No more simmering Low-Carb Butter Chicken Curry all day long – get that unique combination of creaminess and spices that sing, in 30 minutes. No ninja meal prep or knife skills required.
Butter chicken at breakfast?
I’ve been making butter chicken in my slow cooker for years now. I use a great recipe from Planning With Kids and it bubbles away all day long, slowly tenderizing the chicken.
While I love using my slow cooker, sometimes it’s just not practical to get the prep going in the morning. I don’t know about you, but I’m not a huge fan of browning chicken on the stovetop before breakfast. The kids complain that it just doesn’t complement their breakfast cereal!
We don’t have butter chicken as often as my family would like, mainly because I don’t really like cooking dinner at breakfast time.
So I’ve had various attempts at creating a version that can be made in a snap when you get home after work, or after the kid’s tennis lessons. The goal was a creamy butter chicken that would be on the table in 30 minutes AND low-carb.
Quick and easy butter chicken curry
This butter chicken is easy and quick but it’s is also like coming home and curling up in your favorite chair. It’s comforting and nourishing as well as being low-carb. I serve this with either cauliflower rice (bought or home-made) or low-carb noodles.
If you’re following a strict ketogenic or low-carb diet then your macro requirements will help you decide if you can have the cauliflower rice or whether the low-carb noodles is a better option.
Keto Freezer Meals
This butter chicken freezes beautifully so if you have any leftovers, be sure to freeze them in a ziplock bag or a pyrex container.
If you want to get serious about meal prep though, you’ll love this keto freezer meal recipe for Korean Barbecue Beef that uses an Instant Pot or Slow Cooker. It’s as easy as freezing all of the ingredients together and, when you’re ready to eat, cook the pre-packaged ingredients and you have a delicious, keto meal ready for the whole family to enjoy!​
For more 30 minute recipes for busy families, you’ll love:
7 Easy 30 Minute Low-Carb Meals You Can Adapt For Carb Eaters
7 Day Low-Carb Diet 30 Minute Dinner Plan
7 Easy Low-Carb Soups You Can Make in 30 Minutes
Quick prep for the Best Low-Carb Butter Chicken Curry
Get your large fry-pan onto medium heat and start by dicing your onions up nice and small. Prep your garlic or used minced garlic if you’ve already been asked “when is dinner going to be ready?” by at least one child.
Before I start cooking, I also like to get all my spices ready and measure them out into a little bowl. That way, I can just dump them into the pan when called for, and not be scrambling around to find a backup jar of cinnamon when I realize that it’s near empty.
When your pan is hot, add the oil and butter at the same time. The oil helps to stop the butter from burning.
Cut up your chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces. You could use chicken thighs here. If using thighs, cut them up into bite-size pieces to ensure that they’ll cook in time, and brown them in the butter and oil. Once browned, remove the chicken thighs from the pan and add the onion and garlic as per the recipe steps.
How to cook Indian butter chicken in 30 minutes
When the oil and butter is melted, add the onions and garlic and cook for a few minutes until the onion is softened and the garlic is fragrant.
Now add the coconut milk (unsweetened), curry paste, tomato paste, yogurt, spices and salt. Mix everything around and turn up the heat.
Serve with
Once the mixture is starting to bubble, taste and add more salt if needed.
Now you’re ready to reduce the heat to a simmer and slide in the chicken. Let the chicken simmer away for around 15 minutes or until it is cooked through.
Butter chicken is perfectly paired with rice, however as rice is not low-carb, I usually serve it with cauliflower rice or konjac noodles. Prep some cauliflower rice or the noodles while the chicken is cooking.
If you like this recipe, you might also like this simple recipe for chicken korma.
Cauliflower rice v white rice
One cup of cooked white rice has 44g of net carbs and next to no fiber.
Swapping cauliflower rice for regular white rice is a far healthier approach as it boasts many powerful health properties, as well as being low-carb.
100g of cauliflower provides the following nutrients¹:
- Anti-oxidants
- Vitamin C – 46mg (77 percent DV* Daily Value)
- Vitamin K – 16mcg (20 percent DV)
- Folate – 57 mcg (14 percent DV)
- Potassium – 303 mg (9 percent DV)
- Vitamin B6 – 0.2 mg (11 percent DV)
- Manganese – 0.2mg (8 percent DV)
- Fiber 2.5 g
100g of white rice contains small amounts of potassium (35 mg), Fiber (0.4g), calcium, iron, B6 and magnesium.
