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Restaurant Style Paneer Butter Masala served with a side of parathas and jeera rice.

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Restaurant Style Paneer Butter Masala

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Here’s an easy recipe for the perfect restaurant style paneer butter masala for all you paneer (cottage cheese) lovers! I love serving this with parathas and jeera rice. It’s always a hit with family and guests!

An easy recipe for the perfect restaurant style paneer butter masala for all you paneer (cottage cheese) lovers! I love serving this with parathas and jeera rice. It's always a hit with family and guests!

This restaurant style paneer butter masala is definitely one of my favorite recipes forever, and it is one of my most viewed recipes on the blog. I decided to give the pictures and the post a face lift so that we can have the most amazing paneer butter masala for as long as we want!

So here’s the thing with paneer butter masala. If you are a paneer lover, it is the king of all paneer recipes.

More Paneer Recipes that you’ll love: Saag Paneer, Tandoori Paneer, Easy Palak Paneer, Paneer Bhurji, Creamy Matar Paneer and Spicy Achari Paneer

Creamy, slightly tart and makes me mop up the gravy with anything I can get my hands on. Just the thing you need when you are craving comfort food but want something that hits all the right notes.

Here's an easy recipe for the perfect restaurant style paneer butter masala for all you paneer (cottage cheese) lovers! I love serving this with parathas and jeera rice. It's always a hit with family and guests!

This is completely against the healthy binge I’ve been on. But paneer butter masala has it’s own place. With some naan of course. Or tandoori roti. Or lachha paratha. Or bread. Whatever works. Or whatever’s on hand.

Because this is what I want after too many salads, or too much chicken or too much ghar ka khana and there’s nothing like it. You get that right?

This one’s a no brainer. It’s not a super long process and if you have some of my makhani gravy on hand, all you need to do is heat up some butter, let the gravy bubble up and add paneer. Done.

BTW this Makhani Gravy is mega awesome and super handy

Just in case you are wondering, paneer butter masala is also known as paneer makhani. They are made in a tomato based gravy and use oodles of butter and cream which gives the gravy a smooth, creamy texture.

If you are a paneer lover, here are some questions you will have. I know. And thats why I am here to answer them 🙂

How do you make paneer (cottage cheese) at home?

Making paneer at home is simple and needs only two ingredients – milk and acid (lemon juice or vinegar work well). You will need to heat milk and add the acid and simmer the milk till it curdles and separates into whey and paneer or cottage cheese. I have a super handy, step by step tutorial on how to make paneer here.

Here's step by step instructions to make homemade Indian paneer (cottage cheese) in just 15 minutes. The next time you want to make saag paneer, palak paneer, makhani, tikka or matar paneer, don't buy store bought and just make this at home with 2 ingredients.

Coming back to my extra favorite paneer butter masala. You can always go to the whole hog and make your own paneer at home (which only takes 15 minutes BTW and is the most satisfying experience) or you can buy store bought paneer. This recipe is so versatile that if you would rather have chicken butter masala instead, you can always substitute the paneer for chicken. Works both ways!

Here's an easy recipe for the perfect restaurant style paneer butter masala for all you paneer (cottage cheese) lovers! I love serving this with parathas and jeera rice. It's always a hit with family and guests!

Doesn’t that melting butter just take your heart away? And say gimme gimme.

Watch Paneer Butter Masala Recipe Video (Step by Step)

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Restaurant Style Paneer Butter Masala served with a side of parathas and jeera rice.

Restaurant Style Paneer Butter Masala

★★★★★ 4.8 from 75 reviews
  • Author: Richa
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 50 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 6 portion 1x
  • Category: Mains
  • Cuisine: Indian
Print Recipe

Description

Here’s an easy recipe for the perfect restaurant style paneer butter masala for all you paneer (cottage cheese) lovers! I love serving this with parathas and jeera rice. It’s always a hit with family and guests!

