Butter Chicken Meatballs
Everyone’s favorite butter chicken made into the most tender, most amazing meatballs! So saucy, so good. Serve with rice + naan!
Is it weird that I prefer this than the more traditional butter chicken?
I mean, it’s meatballs. It’s basically not even a competition. Meatballs trump all. Meatballs made with ground chicken, Panko, egg, cilantro and curry powder baked until tender and melt-in-your-mouth amazing, then smothered, dunked, and swimming in the sauciest butter chicken goodness.
Serve with warm, toasted naan and basmati rice to get all the saucy bits. And if you have any leftovers (which would be impossible because it’s just that good), you can make an Indian pizza. That’s what we did, and it was the best pizza of my life.
I may make this again just to repurpose the leftovers for that pizza again!
Butter Chicken Meatballs
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ medium sweet onion, diced
- 1 jalapeno, seeded and diced, optional
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
- 2 teaspoons garam masala
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
- 1 6-ounce can tomato paste
- 1 ½ cups chicken stock
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- ⅓ cup heavy cream
For the meatballs
- 1 ½ pounds ground chicken
- ½ cup Panko
- 1 large egg
- 3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
- 2 teaspoons yellow curry powder
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- To make the meatballs, combine chicken, Panko, egg, cilantro, curry powder, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper in a large bowl. Using a wooden spoon or clean hands, stir until well combined. Roll the mixture into 3/4-to-1-inch meatballs, forming about 36-40 meatballs.
- Place meatballs in a single layer onto the prepared baking sheet. Place into oven and bake until lightly browned and cooked through, about 15 minutes.
- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and jalapeno, if using. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 3-4 minutes.
- Stir in garlic, ginger, garam masala and turmeric until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in tomato sauce, tomato paste and chicken stock; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced and slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.
- Stir in heavy cream and meatballs until heated through, about 2-3 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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Really easy and delicious. I’m not a fan of ground chicken, but this recipe changed my mind.
Can this be frozen?
Laura what I do is I make the meatballs and bake them. I let them cool and place them on a cookie sheet on parchment paper and freeze them. Once frozen I put them in my food saver bag and seal them. When I want them for dinner, I defrost overnight in the frig and the next day continue with the recipe. For me this saves a lot of time. I personally do not think the whole recipe would freeze. I hope this helps.
My nephew loved it. Swapped out heavy cream for coconut milk. Great recipe
Fantastic sauce! Just made the sauce to go with our homemade paneer, added a little extra cream to suit our toddler. This was the best restaurant-quality Indian sauce we’ve ever made. Thanks so much for sharing! Can’t wait to try the meatballs next time, and definitely going to see if you have a tikka masala recipe!
This is my new favourite butter chicken recipe! I agree with other reviewers, the sauce is excellent. I served it over brown rice and added green peas on the side. In a pinch I would just make the sauce and toss in cooked, shredded rotisserie chicken.
This is literally, hands-down, one of my family’s favorite recipes of all time. Not only is it absolutely, finger-licking, bowl-scraping delicious, but it’s NOT hard to make. It’s really a no-fail recipe. We’ve even made larger meatballs and stuck them on sub rolls! ::drool:: My motto is, “the more cilantro, the better.” Full disclosure, one time I completely forgot to add the cream at the end….. and there were still NO LEFTOVERS.
Love this! I sub ground chicken for ground Turkey. This sauce is really good on salmon too.
So tasty! We are not a huge curry/Indian spice fan family. I doubled the recipe because it looked so good, Threw caution to the wind, trusted what I read in the flavor development. My non-curry loving HB loved it! So much he enhanced a frozen piece of lasagna with the flavor flav sauce. It’s a keeper.
Fantastic! I didn’t have Panko on hand so I just toasted some random bread and cut it into very tiny squares. Also, didn’t want to turn the oven on in this heatwave so I just pan fried the meatballs in a little canola oil. Made the garam masala from scratch which was fun and saved me from buying it at the store. And best of all, my parents who absolutely do not like Indian food at all, really enjoyed it. The naan and rice were an excellent addition. A super comfort food!
Super easy and flavorful recipe. Easy to make for a beginner. Added extra vegatables, and 2% milk instead of heavy cream. Lean ground beef instead of chicken, but I bet turkey would be good too. Next time will add more spice/jalepenos. Will make again fo sho.
This is the BEST butter chicken recipe EVER!!! It will be a staple in my house. The sauce alone is divine. I doubled the recipe and replaced the cream with coconut milk. Fantastic!
I will use this sauce with paneer. I love paneer.
Thank you!
I was looking for a recipe to use ground turkey with. Don’t tell my husband I used ground turkey or ground chicken for these, but he really likes them. I gave some to my daughter for she and her husband and she immediately asked for the recipe. I really like this recipe and it’s really pretty easy. Thank you!
This sauce is unreal!! I could just eat it with a spoon. I’ve made this recipe in the past exactly as written and the meatballs are fantastic. My husband and I have been trying to eat a more plant-based diet over the last few months, so I made this last night with cubes of baked tofu and some baby spinach wilted into the sauce at the end. Served over rice with garlic naan. HOLY SMOKES, it was so good! Your recipes are always my go-to, so thank you thank you thank you!
