Paneer Butter Masala (Paneer Makhani)
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Restaurant style Paneer Butter Masala is easy to make at home. This base of this creamy curry is made with onions, tomatoes, cashews, cream, and butter. It has a mild sweet taste and is lightly spiced and pairs beautifully with garlic naan or jeera rice.
Paneer is a key ingredient in Indian vegetarian recipes, and rightfully so. Not only is it delicious, but it also soaks up anything you add it to beautifully. You add it to a spinach-based curry and get palak paneer and when you cook it with peas, you get matar paneer.
And then there’s this very popular Paneer curry with butter and cream, called Paneer Butter Masala (also known as Paneer Makhani). This used to my favorite paneer dish growing up, I would always order it at restaurants. The creamy tomato sauce with soft paneer paired so well with the soft and fluffy naans, and I would always overeat!
Everyone has their own of making the sauce for this dish, some add nuts, some add only cream. While some use both onions and tomatoes, others use only tomatoes for the base. It’s all a personal choice and depends on what you prefer.
I have made this recipe several times with tomatoes only and I have realized that I like adding some white/sweet onions to my butter paneer recipe for the extra flavor, but it does taste good with just the tomatoes too.
Remember not to use red onions here. A lot of times, they have a very strong flavor and that will affect the final taste of the dish. So, stick to the white or sweet onions for this dish.
Ingredients
Paneer: You can buy paneer from any Indian grocery store, it’s usually in the cold section along with yogurt, milk etc. You can also make paneer at home, which tastes much better than any store-bought paneer.
Onion-tomatoes: The base of the curry is made with onions, tomatoes, ginger-garlic. I like using white onion for this recipe for its subtle and sweet flavor. Using tomato paste is optional but it enhances the tomato flavor further.
Cashews: To thicken the gravy and make it creamier, we use cashew in this recipe. For this paneer butter masala recipe, we need raw, unsalted cashews. If you don’t have cashews, you can also use almonds but blanch them before using them.
Spices: Whole spices like cinnamon, bay leaf, cloves and ground spices like garam masala, Kashmiri red chili powder, cardamom are used in this recipe for flavor and aroma.
Butter and cream: Since this is a creamy curry, butter and cream are added to make it thick and rich. They also help in balancing the flavors and giving the dish that sweet touch.
Manali’s Tips to Make Restaurant Style Paneer Butter Masala
Okay, I have heard this so many times – that my paneer butter masala doesn’t taste like the one at restaurants. Here’s what you need to do to make it absolutely perfect!
- Use nuts in the gravy: yes, it makes the sauce thick and creamy and so you need to use nuts in the recipe. Cashews and almonds both work, you can even use a combination of both. However, do not use a lot of nuts because then the final curry will be super thick, and I wouldn’t recommend that. I suggest using 10-15 cashews for 250 grams of paneer.
- Be generous with the cream and butter: I am not asking you to use 1 cup of both but don’t use ½ teaspoon either! This is an indulgent dish and so you need to be a little generous with fat if you are looking for that restaurant style taste.
- Use minimal spices: this recipe doesn’t need a lot of spices. A bit of garam masala and cardamom powder is plenty. I also add little chili powder and Kashmiri red chili powder (mainly for the color). The flavors of this dish come from fresh tomatoes, cashews, ginger, garlic, butter and cream!
- Homemade paneer makes its even better: I know it’s not always possible but if you can, use homemade paneer. It really makes so much difference. Here for this recipe, I have used store bought paneer, but I often make it with homemade paneer and you can tell that it’s way better.
- Add sugar to balance the flavors and for that subtle sweet taste: paneer butter masala should have a little sweet taste to it, and you get that from adding cream and sugar. I don’t use a lot of sugar, only 1 teaspoon but that helps in balancing the flavors.
Let’s Make Paneer Butter Masala
- Cook the onions and tomatoes with whole spices
Sauté the whole spices with onions, ginger and garlic. The tomatoes go in next with the cashews and then cover and cook for 15 minutes or so until soft. We are going to make this into a paste, so don’t worry about finely chopping anything at this point.
- Grind the masala to a paste
Once the onions tomatoes are cooked, remove the whole spices and then grind everything into a fine paste. You should ideally wait for the masala to cool down before grinding it else the blender lid will blow off and everything will on the floor (I have been there done that!)
- Sauté Kashmiri red chili powder in butter for that bright red color!
Once the butter melts (make sure it doesn’t burn and this is why adding a little oil is important), add the Kashmiri red chili powder and fry it for a few seconds. This will give the curry a really nice red color.
- Stir in the masala paste, cream, and paneer
The prepared paste goes in next along with some spices like garam masala, cardamom powder and of course some salt and sugar. Finish with some cream and the star ingredient-paneer. Enjoy it fresh homemade naan. YUM!
