This Instant Pot Butter Chicken Recipe Couldn’t Be Easier

Whenever someone I know buys an Instant Pot, the first thing I do is suggest they try using it to make butter chicken, because a good butter chicken recipe really shows off the Instant Pot at its best. Butter chicken is rich, creamy, and intensely flavorful, and the Instant Pot makes it possible to make restaurant-quality butter chicken in your house with very little time or effort involved.

This take on butter chicken from Yummy Toddler Food is designed to be kid-friendly enough for toddlers and babies just learning to eat solid foods, and accessible to even picky eaters, so it’s smooth and mild, while still being flavorful and delicious enough for adults. 

To start, pour a can of crushed fire-roasted tomatoes with some freshly grated ginger and minced garlic into your Instant Pot. Add some garam masala. Mix everything together, then nestle boneless, skinless chicken thighs in the sauce. Lock the Instant Pot lid and pressure-cook the contents on high for 10 minutes. 

When the cooking is done, turn off the Instant Pot and let the pressure release naturally for about 10 minutes, then use the quick-release valve to release the rest. At this point the chicken should be fully cooked and soft enough that you can take it out of the pot and shred it easily with a pair of forks. If feeding this to a baby, the author suggests chopping the shredded chicken into tiny pieces and letting the baby pick it up as a finger food. 

Use the Instant Pot’s sauté function to bring the sauce to a boil, then stir in butter and heavy cream. Let it simmer for a couple more minutes to reduce the sauce a bit further. If you want the sauce to be completely smooth, you can use an immersion blender or a regular blender at this point to blend the sauce into a monochrome purée with no visible chunks. If you like the big chunks of tomato in your sauce, you can go ahead and skip that step. 

Then just return the shredded chicken to the sauce and serve the butter chicken with rice or bread. Or just let it cool and put some of the chicken directly on the high chair tray and be ready for the baby to rub it all over their face and hair. That’s pretty much inevitable, but if any of the chicken gets in the baby’s mouth, it’s a win.

Get the recipe: Easy Instant Pot Butter Chicken from Yummy Toddler Food

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