Read our Guide to Cauliflower Rice and learn everything you need to know to make, buy and store it – read the guide & get the recipe here.
Cauliflower rice is also readily available in both fresh, frozen and pre-packaged varieties.
Butter chicken with noodles
If you’re wanting to keep your carbs lower, an alternative is to serve Best Low-Carb Butter Chicken with konjac noodles.
They usually just need to be heated in a bowl of boiling water before serving. I always have a few packets of these in the pantry. They come in noodle shape and rice shape so you can try either. People either love ’em or hate ’em, so give them a try and decide for yourself.
Keto konjac noodle brands to try outside the U.S.A. :
Canada – Nu Pasta, Better Than Noodles, Miracle Noodles
Europe – Zen Pasta
U.K. – Yutaka Shirataki Konjac Noodles
Australia – Slendier Noodles (also at Woolworths) or check Amazon.com.au for more varieties
Best Low-carb Butter Chicken is sure to be a family favorite in your home before long. It packs a huge flavor punch for your 30 minutes. Enjoy with cauliflower rice or konjac noodles and a generous sprinkling of cilantro.
1. Dr Axe: https://draxe.com/cauliflower/
★ Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating below!
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Best Low-Carb Butter Chicken Curry
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 14 oz coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon Indian curry paste butter chicken curry paste
- 1/2 cup tomato paste
- 3/4 cup greek yoghurt or plain wholemilk yogurt, plus optional extra to serve
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 2 tsp ground coriander (cilantro)
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
- salt
- 2 lb chicken breasts sliced into bite sized pieces
- 4 tbsp cilantro to serve
Instructions
- Heat butter and oil in a large fry-pan over medium heat.
- Add the onion and garlic and cook for a few minutes until fragrant.
- Add coconut milk, curry paste, tomato paste, yogurt, spices, salt and bring to the boil.
- Reduce the heat to low and add the chicken. Simmer for 15 minutes or until cooked through. Prep cauliflower rice or konjac noodles if required.
- Serve with cauliflower rice or low-carb konjac noodles.
Notes
★ Did you make this recipe? Please give it a star rating below!
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Keto White Chocolate Coconut Fat Bombs
Very nice. Simple and quick. Replaced the Greek yoghurt with full fat creme fraiche to lower the carbs. Superb!
Great idea to use the creme fraiche. I’m really glad you like the recipe!
The best curry I’ve ever made!
Thanks so much Lucy! It means a lot to us to hear that the Butter Chicken Curry was a success. We appreciate you commenting 🙂
Made this for dinner last night. It was DELICIOUS!!! It’s even better left over today for lunch! Yum. Thanks for this amazingly easy recipe!
I’m so happy that you liked our low-carb butter chicken! I always make enough to have leftovers and usually freeze some for a quick meal another night 🙂
How much is considered 1 serving? I made this and it was delicious, added 1tsp cayenne for heat. Loved it!
I’m so glad you liked it and adding the cayenne is a great idea to make it a bit hotter!
The whole recipe, using 2lb of chicken breast makes 6 servings. One serving is the whole recipe divided into 6 equal portions. The recipe info (below cook time) includes how many servings the recipe makes. You can adjust this based on how many people you are cooking for and it will alter the ingredient quantities for you.
Hope that helps 🙂
This looks delicious, curious though, as to what the measurement of a serving size it. Thank you
The recipe makes 6 servings and the nutritional info is for 1 serving.
I always love your post, they are always so informative. This looks absolutely amazing, can’t wait to try it for dinner.
So glad you found it helpful!
yess!! I love cauli rice! This looks so delicious and healthy!! now I definitely want some of this!!
OH my goodness – this looks absolutely amazingly delicious!! Your photos are beautiful, too!
Enjoy! I hope you like it 🙂
This sounds so good! I love the use of cauliflower! Yum!
I hope you enjoy it!
This looks amazing! I bet the cauliflower rice soaks up all of that delicious sauce, yum! I’m also not a fan of making dinner first thing in the morning, so that’s a major reason that my slow cooker only comes out for parties.
Yes! The cauliflower rice is so tasty when it soaks up the butter chicken sauce. That’s one of the best bits…