Name: Butter Chicken Meatballs
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 1 onion (chopped); 4 garlic cloves; 14 oz (400g) canned tomatoes (crushed / chopped); 2 tbsp tomato paste ((optional)); 1 tbsp fresh ginger (roughly chopped); 1 tbsp lemon juice; 2 tsp garam masala; 1 tsp ground cumin; 1 tsp ground turmeric; 1 tsp smoked paprika; 1 tsp salt; ½ tsp cayenne; 1 lb (500g) ground chicken; 1 cup (60g) Panko breadcrumbs; 1 egg; 1 tsp mild curry powder; 1 tsp salt; 1 cup (60g) Panko breadcrumbs (to roll the meatballs in (optional!)); 2 tbsp avocado oil (or olive oil); ½ tbsp butter; 6 tbsp unsalted butter (or to taste); ½ cup (120ml) heavy cream ((= double cream)); 2 tbsp fresh cilantro ((coriander) to garnish); chili flakes ((optional)); salt and pepper to season (to taste)

Butter Chicken Meatballs

If you’re craving the perfect combo of comfort food and creamy goodness, then this recipe for Butter Chicken Meatballs is exactly what you need. These moist meatballs swimming in a buttery sauce are bursting with flavor that everyone will…

Serves 6 servings

Prep 10 minutes

Cook 30 minutes

Total 40 minutes

Jump to the recipe

Tender Butter Chicken Meatballs in a rich and creamy spiced tomato sauce. Prepare to drool over this quick and easy restaurant-quality meal the whole family will go crazy for. SO MUCH YUM!!

We’re big fans of Indian food in our family, but our love for spices varies pretty wildly. While my husband and I love mid-to-spicy curries, our kids would act like they’re too hot to handle. Butter chicken curry – murgh makhani – is the perfect middle ground for us all and one of my all-time-favorite comfort foods.

If you love butter chicken then you will LOVE these Butter Chicken Meatballs! The divine buttery-creamy mildly spicy tomato sauce is enriched with butter AND cream so you know it’s to die for…

Best of all, this recipe is a real time saver. Traditional butter chicken involves marinating chicken for hours, followed by slow cooking in a clay pot or oven, but that’s not required for this meatball version.

Instead, the chicken meatballs can be made and pan fried quickly, and the sauce ingredients can be blitzed in advance, ready for the pan. The two are then combined and cooked on the stove in the same single pot or large skillet – no fuss, no muss and absolutely gorgeous!

extreme close up on butter chicken meatballs

What You Will Need for Butter Chicken Meatballs

Chopped / crushed tomatoes or you can use passata for a super smooth sauce
Yellow onion
Garlic cloves
Ginger: fresh ginger is best but you can use ginger paste or frozen chopped ginger in a pinch
Lemon juice
Tomato paste (tomato purée)
Spices: paprika, cayenne pepper, Garam Masala, ground cumin, turmeric, mild curry powder
Salt & pepper
Ground chicken (chicken mince)
Panko breadcrumbs
Egg, to bind the meatballs
Chicken broth or chicken stock made using a stockpot / stock cube
Cream: heavy cream (double cream) or you can use evaporated milk
Unsalted butter: with a recipe that has “Butter” in the title you can expect a fair bit of it in the sauce…
Cilantro/Coriander to garnish (if you are not a fan you can skip it, obvs)

If the mixture feels too wet to shape: don’t add more dry panko – it keeps releasing moisture as the meatballs cook. The reliable fix is to swap in a handful of fresh breadcrumbs soaked briefly in milk and squeezed out, which binds the mixture far better. Chill the shaped meatballs for 20–30 minutes before cooking so they hold their shape.

butter chicken meatball ingredients with captions

How to Make Butter Chicken Meatballs

↓ For the full ingredients and detailed method, jump to the recipe card.

Add all the ingredients for the curry paste into a mini chopper / blender and process until you have a paste.

Place the ground chicken, breadcrumbs, egg, curry powder, salt and two tablespoons of the curry paste you just prepared into a bowl. Mix really well then use a small cookie scoop to portion out 20-24 scoops of the meatball mixture.

Roll the meatballs in greased hands to make them perfectly spherical. Roll them in the Panko breadcrumbs to coat (<–– this bit is actually optional!).

Heat the oil and butter in a skillet. Pan fry the meatballs until golden on both sides, about 5-7 minutes. Set aside on a paper towel-lined plate and wipe the skillet clean.

Add a splash of oil to the pan and stir in the remaining curry paste. Pour the chicken broth into the skillet and bring to a simmer. Place the meatballs into the sauce, cover the pot and cook for about 10 minutes over low heat.

Make some space in your pan (you may need to transfer the meatballs onto a plate) and stir in the butter and cream. Cook for a couple of minutes and then have a little taste of the heavenly sauce – add salt and pepper, if needed.

Garnish with plenty of chopped cilantro (coriander), a pinch of red pepper flakes and a final drizzing of cream. Serve over plain basmati rice or pilau rice with naan bread or flatbreads and swoon over the insane deliciousness of this simple dish!

Recipe Notes

Like most curries, butter chicken meatballs taste even better the next day, just make sure to store leftovers in an airtight container and you can heat them up in a microwave or in a saucepan.
You can use store-bought meatballs if you like to speed things up. Vegetarian and vegan meatballs also work well in this recipe.
Use soya cream instead of heavy cream and a plant-based butter to keep this dish dairy-free.

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