Healthy Instant Pot Butter Chicken with Cashew Butter
Course: Main Dishes
Cuisine: Indian
Main Ingredient: chicken
Prep Time: 15 minutesminutes
Cook Time: 50 minutesminutes
Total Time: 1 hourhour5 minutesminutes
Servings: 6
Calories: 302kcal
Author: Paint the Kitchen Red
Instant Pot Cashew Butter Chicken is an irresistible recipe inspired by butter chicken, but without the extra calories. The succulent pieces of chicken are spiced to perfection and cooked in a rich and vibrant tomato sauce. This is a quick and easy recipe that’s perfect for a weeknight!
Select Saute and allow the Instant Pot to heat up. Once the inner pot has heated up, add ghee.
Once the ghee has melted, add cinnamon, cardamom, and cloves and stir until fragrant, about 15 seconds.
Stir in onion, ginger, garlic, green chilis and saute the onion mixture until onions are rich golden brown. This may take 10 to 15 minutes. Be patient and don't let the onions burn. **
Press Cancel. The spices will cook in the residual heat.
Stir in coriander, cumin, chili powder, turmeric, salt, fenugreek and honey. Deglaze with a small amount of broth if you find that the spices are burning.
Stir the spices with the onion mixture for about 30 seconds.
Stir in the chicken and broth. Scrape the bottom of the inner pot to make sure there are not brown bits stuck to the bottom.
Close the lid and pressure cook on High Pressure for 4 minutes.
Allow the pressure to release naturally (NPR). This usually takes 15 minutes. Press Cancel and open the Instant Pot. *** [Read More: The Different Pressure Release Methods]
Select Saute mode and stir in the cashew butter, gram flour, and garam masala.
Heat through until thickened, stirring frequently, about 1 or 2 minutes.
Press Cancel and stir in chopped cilantro.
Serve with toasted naan or basmati rice.
Video
Notes
Prep time does not include steps that are already accounted for in the ingredient list, e.g. cut up chicken, chopped onion, etc.
* American tomato sauce (called tomato passata in the UK), not tomato ketchup. Use ¾ cup if you prefer to have a less bold tomato flavor. The flavors do mellow if you wait a day.
** If the onion starts to stick to the bottom or burn, add a tablespoon of broth to deglaze and continue sauteing. Do this as often as needed until the onions are cooked properly.
*** If you’re short on time, it’s perfectly okay to do a 10 or 15-minute natural release i.e. wait for 10 or 15 minutes and release pressure.
See the blog post for more detailed recipe tips. You don't want to miss any!