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons Butter
  • 250 grams Paneer cubes (or Cottage Cheese)
  • 3 Kashmiri Red Chilies
  • 1 teaspoon Ginger Paste
  • 1 teaspoon Garlic Paste
  • 1 Bay leaves
  • 1 inch Cinnamon Stick
  • 3 Cloves
  • 2 Cardamoms
  • 1/2 teaspoon Peppercorns
  • 2 tablespoons Cashew Nuts (Chopped)
  • 1 teaspoon White Poppy Seeds (Khus Khus (Optional))
  • 1 Onion, roughly chopped
  • 6 Tomatoes, roughly chopped
  • 1/2 teaspoon Chili powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon Garam masala (Powder)
  • 1/2 teaspoon Turmeric (Powder)
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons Ketchup
  • 1 tablespoons Kasuri Methi (Dry)
  • 2 tablespoons Fresh Cream
  • Salt to taste

Instructions

  1. In a large pan or kadhai, heat a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of oil.
  2. Add red chillies, ginger, garlic paste and all the whole spices (bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and peppercorns). Alternatively, you can also wrap the spices in a muslin cloth and add them to the pan (take this out after the tomatoes are cooked down). Saute for a minute or two and add cashew nuts, poppy seeds (if using) and onions. Once the onions turn translucent, add the tomatoes. Mix well.
  3. Cover and cook till the tomatoes start breaking down and the mixture starts leaving oil at the edges. Switch off the flame and set aside to cool.
  4. Once cool enough to handle, fish out as many whole spices as possible, and blend the mixture to a smooth paste in a food processor or blender.
  5. In the same pan or kadhai, heat the remaining butter and add the blended paste prepared in step #4. Add garam masala powder, chili powder, turmeric, ketchup, salt along with 1/2 cup water. Bring this to a boil.
  6. Once the curry comes to a boil, simmer and cook for 30 minutes, till the oil separates slightly. Cut the paneer into bite sized pieces, add it to the gravy and mix gently.
  7. In another pan, dry roast the kasuri methi and grind it to a fine powder. Mix kasuri methi and fresh cream in the curry and switch off the flame. Serve hot.

Notes

  1. Paneer: If you’d like to try and make paneer at home, you can check out this recipe
  2. Tomatoes: Roma tomatoes work best for paneer butter masala because they are not as sour as the local varieties

Restaurant Style Paneer Butter Masala
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Comments

  1. Deepika Mathur says

    Full marks to this recipe. Made it thrice now… to suit each family members palate… spicy, medium spicy and Zero spice. Kids, hubby and my parents licked it thru! The color, fragrance and taste all come together so beautifully. My hubby insists we need to retrain our cook once life eases post this pandemic 🤣… since paneer makhani is back in our menu after a break of nearly 2 years!!!

    Have to add here that I have never cooked beyond an egg my entire grown up life… combination of low patience and zilch interest in cooking esp Indian food…. but now 40 years in + a Pandemic lockdown forced me to cook for my kids!!! Thanks to myfoodstory the food is delish. Never thot the food cooked by me could be more that just edible. 😁 Heartfelt gratitude to myfoodstory for yummy meals had in the last 2 months!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  2. Divya says

    So easy and simple ingredients
    Literally had aromatic flavours in my kitchen and I took out extra cream from the recipie to make it a healthier version for my gym freak hubby and tasted heavenly and as delicious

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  3. Harshita says

    Honestly I wish I could rate this more than 5. They pair really well with the garlic naan recipe.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  4. Sharal alva says

    Whenever I visited a typical northern Indian restaurant I would always order for paneer butter masala and always used to wonder how these guys end up doing such creamy gravy!! And here Ifound an answer for it!! This recipe of paneer butter masala which is like super simple with least ingredients and super super creamy and tasty. I have tried several recipes for the same but could find anything simple easy and tasty recipe ever!! Cheers for many more

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  7. Arpita Mishra says

    It is an amazing recipe for the end result, and the steps are pretty simple to follow. It’s a must try !