Made this today paired with Indian flat bread and it was sooo delicious! My husband liked it so much that it would be part of our menu rotation from now on!
I make this almost once a week. My whole family loves it! My 1 year old and 5 year old love it over rigatoni!
My partner and I both had phones in hand ready to order take out when I decided to make this instead. And we were both so glad I did! Takes exactly like take out. I added a touch more cream because we like ours creamier and used an immersion blender to smooth out the pieces of onion and jalapeño. Won’t blend it when I make it again- unnecessary step. The meatballs were a good use of the ground chicken in the freezer, would prefer chicken breast or skinless thigh or shrimp. Perfect balance of flavors, not spicy and I was shocked at how easy it was to make. 10/10 -will make again!
I made these and they were beyond damn delicious!! I could easily eat these 3 times or more a week. The flavor is so incredible!!
I am intrigued about the Indian Pizza for the leftovers How do you make that? Naan, sauce, meatballs…. and….???? Please I really would like to know. Thank you!
Making this again tonight. Will be the third time in a month. I can’t get enough and thankfully it’s a fave of my 3 picky eaters. Going to get naan from a local restaurant and serve with riced cauliflower for myself, rice for the rest of the family and some roasted broccoli.
Do you happen to have the nutritional information for this? Is it posted and I didn’t see it?
Best butter chicken recipe yet. Even with replacing the heavy cream with 2% milk, it was absolutely delicious.
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Really enjoyed these – did 1 lbs turkey, 1/2 lbs pork since that was what we had in the house. Blended in the food processor for a smoother texture. These were delicious and my kids loved them. Also used full fat coconut milk since we’re dairy free. Really enjoyed these!
That was damn delicious too! (I cooked the peanut butter noodle recipe as well)
How did you repurpose into a pizza?
I made this for my wife and I and it was delicious! I substituted coconut milk for the heavy cream (my wife is currently dairy free) and added freshly sliced mushrooms to the sauce (simply because I had extras that I wanted to use). Additions aside, it turned out great!
This was so good. Like some of the other reviewers, I was at a grocery store that didn’t carry ground chicken, so I used a combination of ground turkey and ground beef. Turned out great. We served ours with naan, rice, and green beans. Many in my family stirred the green beans into the sauce. Delicious recipe. Thank you!
Made this last night. Great Recipe!
Oh my gosh, these are absolutely delicious. We will definitely be making these again.
I just made these, exactly as written. Already ate 2 meatballs from the pan! Delicious. Tonite with rice and naan, I know it will be over the moon.
Will definetly be made over and over.
Thanks for all of your great recipes…
OMG SOO GOOD! I cut the leftover meatballs in half and stores them in the sauce and they were even better the second and third day!
Also subbed parsley for cilantro because I hate cilantro haha worked perfectly! Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Made this last night and my husband and I both LOVED it. The only issue was keeping my husband away until it was done. The aromas of the spices filled the house in such a delightful way he could barely stand it! Great recipe.
This recipe was amazing! Next time I make this I will add more jalapeños or maybe a Serrano pepper. Just wondering if there is a way to see the nutritional information on your recipes? Calories, carbohydrates, etc.? Thanks!
Another winner! Flavors are really good. I served with naan bread, rice and peas. We just used the naan to sop up all the delicious sauce that wasn’t soaked up by the rice. For a variation on this, I may toss diced chicken in curry powder, salt and pepper and cook it before adding it to the sauce – and of course sprinkle some cilantro on top. Yum, yum! Can’t wait to eat the leftovers for lunch!
I made this tonight and it was really good! My only suggestion is to put the actual measurements of salt and pepper in the ingredients list for the meatballs. I was following the ingredients list and it only says “to taste”, so I just sprinkled some in. Later in the directions, it gives 1tsp and 1/2 tsp as the amounts. I wish I had seen that sooner, I definitely should have added more salt, so they were a bit bland.
Other than that technicality, it was great! I’ll definitely make it again with the right amount of salt.
Very tasty!
I accidentally bought ground turkey♀️ Can it be used as a substitute for ground chicken? Thanks!
I couldn’t find ground chicken anywhere, so I decided to try ground turkey & it was a hit. My teenage son even loved it!
There in the oven. Looks great. I used regular bread crumbs. I always have panko. I’ll let you know how they turn out. I didn’t get the amount of meatballs that you got. Mine were tiny. Lol I got 27. I’m sure that it will be fine. Smells delicious. Thanks for sharing.
Can I use regular breadcrumbs. I ran out of panko
Made this tonight for dinner and it was so good! The meatballs were very tender and delicious.
Looks oh so good. A must to make. How do you make Indian Pizza with the leftovers of this recipe. I tried search on your website & nothing appeared.
Wonderful recipe!
Question: How can we get YOU on the FoodTV network? Your recipes are always tasty and look so beautiful! Many of us are tired of the same ole people on FoodTV with the same old styles – You would be a breath of fresh Air!
Thank you Chungah!
I’ll be making these tomorrow. I agree..You SHOULD be on the Food Network.
Made this earlier in the wee. Absolutely delicious