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A warming bowl of wholesome, Creamy Butternut Squash Butter Chicken. Indian-inspired butter chicken made with seasonal butternut squash, warmings spices, and creamy coconut milk. This dish is quick to make, cozy, wonderfully spicy – but not too spicy, and filled with warming Indian flavor. Complete each bowl with steamed rice and serve with fresh naan. And the leftovers the next day? They are even more delicious!
With two new butternut squash recipes this week, I think it’s safe to say I’m really enjoying the fall squash. Promise I have dishes with spaghetti squash, acorn squash, and yes, definitely pumpkin (both savory and sweet) coming soon. But this week it’s butternut squash!
I think most of you that read daily know of my family’s love for Indian-inspired dinners. Creighton, my oldest brother, who I find myself cooking for the most, is consistently requesting butter chicken. It’s one of his favorite dinners to order out and eat in.
The idea for this dish came with my urge to switch up a dinner that I consistently turn to in the fall. How could I add something new? Something yummy for fall?
Immediately I thought about how delicious butternut squash would be in a creamy butter curry sauce. I knew the squash could melt into the sauce making it even creamier, while also adding a sweetness that really pairs nicely with the spices.
It turned out so good. Creighton’s not in town right now, but I’m excited to make this for him as soon as he gets back. I sent photos his way via text, and trust me, he’s wishing he was here.
Ingredients
- Boneless skinless chicken breast
- Plain Greek yogurt
- Garam masala
- Paprika
- Cumin
- Turmeric
- Cayenne pepper
- Kosher salt and black pepper
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Salted butter
- Large yellow onion
- Cubed butternut squash
- Garlic
- Fresh grated ginger
- Chili flakes
- Tomato paste
- Full-fat coconut milk
- Fresh cilantro
Here are the details
The beauty of this recipe is how simple it is to throw together. It’s made from start to finish in one skillet on the stove and ready in under an hour.
You’ll want to start with the chicken. Just like a traditional butter chicken recipe, we’re first tossing the chicken with yogurt and spices. But instead of marinating overnight, I found that a quick 5 to 10 minute rest in the spices was really enough to do the trick.
While the chicken is sitting, I like to start in on the prep for everything else. Chop the onion, garlic, and ginger, grab that coconut milk and tomato paste, and get everything for the remainder of the recipe ready to go.
If you need to chop up your butternut squash, now is the time to do that! I will say that for convenience, you can use pre-cut butternut squash or frozen cubes. Both work wonderfully and will save you a lot of hands-on prep time.
When I have all the remaining ingredients prepped and ready for cooking, I sear the chicken with olive oil. The next step is key, add a couple of tablespoons of butter. Then allow the butter to brown around the chicken. This will really help to flavor the sauce.
To that same skillet, add the onion, butternut squash, and all of those remaining spices. Because we are using butternut squash, I didn’t want the tomato paste to overpower the flavor. So I reduced the amount of tomato paste that I’d normally use. Now, instead of the sauce being tomato based, it’s butternut squash based!
Stir in the coconut milk, or if you don’t enjoy coconut milk, use cream. Either is delicious. The coconut milk does add a special touch and keeps the curry dairy-free, minus the butter.
Allow the sauce to simmer and thicken around the squash and chicken. As the curry slowly cooks, the squash melts into the sauce. The sauce becomes creamy and buttery without having to add actual cream.
I like to serve this pretty traditionally, over steamed rice with fresh naan for scooping up the creamy, coconutty sauce. Absolutely DELICIOUS. You can’t skip the naan either. We love it so much that it’s reason enough to make this cozy fall version of butter chicken.
