Malai Chicken Recipe

Make this better than restaurant Malai Chicken under 50 minutes. Tender chunks of pan-fried chicken simmered in an aromatic, delicious & creamy sauce. For the uninitiated, Malai Chicken is Indian style creamy white chicken curry that is minimally spiced & low in heat with unique mild flavors.

It is best served with Tandoori roti, Naan, Basmati rice, Yellow rice or Saffron rice.

About Malai Chicken

Malai Chicken translates to cream chicken and is often seen on the North-Indian restaurant menus. It is basically a dish where chicken is simmered with milk, onion nut paste and spices. Lastly finished with some cream.

There are numerous versions of this dish and restaurants serving Mughlai foods make it with an addition of yogurt & kewda or rose water while other restaurants just use milk and cream. The spice combinations used also vary and this is what breaks or makes the dish.

If you have never been able to enjoy Indian foods due to the high heat and spice levels, this Malai chicken is the way to go! It is also kids’ friendly and is great to make for parties.

About this recipe

People order Malai Chicken in restaurants because everything else is overly spiced, hot and oily. There are only a few options for kids and those who prefer low heat levels.
But surprisingly the restaurant versions are very disappointing.

This Malai Chicken recipe makes a delicious & flavorsome dish with tender chunks of chicken. You can easily adjust the heat levels to your preference. Make it hot and spicy if you prefer or leave out the chilies for a milder dish.

Boneless chicken is first marinated in yogurt, spices and herbs to tenderize. We make the white gravy and later add pan-fried chicken to this gravy. You can also oven bake or air fry the chicken prior to adding into the white curry.

Photo Guide

How to make Malai Chicken (Stepwise Photos)

Marinate the chicken

1. To a mixing bowl, add the following ingredients:

• 1½ teaspoon ginger garlic paste
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons Greek yogurt (hung curd)
• ¾ teaspoon garam masala (no chili powder included)
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder
• ½ teaspoon black pepper crushed
• ½ teaspoon kasuri methi (crushed, dried fenugreek leaves)

2. Mix well and taste test to adjust salt and heat levels. Avoid using runny yogurt because we want the marinade thick so it holds the chicken while pan-frying.

3. Add it to ½ kg (1.1 lbs) cubed chicken (boneless breasts or thighs cut to 1½ inch pieces) and marinate well. Cover and rest aside for a minimum of 30 minutes up to 36 hours in the refrigerator.

To saute and puree

4. If you do not have a powerful grinder, soak 15 cashew nuts in half cup hot water until needed, later. You will need the following ingredients to make the malai gravy:

• 2 to 3 green cardamoms
• 1½ cups (150 grams) onions sliced (avoid red & purple onions)
• ¾ inch ginger peeled & sliced
• 2 large garlic cloves peeled & sliced
• ½ cup full fat milk (or milk with malai or heavy cream, I use milk)

5. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a pan and add cardamom, onion, ginger and garlic.

6. Saute on a medium heat for 4 to 5 mins, until they turn transparent & lose the raw flavor. Do not brown them. Cool completely.

7. Transfer them to a grinder jar along with cashews and milk/cream.

8. Grind to smooth puree.

Make Malai Chicken Gravy

9. Prepare and set these ingredients ready:

• 1 to 2 green chili (chopped or deseeded & slit, adjust to heat, leave out for no heat)
• 1 black cardamom (optional)
• 2 inch cinnamon (optional)
• 2 cloves (optional)
• 2 strands mace (optional)
• ½ to ¾ teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
• ½ to 1 teaspoon Garam Masala (divided, no chili powder included)
• ½ teaspoon black pepper (optional, adjust to taste)
• ⅛ to ¼ teaspoon nutmeg grated
• ½ teaspoon kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves)

10. Pour 1 tablespoon ghee to the same pan. Add black cardamom, mace, cinnamon, cloves and green chilies. Let them sizzle for 30 seconds and pour the puree. Be careful as the spices can splutter.

