Butter Chicken Meatballs – a fun twist on an Indian restaurant favorite! Tender chicken meatballs are smothered in a flavorful, Indian-spiced tomato sauce for a delicious meal that will become a new favorite. Serve over rice with naan for a perfect dinner any night of the week.
One of my favorite things to order at Indian restaurants is butter chicken or murgh makhani (or anything smothered in makhani sauce really, like paneer makhani). There is something about the butter sauce that is downright irresistible. It’s perfectly spiced, creamy, and luxurious.
Generous sauce portions are a must because there is nothing better than coating steamed rice in it and sopping up extra sauce with naan.
Making One-Pot Butter Chicken at home is easy to do, and a great substitute for those times we want to stay in. This Butter Chicken Meatballs version is another variation we are obsessed with and it so much quicker too! No need to marinate chicken. Instead, this recipe comes together in just 35 minutes, shaving about an hour of time off of the classic chicken dish!
Delicious, tender chicken meatballs smothered in a creamy, spiced tomato sauce and it all comes together in almost half an hour? There is so much to love about this dish!
We love to serve these saucy meatballs over rice and with lots of naan bread to soak up that extra sauce! If you don’t have any naan bread on hand, this Yogurt Flatbread is a good, healthy substitution.
Why we love this recipe
- It’s delicious! This dish is perfectly spiced, ultra creamy, and flavorful.
- It’s ready in just 35 minutes! Replacing chicken with ground chicken meatballs shaves off a whole hour from the classic version!
- You can easily change things up to suit your own tastes. Adjust the spices as you see fit to make a dish you really love.
- Leftovers are just as delicious! Some dishes get better the next day and I personally feel like this is one of them. The flavors have time to meld together and the meatballs absorb so much yummy flavor from the sauce, that they are extra tasty the next day.
Ingredients in Butter Chicken Meatballs
- Ground chicken: Fround turkey can also be substituted.
- Traditional meatball ingredients: Egg, breadcrumbs, onion, ketchup, parsley, salt and pepper. All of these ingredients get mixed with the ground chicken and then formed into meatballs.
- Spice mix: Garam masala, brown sugar, chili powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, ginger powder, salt. This seasoning mix gets added to the tomato sauce to make it ultra flavorful!
- Ghee or butter: Of course, this is where the name of the sauce comes from! The ghee or butter adds a richness to the sauce that makes it extra tasty.
- Tomato passata: The base of the tomato sauce.
- Cream: Adding cream to the sauce adds to its richness and makes it ultra luxurious. If you wish to have a lighter sauce, you can use milk but cream will is what makes it extra creamy and finger-licking good.
- Coriander: To garnish.
**Note: Ingredient quantities and full instructions are in the recipe card at the end of this post.**
How to make Butter Chicken Meatballs
- Prep. Preheat oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Make the meatballs. In a large bowl, add of the chicken meatball ingredients and mix together. Scoop out a golf ball size amount of the mixture and roll it into a ball using the palms of your hands. Arrange meatballs on baking sheet and bake for 20-23 minutes or until cooked through.
- Prepare the spice mix. Meanwhile, mix of the spice ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
- Simmer the sauce. In a saucepan or skillet, add the tomato passata and spice mix and bring to a simmer. Add the butter and continue to stir until the butter is melted. Simmer the sauce for a few minutes and then add the cream or milk. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning as needed.
- Combine sauce and meatballs. Add the cooked meatballs to the sauce and coat evenly. Serve over basmati rice.
Storing leftovers and reheating
Once cooled, leftovers can be placed in an airtight container and stored in the fridge.
To reheat them, I like to place leftovers in a saucepan and heat them through on medium-low heat to ensure the meatballs get heated through. You may need to add a little water to the sauce as it may reduce by the time the meatballs warm through.
Alternatively, you can microwave leftovers.
How to serve
I often make these butter chicken meatballs with my Baked Rice recipe (lowering the bake temperature to 375 so that I can cook the rice at the same time and I just add some cook time to the meatballs to compensate for the temperature adjustment).
Don’t forget the naan when serving this dish. You don’t want to let any of the sauce go to waste!
I hope you enjoy this delicious twist on butter chicken!
You may also like these meatball recipes:
Salisbury Steak Meatballs
Baked Swedish Meatballs with Gravy
Keftedakia – Greek Meatballs
Greek Spanakopita Chicken Meatballs
Chicken Zucchini Meatballs (You can even use these meatballs to add some veggies to this dish!)
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Butter Chicken Meatballs
Ingredients
For the chicken meatballs:
- 1 lb ground chicken
- 2 large eggs
- 3/4 cup bread crumbs
- 1/4 onion finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons ketchup
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon parsley finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
Spice mix:
- 1 1/2 tablespoons garam masala
- 2 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 3/4 teaspoon ginger powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
Other sauce ingredients:
- 4 tablespoons ghee or butter
- 2 cups tomato passata
- 1/2 cup cream (or milk for a lighter, healthier sauce)
- coriander to garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, add of the chicken meatball ingredients and mix together. Scoop out a golf ball size amount of the mixture and roll it into a ball using the palms of your hands.
- Arrange meatballs on baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes or until cooked through.
- Meanwhile, mix of the spice ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
- In a saucepan or skillet, add the tomato passata and spice mix and bring to a simmer. Add the butter and continue to stir until the butter is melted. Simmer the sauce for a few minutes and then add the cream or milk. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning as needed.*
- Add the cooked meatballs to the sauce and coat evenly. Serve over basmati rice.
Notes
Note: Metric ingredient measurements are provided as a courtesy using a third-party calculator and are rounded to the nearest unit. The recipes provided on this site have not been tested with metric measurements and their accuracy cannot be verified.
Nutrition
The nutritional information provided is based on third-party calculations and is an estimate only. Accurate nutritional facts will vary based on the particular brands used, portion sizes, measurement accuracy and more.
