Indian Butter Chicken (Insta Pot Style) // Shortcut Garlic Naan

I had never tried Indian food until I was 18 if you can believe it. B loves Indian food, but I found it so heavy, so we didn’t eat it often on date nights. However, after eating so much amazing Indian food in London/England, I developed a taste for some good curries!

I find Indian food tough to make since there’s so many flavors, but I’m excited to share this butter chicken recipe (adapted from A Spicy Perspective), the first recipe we made using our brand new Instapot!

I actually didn’t know what an Instapot was until recently. At the end of the year,  while we were on the Liver service together at Yale, I told my friend that I was planning on selling my blue couch. He then said, Wait, did you say you’re selling a BLUE couch? My wife was saying how much she wanted a BLUE couch! I didn’t know you had one!

Of course, he’s actually been at my home a million times, but I guess he never realized the couch he always sat on was blue.

We insisted to giving the couch to them, they insisted on paying for it, so the perfect solution for friends was a barter. He and his wife were huge Instapot fans and he offered to buy an Instapot for the blue couch, and we said deal! We were excited to try this famous Instapot, and my blue couch looked fabulous at their new home.

When we got it, it took a little but of help from our friends to set it up but we were able to boil water, boil corn, and make rice on our test run. The first real dish we made was of course a curry in honor of our friends. The butter chicken was not quite as creamy and thick as the restaurant version, but very flavorful; you could thicken it with more heavy cream and cornstarch.

I wanted to spice up the plain naan we had so I’m sharing the shortcut to Garlic naan as well below. Enjoy!

Indian Butter Chicken (Insta Pot Style)

Ingredients
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into bite-size pieces
4 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, diced
8-10 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger
1 tablespoon curry powder
2 teaspoons garam masala
3/4 teaspoon paprika
1 15-oz can tomato sauce (in the future I would try 1/2 sauce, 1/2 tomato paste)
2 cups heavy cream
bunch cilantro, chopped

Directions
Place the butter, chopped onions, garlic, ginger, and all spices in the Instant Pot. Set on Sauté for 5 minutes. Add the chopped chicken and canned tomato sauce and paste. Cook with Instant Pot on Pressure Cook High for 7 minutes. Once finished, turn the Instant Pot off and release the steam pressure.

Stir in the heavy cream. Set the Instant Pot on Sauté again and simmer for 2 minutes to thicken the sauce. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro and serve with fresh naan bread. Enjoy!

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Shortcut Garlic Naan

Ingredients
Naan bread
Olive oil
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Salt, to taste

Directions
Brush olive oil on both sides of the naan bread. Generously cover with garlic powder and onion powder. Toast until lightly golden brown and serve with any sauce or curry. Enjoy!