Tip: If using store-bought paneer, soak it in hot water for 20 minutes before using it in the recipe. The paneer becomes soft and the texture is better this way.
Recipe Notes
- The curry thickens considerably as it cools down. While reheating, you would need to add some water to thin it out.
- If you don’t have cream or are out of cream, you can either skip the cream or add some coconut milk for that richness. You can also reserve some of the cashews and blend it with milk and add that to the curry later on.
- Use a good quality Kashmiri red chili powder to get that nice color of the gravy. Frying the red chili powder in butter for few seconds is important for that bright color of paneer butter masala.
- This recipe can be easily doubled, you would just need to double all the ingredients in the recipe. I will be careful about doubling the garam masala though. If you double the recipe, add 3/4 teaspoon garam masala only at first and then go from there.
How to Make Paneer Butter Masala, Step by Step
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons oil 10 ml , divided, I used avocado oil, use any flavorless oil
- 1 bay leaf
- ½ inch cinnamon stick
- 3-4 whole cloves
- 6-7 large garlic cloves 25 grams , roughly chopped
- 1 & ½ inch ginger 15 grams , roughly chopped
- 1 large white onion 180 grams , roughly chopped
- 3-4 medium tomatoes 460 grams , roughly chopped
- 10-15 whole cashews raw
- 1 cup water 8 oz
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ½ teaspoon red chili powder
- ½ teaspoon kashmiri red chili powder
- ½ teaspoon garam masala + 1/4 teaspoon , if needed
- ¼ teaspoon cardamom powder
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ¾ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ½-1 tablespoon tomato paste optional
- 3-4 tablespoons cream 45-60 ml
- 250 grams paneer cut into cubes
- 2 teaspoons crushed kasuri methi dried fenugreek leaves
- chopped cilantro to garnish
Instructions
- Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a pan on medium heat. Once the oil is hot, add 1 bay leaf, ½-inch cinnamon stick, 3-4 cloves and sauté for a few seconds.
- Then add 6-7 garlic cloves (roughly chopped), 1 & ½ inch ginger (roughly chopped) and 1 large white onion (roughly chopped) and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes until the onion is translucent.
- Add 3-4 medium tomatoes (roughly chopped), and 10-15 raw cashews and mix. Then add 1 cup water. Cover the pan with a lid and cook on medium heat for 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes, remove the pan from heat. Remove the bay leaf, cinnamon stick and cloves from the pot. Then let the mixture cool down a bit and then transfer to a blender. It’s important to let it cool down a bit else it will all blow up from the mixer. Grind the masala to a smooth paste and set aside.
- To the same pan now add 2 tablespoons butter along with remaining 1 teaspoon oil on medium heat.
- Once the butter melts, add ½ teaspoon red chili powder and ½ teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder and fry for a few seconds. This will give the curry a nice orange-red color.
- Then add the ground paste back into the pan along with ½ teaspoon garam masala (start with ½ teaspoon and add the remaining ¼ teaspoon at the end only if you feel like the curry needs that extra bit of garam masala after taste testing), ¼ teaspoon cardamom powder, 1 teaspoon sugar, ¾ teaspoon salt and ½-1 tablespoon tomato paste (if using). Mix well and cook for 1-2 minutes.
- Then add 3-4 tablespoons heavy cream and mix.
- Add in 250 grams of paneer (cut into cubes) and cook for 2 to 3 minutes on medium heat. Finally add 2 teaspoons kasuri methi (crushed).
- Garnish paneer butter masala with cilantro if you like and serve hot with naan or rice!
Video
Notes
- If you want to make this vegan, use vegan butter in place of regular butter, coconut milk or cream in place of heavy cream and tofu in place of paneer.
- You can add water or milk to thin down the curry and adjust as per the consistency you prefer.
- Do not overcook the paneer, it makes the paneer hard and chewy.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Will give this a try. I ate paneer makhanwala at a restaurant yesterday, and was lovely, especially the cardamom taste. Will use your recipe to replicate the taste, the cardamom flavour really come out in the dish as its fairly mild.
Absolutely delicious! Tasted exactly like a restaurant makhani and so easy to make 🙂
Thanks Hannah!
Thank you so much for your recipes. My wife and I love this one. I’ve made a few adjustments to the spices (increase kashmiri to 1 tsp, add turmeric 1 tsp, add cumin 1/4 tsp, add coriander 1/8 tsp, reduce cardamom to 1/8 tsp, increase cream to 3/4c). We have been exploring curry dishes, and owe some of our start to you Manali, thanks!! -Keith
I always make using this recipe. It’s comes out very well. Thank you for giving such a good recipe 💐💐
Thanks Latha, I am glad you like it!
Fantastic! I have tried and it tasted delicious 🙂
Thanks for trying!