recipe for Slow Cooker Butter Chicken possibly the most because it’s easy to put together in the morning (or even the day before) and it turns out delicious every time. It’s a staple in our house not only because it’s easy, but because everybody loves it! I often make a double batch and the leftovers disappear for lunch the next day!
Important Notes about this Slow Cooker Butter Chicken:
- This dish is just my take on a classic food and the version I serve to my family and in no way is it truly authentic. Feel free to adjust the seasonings to make it your own!
- It’s not spicy at all, by design. If you’d like some spice, go for it by adding some cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes.
- To make it vegetarian, you can swap out the chicken for chickpeas!
The best thing about this meal is how easy it is to prepare. A few steps all in the slow cooker and dinner will be waiting!
What does butter chicken taste like?
There are a few stories out there about the true origins of butter chicken, but some tales said it was created by accident by repurposing leftovers. And isn’t that how all good recipes come about? No matter how it was created it’s safe to say that butter chicken is a universally loved dish. It has mild curry flavors and a creamy tomato sauce and is great for anyone who has never tried Indian food before.
Why I love this easy slow cooker meal:
- Making slow cooker chicken breast can seem boring, so aren’t we all always looking for new recipes to cook chicken? Chicken doesn’t have to be boring! In fact, if you haven’t tried butter chicken, you are in for anything but boring chicken!
- Even my picky 5 year old devours it. You can make it a tad spicy or keep it mild. It’s rich and creamy and made with coconut milk and a little cream added at the end for that something extra.
- It’s a no prep dish, meaning nothing has to be cooked ahead of time. Just toss in the slow cooker for a delicious meal at the end of the day.
Ingredients you need to make this butter chicken sauce:
And if you don’t love curry flavors, I’ll bet you’ll love this Slow Cooker Lemon Chicken recipe instead.
Slow Cooker Butter Chicken
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts (cut into bite sized pieces)
- 1/2 sweet yellow onion (diced)
- 3 teaspoons jarred minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon red curry paste
- 2 teaspoons curry powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 14.5 oz can coconut milk
- 6 oz can tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1/4 cup heavy cream (for later)
- 2 cups Basmati Rice
Instructions
- Add all ingredients except cream and rice into slow cooker and stir to combine
- Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours or low for 6-8
- Stir in heavy cream and return cover to let it heat through while you make the rice
- Cook rice according to package directions
- Serve rice topped with chicken and with a side of naan if desired
Notes
- This is not spicy at all. If you'd like some spice, go for it by adding some cayenne pepper or red pepper flakes.
- To make it vegetarian, you can swap out the chicken for chickpeas.
- To make this dairy free, you can leave out the cream and butter (yes, it is still very tasty that way!)
Nutrition
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My grandson is allergic to coconut. Could you suggest a good substitution for the can of coconut milk? Would love to make this recipe and if there are no good subs for the coconut milk, I will just have to make sure that my grandson does not eat it.
I think you could successfully sub out additional heavy cream, but you might need to play with the ratios a bit. I don’t think you’d want to use as much cream as coconut milk. Maybe about 2/3 of the amount?
Love this recipe! What is your recommendation for converting this to instant pot? Thanks!
Here is my Instant Pot version! https://garnishedplate.com/instant-pot-butter-chicken/
Yes! I’ve been waiting for the instant pot version! Thank you!
This was amazing! Making it for the second time today! Adding cauliflower and potatoes the last 30 min- let’s see how that goes! Thank you!
I made this for a quick dinner tonight and it was sooo easy and super yummy! Sometimes I just get a butter chicken itch and I love that I can just throw ever in the crockpot. However, I did not add the curry paste (didn’t have it on hand), I instead replaced it with Garam masala omitted the turmeric and added cumin. This is definitely a keeper, thanks!!
So glad you enjoyed!
Tried this yesterday. Was kinda disappointed. The chicken was tender but not very flavorful. Thought with all those spices that it would be extremely tasty. Just wasn’t exciting- bland. Won’t be making again.
So sorry you didn’t enjoy it Sue.
Hi! Can you make this just on the stove top instead of in a slow cooker? What would that process be? Thanks!
This could be converted to a stove top recipe but as that is not my speciality I haven’t tested it out to know with certainty what adjustments would be needed.
does the calorie count in the nutritional information includes calories for the rice? or is the rice not included in the 560 calories?
it includes the rice.
can you sub the heavy cream for butter milk?
I’m not sure! I’m not certain the flavor would go well.
I’ve been making this for months and my family LOVES it. I noticed you just changed the recipe. There never used to be butter. Did anything else change?
Thanks Kelly! Yes, I did update for two small changes and I will go back and make a better note about this on the recipe card, my apologies!! I got so many negative reviews because I hadn’t included butter that I thought it best to update so I added the butter and reduced the cream by 1/4 cup. Feel free to make either way, results are pretty much exactly the same! 🙂
The whole family loved it! Just enough heat to give a little kick, but not too much that the kids couldn’t eat it. The only change I made was to leave out the cream, as I need it to be dairy free. This is my second time making it in less than a week, because the kids were begging me to make it again!
Thanks for a quick, easy, yummy meal!
Yay! Great news!
This is an awesome recipe and so easy — my whole family loved it! The only change I made was to not add the cream at the end, simply because I forgot to pick it up at the grocery store. It still was amazing without the cream. Thank you so much for making my weeknight dinner list a little more interesting!
So glad you loved it!
Sounds delicious! Did you cube the chicken prior to adding it to the slow cooker slow cooker with the other ingredients?
I left my chicken breasts whole and frozen when I put them in and then just shredded them with tongs right before serving.