Looking for other Indian-inspired dinners? Here are my favorites:
Coconut Curry Salmon with Garlic Butter
30 Minute Spicy Indian Butter Chicken
30 Minute Butter Chicken Meatballs
Super Simple Coconut Chicken Tikka Masala
Gingery Coconut Sweet Potato and Rice Stew with Chili Oil
Lastly, if you make this Creamy Butternut Squash Butter Chicken, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Creamy Butternut Squash Butter Chicken
Servings: 6
Calories Per Serving: 499 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts/thighs, cut into bite-size chunks
- 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 2 teaspoons plus 1 tablespoon garam masala
- 1 teaspoons paprika
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1-2 teaspoons cayenne pepper, use to taste
- kosher salt and black pepper
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 4 tablespoons salted butter
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 2 cups cubed butternut squash
- 6 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger
- 1-2 teaspoons chili flakes, use to taste
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1 (14 ounce) can full-fat coconut milk
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
Instructions
- 1. in a bowl, toss together the chicken, yogurt, 2 teaspoons garam masala, 1 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, 1/2 – 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, and 1 teaspoon salt. Let sit 5-10 minutes.2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the chicken and sear on both sides until browned, about 2 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons of butter and toss to coat the chicken. Remove the chicken from the skillet to a plate.3. To the skillet, add the onion and butternut squash, tossing with the butter in the skillet. Cook 5 minutes, until softened. Add 2 tablespoons butter, the garlic, ginger, 1 tablespoon garam masala, 1 teaspoon cumin, 1/2 teaspoon paprika, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, 1/2 – 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper, paprika, and the chili flakes. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste and continue cooking another 3-4 minutes.4. Reduce the heat to low. Add 1 cup water and the coconut milk. Stir to combine, bring the sauce to a simmer, cook 5 minutes or until the sauce thickens slightly. If the sauce seems too thick, thin with 1/2 to 1 cup additional coconut milk. Add the chicken and any juices in the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce thickens slightly, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the cilantro. Season with salt and pepper.5. Serve the chicken, squash, and sauce over bowls of rice with fresh naan. Enjoy!
This post was originally published on September 29, 2022
I was wondering if sweet potato could be substituted for the butternut squash. Was not able to find butternut squash.
Hey Patricia,
Sure, sweet potato would be great to use! I hope this recipe turns out amazing for you, please let me know if you give it a try! xx
This recipe looks amazing, Tieghan! I want to take it to a Harvest Festival but I have to make it the day before. Does it reheat well? Also I would need to keep in warm in a crockpot when I get there. Would it be good this way or should I just make and serve this at home?
Hey Abbie,
That should be just fine for you to do! I hope this recipe turns out amazing, please let me know if you give it a try! xx
This dish is rich and flavorful. We loved it!
Thanks so much Allison, so glad to hear the recipe was enjoyed! xx
Delicious! I added the highest amount of cayenne and chili flakes and it was sparky for sure!! Another HBH winner!!
Hi Leslie,
I love to hear that this recipe turned out well for you and appreciate you giving it a try! Happy Monday! xT
This is amazing, another great recipe.
Thanks so much Kendall:)
Really good recipe, the blend of spices was just right
Thanks so much Marie! Love to hear that you enjoyed the recipe! xx
Any way to convert this to an instant pot?
Hey Meghan,
I would cook on high pressure for 8 minutes. I hope you love this recipe, please let me know if you give it a try! xx
I made this today and thought it was delicious! I used spices I had on hand, very adaptable, will definitely make again.
Hi Lisa,
Happy Monday!! I am delighted to hear that this recipe was tasty for you! Thanks for making it:) xx
I made this yesterday, had all the ingredients and it was a cool day here in Michigan. The spice blend really made this dish. Put this over Farro with homemade Naan! Delicious. I
Hey Lisa,
Awesome!! So glad to hear this recipe was enjoyed, thanks so much for making it! xxT
Hi Tieghan –
I love your recipes but your website is so frustrating. I realize you need sponsors to make money, but I don’t have this issue with any other recipe websites. It takes forever to load your page and to get to the recipe (the skip to recipe button doesn’t work until the page has fully loaded) And if you need to scroll through the recipe while cooking, the ads start to reload and it again takes forever and half the time the screen freezes up. Am I the only one who has this issue? Even typing this comment took a long time.
Hi Tracy,
Thanks for following along and sharing your feedback. So sorry to hear you are having a bad experience with the website. I will take this into consideration, but we try our best with the ads to make them as user friendly as possible! Happy Sunday!
This turned out a legit SOUP for me and nothing like the pictures. Not sure what went wrong. Honestly none of HBH recipes ever turn out for me. Hate saying that because people love them but I’m an experienced cook and these never work out. Bummer!