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  9. Nithya says

    Super easy recipe as it claims to be. Tweaked it a little to suit our tastes preferences. The dish turned out to be extremely flavourful and finger-licking good! It was waaaay better than restaurant-style. Definitely added to my go-to recipe list.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  14. Shaunna says

    This is one of our fave dishes, we have made it a for dinner guests and we made our own cheese. But fir future i want to double the quantity. Can you advise me on this please as to not to under or over power the dish?

    Reply

  15. Anjana Ganjiguntae says

    Thank you for the recipe! Followed it to a T (well almost), I had to skip out on the cream and replace it with whole milk as I didn’t have cream at home. Still the choice of spices you use brings out a very good flavor. The whole family loved it.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  16. Aparna Mukherjee says

    now it is a special dish in my house, my son loved this and if he achieved something in his study as gift he wants this dish.. so thank u for d recipe

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  18. Parvathy says

    Hi Richa…stumbled upon your recipe quite by chance. First things first – my 5 yr old, my 60 yr old and my husband and me absolutely loved it!

    I have always been wary about recipes that said ‘restaurant-style’, because they usually aren’t…. so naturally I was somewhat reserved as I followed your recipe… but man was I wrong! This was truly restaurant-style! Infact this has to be one of the best outcomes in my kitchen in a long while… thank you so much for sharing Richa!

    Reply

  21. Venissa says

    Hi,

    Tried this recipe today n it ws a hit at my place…. Tasted better than d restaurant one…. I dint discard the spices though…. Thank u fr d recipe

    Reply

  24. Claudia says

    Wow, this is going to be my go to Paneer Butter Masala from now on. In fact, I am going to serve it as part of my Dad’s 60th Birthday Party Menu. Thank you for this fantastic recipe.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  26. Someone says

    This recipe works! One addition, fry the paneer a little in butter before adding it to the gravy.. Takes it up a notch!

    Reply

  28. aparna mukherjee says

    it was amazing i cooked it today, everyone praised, taste was really like restaurant… i hv taken photograph too.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  29. Naina says

    Absolutely delicious ! I love the fact that it doesn’t feel heavy after eating, especially in our summers !

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  33. Amrapali says

    My whole family love the recipe . They are happy and so I am . Thanks for sharing such good recipe with all. A heartfelt thanks dear.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  34. Vidya Shenoy says

    Awesome recipe… perhaps one of the best and made with simple ingredients that u are bound to find in most Indian kitchens!!!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  35. Rekha Karnam says

    The recipe is simple and tasty. Loved it. I added the whole spices, then the paste. Did not pick them out. Still worked fine. Thank you

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  36. Athul says

    May I know how many person does it serve for? ..and would it affect the taste if we omit onions and garlic?.. cuz I’d seen some other recipes without ’em.

    Reply

      • Rucha says

        Mine still tastes sour, after following the recipe, it shouldnt taste sour so I dont know how to omit that out

        ★★★

        Reply

        • Richa says

          Hey Rucha! The sourness can be a result of the tomatoes you use. Sometimes a batch can be extra sour and that can affect the taste. You’ll have to use ripe Roma tomatoes and also adjust a little sugar to take care of the sourness.

          Reply

  37. Anu says

    Great recipe!! Thank you for sharing. As my husband can’t have chilies, i put a little MDH Karahi paneer masala to enhance the flavours.

    Reply

  41. prasanna says

    OMG!!! Tried it….it tasted awesome just as restaurant style…..loved itt……thank u so much dear

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  46. Paul says

    Excellent recipe that tasted as good as I’d hoped. I substituted paneer for tofu. And it was simple enough for an amateur cook (and a Caucasian male engineer) and my wife loved it!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  47. kwlc79 says

    Hi, I would like to try this for my very fussy kids. I was just wondering if I could omit the red chilies and chili powder? Thanks.

    Reply

    • Richa says

      Yes absolutely. Omitting the chillies will affect the colour and the gravy will be paler looking, but shouldn’t affect the taste. You can also substitute the chillies and the powder for something milder like paprika.

