Restaurant Style Paneer Butter Masala

Paneer Butter Masala served in a black bowl with naan and sliced onions on the side

Restaurant Style Paneer Butter Masala

Here's an easy recipe for the perfect restaurant style paneer butter masala. It's a luscious onion tomato gravy with creaminess from cashews, khus khus (poppy seeds), butter and cream. Soft paneer simmered in this gravy is a big hit with everyone

Course Main Course

Cuisine Indian

Diet Vegetarian

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 40

Total Time 50

Servings Portions

Calories 246kcal

Author Richa

Ingredients

1 tablespoon Oil neutral flavoured like canola, rice bran, sunflower
3 tablespoons Butter divided
250 grams Paneer cubes or Cottage Cheese
3 Kashmiri Red Chilies
2 teaspoons Ginger Garlic Paste
1 Bay leaves
1 inch Cinnamon Stick
3 Cloves
2 Cardamoms
½ teaspoon Peppercorns
2 tablespoons Cashew Nuts chopped
1 teaspoon Khus Khus White Poppy Seeds
1 Onion roughly chopped
6 Tomatoes roughly chopped
1 ½ teaspoon Salt divided
½ teaspoon red Chilli powder cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon Garam masala
½ teaspoon Turmeric
1 ½ tablespoons Ketchup
1 ½ teaspoon dried Kasuri Methi roasted and crushed
2 tablespoons Fresh Cream

Instructions

Wrap the whole spices (bay leaf, cardamom, cloves, pepper) in a cheesecloth or muslin to make a bouquet garni
In a large pan or kadhai, heat a tablespoon of butter and a tablespoon of oil. Add kashmiri red chillies, ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute. Add onions and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Next add cashews and poppy seeds. Once the onions turn translucent, add tomatoes and a teaspoon of salt. Cook the tomatoes for 2-3 minutes and then add the spice bouquet garni along with ½ cup water. Cover and cook this for 15 minutes till the tomatoes soften.
Set the mixture aside to cool. Once cool, remove the bouquet garni and blend this mixture to a smooth paste. Add another cup of water while blending.
In the same pan or kadhai, heat the remaining butter and add the blended tomato onion paste prepared in step #3. Add garam masala powder, chili powder, turmeric, ketchup, ½ teaspoon salt along with ½ cup water. Bring this to a boil.
Once the curry comes to a boil, simmer and cook for 20 minutes, till you can see drops of oil floating to the top and along the sides
At this point, you can smoke the gravy if you like. Carefully heat a piece of lump coal using tongs till red hot. Place the coal in a steel bowl and place this bowl in the pan in a way that it doesn't submerge (watch video). Pour a teaspoon of oil on top and as soon as it starts smoking, cover the gravy for 2 minutes.
In another pan, dry roast the kasuri methi and grind it to a fine powder. Mix kasuri methi and a tablespoon of curry in the gravy. Add paneer cubes. Mix and simmer for 2 more minutes. Top with more cream or butter and serve hot.

Video

Notes

Paneer: If you'd like to try and make paneer at home, you can check out this recipe. If you are using store bought paneer, submerge the packet in hot water for 10 minutes before using. This will soften the paneer.
Tomatoes: Roma tomatoes work best for paneer butter masala because they are not as sour as the local varieties. Substitute fresh tomatoes with a 15 ounce can of diced tomatoes. Or use 1 ½ cups Tomato Puree or Tomato Passata.
Garam Masala: I use homemade garam masala, but you can substitute it with any store bought garam masala. Please note that garam masala is different from curry powder
Butter: I love adding butter to this dish, but you can substitute it with ghee
Sweetness from Ketchup: I think a really mild sweetness in butter chicken is actually nice and it balances the sourness from tomatoes. But feel free to reduce or increase the amount of ketchup based on what you like.
Kashmiri Red Chilli: Use this variety to get that dark red colour in the gravy. Red chilli varieties like Byadgi and Guntur do not give the same colour.

Nutrition