If you've scanned our menu looking for "butter chicken" and landed on Chicken Makhni instead, you haven't missed anything — they're the same dish. "Makhni" is the Hindi word for buttery, and it's the name the dish actually goes by in most traditional Indian kitchens. "Butter chicken" is the English translation that stuck outside India. We list it as Chicken Makhni because that's the honest name for it; either way, it's what you're picturing when you think of the dish.
What's actually in it
Chicken Makhni starts with chicken marinated and cooked in the tandoor — our clay oven, fired well past 900°F — the same way we prepare our tandoori chicken. That char and smokiness is the base of the dish, not an afterthought. The tandoori chicken is then simmered into a gravy built from tomato, butter, and cream, rounded out with warm spices rather than sharp heat. The result is rich and slightly sweet, with the tomato doing most of the talking.
It's one of the most-ordered dishes on our menu, and for good reason: it's the easiest entry point into Indian food if you've never had it before, and it's genuinely one of the best things we make.
Is butter chicken spicy?
Not by default. Chicken Makhni sits on the mild-to-medium end of our spice range on its own — the butter and cream mellow it out. Like most of our curries, it's on our adjustable spice system: tell your server mild, medium, or spicy, and the kitchen adjusts the chili accordingly. If you want the classic version, mild is the safest call. If you want more heat while keeping the same sauce, medium is a good middle ground without losing what makes the dish work.
Butter chicken vs. chicken tikka masala
These two get confused constantly, and the confusion is fair — they're close cousins. Both start with tandoori chicken. The difference is the gravy: Chicken Makhni's sauce is built primarily on butter, tomato, and cream, and reads sweeter and richer. Chicken tikka masala's gravy typically carries more of a spiced tomato base with a sharper edge. If you've had one and are curious about the other, they're worth trying side by side — different enough to notice, close enough that fans of one usually like the other.
How to order it
Chicken Makhni is available for dine-in, pickup, delivery, and catering — it's one of the mains in our Essentials and Signature catering packages. It pairs naturally with garlic naan or onion naan to scoop up the gravy, and a side of basmati rice if you want to stretch the sauce further. It's also a safe, crowd-pleasing choice if you're ordering for a table that's new to Indian food — mild heat, familiar textures, and a name most people already recognize by its English translation, even if ours is printed the other way.