11. Pour water and mix well. Start with 1½ cups and add another half cup later if required.

12. Bring to a gentle boil on a medium heat. Cover and cook until thick and the raw flavor of onions has completely gone. This takes about 12 to 14 mins. Half-way you may taste test your gravy and discard the chilies for low heat preference.

12. Meanwhile, another tablespoon ghee to a large wide pan and heat it. Place the chicken pieces and fry them on a medium flame on each side for 3 mins.

13. If you want you may brown the chicken and if you want you can also under cook it at this stage and finish in the curry. I also cut each piece to smaller sizes with a spatula at this stage.

14. Once the gravy is cooked, it turns thick and loses the raw flavor of onions. You will also see specks of fats on the gravy. Taste test to see if the gravy still has the raw onion taste. I used 2 cups water in total and cooked for 14 mins.

15. This is the consistency. At this stage if you want, you may discard the whole spices and chilies. I do remove mine.

16. Add salt, garam masala, kasuri methi, nutmeg, black pepper and the chicken.

17. Mix well. Cover and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Taste test and adjust salt and spices as needed. If you want you may add 2 to 4 tbsps heavy cream. I do not use.

Garnish Malai chicken with with crushed black pepper. Serve with Tandoori roti, Naan, yellow rice or saffron rice. Onion salad, vegetable salad or kachumber go well on the side. If you want you may squeeze some lemon juice while serving.

Pro Tips

• 2 cups of water may seem a lot for this recipe. But it is essential to cook down the onion puree very well until the raw flavor is lost. Also simmering for long results in a more creamy curry. Start with 1.5 cups and add more only if needed.
• I prefer to cut the chicken to 1½ inch pieces before marinating and cut them further with a spatula after pan-frying, before adding to the gravy. It is easier to pan-fry larger pieces of chicken than the smaller so I do that.
• I haven’t felt the need to use heavy cream at all in this dish. Because when you simmer full fat milk it’s going to make the dish creamy naturally. But if you want you may either add it while blending the onions or to garnish later.
• This recipe uses yogurt only to marinate the chicken. Slightly sour yogurt also works well to marinate and that imparts tangy flavors to the chicken.
• Your dish will have a different color if your garam masala includes red chili powder.
• If you want you may add a few drops of kewda or rose water for a floral aroma. These also have preservatives added to them so use accordingly.
• If making for kids, avoid the green chilies. But also note that if you do not use them, the heat levels will be very low.
• If you use heavy cream and lemon juice both at the last stage of finishing or serving, the gravy may curdle.

Related Recipes

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This post is from the Archives and was first published in 2014. Updated in October 2023 with a new recipe.

Recipe 2 – Red Malai Chicken

There are different versions of malai chicken served in restaurants and is mostly a region based thing. So the recipe I have shared here is not the Punjabi dish but it is a variation & tastes extremely good. This recipe was inspired from a malai chicken that I got to eat in Bangalore many years ago.

Name this whatever!! But give this recipe a try. I am sure you will be in love with my version of malai chicken. The recipe is pretty easy. Briefly saute the chicken and then marinate it with yogurt, tomatoes, herbs and spices.

Tips to Make Malai Chicken

An overnight marination not only helps the chicken soak up all the flavors but also make it so tender, juicy and succulent. Later cook the chicken along with the marinade on a very low flame.

Then to finish off and balance the tang add as much cream as you like. So this recipe like the murgh malaiwala uses no milk at all.

If you like to further simply the dish then use tomato paste instead of cooking down the pureed tomatoes.

There is one more ingredient which brings a unique flavor to the dish. That is fried onions. These are the same deep fried onions used in making authentic Hyderabadi biryani.

However if you are on a low fat diet, then just fry the thinly sliced onions in 3 tablespoons oil until crisp and golden. They won’t turn as crisp as the deep fried onions but they will be flavorful. Alternately you may air fry the onions until crisp and golden or use store bought onions.

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