      Reply

    • Richa says

      Hey there, omitting the chillies completely would definitely affect the taste and colour. How about if you omit the dried red chillies, but use some paprika while simmering the sauce (gravy)?

      Reply

  48. Karolina Kunowska says

    In the point 5. you say “… heat the remaining butter and add the curry paste.” but in the ingredients part you don’t mention the curry paste. Do you mean by that all the spices you add, which is “garam masala powder, chili powder, turmeric, ketchup, salt”?

    Reply

  49. Neha says

    Hi Richa
    Your recipe is really a worth try! Everyone in my house really liked it a lot. Thankyou so much
    Keep posting such nice recipes

    ★★★★

    Reply

  51. Cesalyn Pillay says

    Hey Richa😊
    Thank you so much for this delicious recipe! I tried it today and I also used your recipe on how to make paneer. I was so shocked at how simple it was! Thank you so much! My husband loved it!

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  53. Brandon says

    “Alright! Finally got all of the ingredients and am ready to make this”

    Step 5: …add the curry paste.

    “Wait…what?”

    Should have read the recipe and not relied on the ingredient list…

    ★★★★

    Reply

  54. Nora says

    I made a few quirks considering many ingredients were missing in my kitchen…yet it turned out to be simply superb😀… Just wondering, as I put the mixture to simmer at the lowest possible flame, there was a lot of spurting of the curry, any way to reduce that?

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  58. Shivani says

    Hey Richa! Thank you for sharing such a great recipe. I am gonna try this out today and I believe it’s gonna be a hit!😊

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  59. Ashwini says

    Hi Richa,

    Thanks for the recipe.
    I have one question though; why we have to discard whole spices from curry paste mixture and later add garam masala separately? Can’t we keep those whole spices and skip garam masala?

    Reply

  61. Susanne says

    This was a really awesome recipe. I have tried to make swedish indian recipes before, but most of them miss that little extra. Shall I use yellow or red onion? And can I use grounded kasuri methi without roasting it? (Is fenugreek the same thing) Thanks again for this!

    Reply

    • Richa says

      Thanks Susanne! I recommend red onions but yellow will work too. Ground kasuri methi without roasting it is fine too. Kasuri methi is just dried fenugreek leaves so yes, they are essentially the same thing.

      Reply

  62. Prathmesh says

    Hi Richa, thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe. I’m a big Paneer lover just like you and paneer butter masala holds a special place in my heart and stomach😄. You added tomato ketchup in the recipe, I really liked that. I haven’t tried it but I’m going to try it out. It’s definitely going to add a tangy punch in the recipe. Again thanks for sharing.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  68. Charu S. says

    Best PBM recipe & I have tried countless others. Teenage sons LOVE PBM – have to make frequently. I have bookmarked this forever! Thank you so much.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  73. Kavyanjali Arora says

    This recipe looks perfect to me. I will give it a try. But before that, I have a query. Can I use Kashmiri Red Chili powder instead of whole Kashmiri Red Chilies? If yes, what quantity should be used?

    Reply

  76. Donna C says

    Would you please clarify Step 4? “Once cool enough to handle, fish out as many whole spices as possible, and blend the mixture to a smooth paste.” Do you mean blend the whole spices to a paste, or discard the whole spices and blend the remaining mixture to a paste?

    Reply

    • Richa says

      Hey Donna, I’m sorry thats not clear in the recipe. I mean that you should discard the whole spices and then blend it to a paste. Alternatively, you can also tie up the spices in a muslin cloth (like I’ve shown in the video) and discard them and then blend everything together.

      Reply

    • Richa says

      Hey Supriya, you can but I’m not a big fan of adding curd instead of cream. The curd might split because of the tomatoes, and will make this recipe really tart. If you don’t want to add cream, increase the cashews by a tablespoon or two to get the same creaminess.

      Reply

  81. Poonam says

    Tried paneer butter masala and it turned out very delicious and creamy the way i wanted. Would like to have more recipies from you.

    ★★★★★

    Reply

    • Richa says

      Hey Sudhir, I have several mushroom recipes on the blog. Just go to the search bar and search for ‘mushroom’ and it should throw up all the relevant results.

      Reply

  84. Akshaya says

    I wasn’t able to quite reproduce the bland-yet-tasty flavour of panneer butter masala for a long time…this recipe is just perfect…! Everyone loved it so much and I finally got a site to follow for North Indian recipes, yayyy…surfing pasta recipes too..will comment after trying that out 🙂

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  89. Jijo Joseph says

    Paneer is one of my favorite dishes and Thank you so much Richa for this fabulous recipe…I loved it so much….Such a great ful one…
    I have all my support with u sis..😊
    Keep rocking…..and waiting for your next crackers❤ …

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  91. Thapaswini das says

    Hy Richa!!
    I don’t have kashmiri chillies😕
    Can I use byadgi chilli???? If yes then how many byadgi chillies should I use??????

    Reply

    • Richa says

      Yes you can! Byadgi chillies are spicier so I would cut them to 2-3, but it totally depends on your taste. Also, the kashmiri chillies add to the colour which may not happen with byadgi chillies.

      Reply

  93. ANINDITA says

    I wanted to cook Paneer yesterday hence I was searching for a recipe and came across your easy and simple recipe. I tried it and my Dad said that it tasted like it was brought from the restaurant. I brought some today for lunch and my office colleague also got confused and thought that it was brought from the restaurant.

    Thank you so much and I look forward to many more such recipes.

    Warm regards,

    Anindita

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  96. Amy says

    Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.. I am an amateur cook, I made it for my husband and he loved it 🙂

    Reply

  99. MA says

    I tried this receipe & omg it was bomb! Bursting out with subtle flavours Mr.hubs was all impressed!! Thank you.

    Reply

  103. Shawn says

    Absolutely delicious . Made this a few times now and love every bite. All my friends and family enjoy it aswell. Have shared with many people.

    ★★★★

    Reply

  105. Ballari. Chengalrayulu says

    Dear Madam,

    In description video, you have put one punch of cloth, what this? what ingredients having cloth? Kindly to be give reply in this regard and also thank you for such a great recipe

    Reply

  107. fathima says

    I tried it today….it was great and perfect panneer butter masala…loved it…thank you so much for the recipe

    ★★★★★

    Reply

  108. Natasha Sisodiya says

    Amazing and easy reicpe! The whole family loved it. Only change I made was to add 1 tsp cumin powder.❤️

    ★★★★

    Reply

  111. Vee says

    Hey in this recipe you use onions but your makhani gravy recipe doesn’t mention onions. I’m super confused. Should I or should I not? That is the question 😜

    Reply

    • Richa says

      Hey Vee, I just have two slightly different recipes – one with onions and one without. You can use either of them because they both taste amazing! I hope you try it out!

      Reply

  113. Sonal says

    Dear Rciha,
    I tried the Paneer Butter masala yesterday and it was yummy! the recipe was so simple , special focus on how easy you’ve explained it to us.
    Got a thumbs up from family !
    Thanks again Richa.

    Reply

  118. Richa Gupta says

    Niveditha, thank you so much! You made my day with your comment. So glad you liked it, and I hope you’ll try out other recipes from the blog 🙂

    Reply

  119. Niveditha Saurabh says

    Hi this is the best makhni gravy that I have tried so far.. Thanks for posting it.. I have found my most favourite dish recipe so simple yet delicious.

    Reply

  121. Jodie Montgomery-Cranny says

    Ooo oh my this looks good! And for so few calories I could enjoy this on my fast days! saving and making asap!

    Reply

  123. Jaideep Gandhi says

    i absolutely loved it. Superb taste and texture. This will become my go to recipe. Thank you very much for sharing 🙂

    Reply

  124. Richa Gupta says

    This is one of my favorite Indian dishes Laura, and it’s actually one of the most popular ones in India. I hope you try it!

    Reply

  125. Laura Kumin says

    I love the sound of this – Indian comfort food. Although I haven’t made much Indian food (at least compared to other types)

    Reply

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