Hi Katie,
Thanks for trying this recipe and sharing your feedback. So sorry to hear you had some issues. Was there anything you may have adjusted? Let me know how I can help! xxT
I just LOVE how this recipe is loaded with flavour! I used pumpkin instead of butternut to lower carbs and had it with cauliflower rice. Amazing!
Hey Nicole,
Happy Sunday! I love to hear that this recipe turned out well for you and appreciate you giving it a try! Great idea to use pumpkin and cauliflower rice! 🍂 xT
This is really good! I am not really a good cook and I was not sure how this was going to turn out. I’m disappointed I did not have the time to make the naan but I bought some and heated it up and it’s OK but the chicken with the butternut squash and all the spices and sauce is amazing.
Hey Becky,
I appreciate you giving this recipe a try, I love to hear that it was enjoyed! Let me know if you try the naan next time:) xT
This is wild cultural appropriation. I frankly can’t even believe you posted this but what’s even worse is this comment:
“In fact, he prefers my more traditional butter chicken recipe to anything he’s gotten at a restaurant.”
How absolutely ridiculous that you think your butter chicken is better than those that INDIAN people have been making for centuries. How many Indian restaurants have you eaten at in Colorado?! Have you even been to India?
Horrible.
Really “Lindsey” have YOU been to India? Lol. Just because her brother prefers her adapted traditional recipe over something directly off the stove in India made by an Indian person doesn’t make it cultural appropriation.
Lol Suman, I am Indian. From Kerala. and yes my name is Lindsey. There are many Christian Indians in south India. Please look it up. I’ve been to India many times and yes this recipe certainly is cultural appropriation and insensitive. She consistently groups many distinct ethnicities and cultural food (Persian, Moroccan etc) under “Indian” and really doesn’t explain any of the roots of her dish. Fine if her brother likes her adaptation but the audacity to think your recipe is better than the roots of those who have made it certainly is wild.
Lindsey, this is ridiculous. I hope you do some soul searching and channel all this extra time and energy you apparently have into providing actual support to a person who is legitimately suffering … Not just your perception of a made up social injustice to deem yourself a victim.
Honestly Lindsey go find something that actually needs to be worried about. Are you saying that food from different cultures across the world shouldn’t be enjoyed, shared, and tried by each other? Wow. Did Tieghan say my brother enjoys my butter chicken better than when an Indian makes it or from the country itself? No. And before you assume, I’m also Indian and see no issue with this. I’ve cooked fried chicken before too and my family enjoys this more than in a restaurant. Does that mean I’m culturally appropriating food from the south? Again, no. Just stop. It’s got to be exhausting looking for all the things to be offended by.
There’s always a Karen or two that are offended by everything!! Move along, you don’t t have to agree with her brother or comment on everything! 🥴🤣🤣
I suppose you don’t see the irony in commenting on a post to tell someone that they “don’t []have to . . . comment on everything”? Regardless, your post is incredibly dismissive and it would be beneficial for you to educate yourself on the issue that Lindsey raised before opining.
Good grief. What a TERRIBLE judgmental comment. “Wild cultural appropriation” ? Do you cook Thai food? Chinese food? How about Italian food? Ever make chicken tikka masala? If yes, then stop cooking. Everything we cook comes from some other culture.
The beauty of recipes is that they do evolve. My Indian SIL says my butter chicken is the best she’s ever had, and that’s saying something because she said no one could ever top her grandma’s butter chicken until she had mine.
Please go find something else to be outraged about.
Absolutely delicious. Can’t wait to eat leftovers tonight! Definitely took longer than 20 minutes to prep though LOL.
Hi Sue,
Happy Sunday! I love to hear that this recipe turned out well for you and appreciate you giving it a try! Sorry this took longer than expected!🍂 xT
I made this tonight and it was easy to prepare and awesome. The combination of spices puts it over the top and the coconut milk adds creaminess. Love watching your videos and have all your books. I don’t know how you manage to consistently create fantastic recipes. You are truly inspiring.
Hi Cindi,
Thanks so much for your kind message💕 I love to hear that this recipe turned out well for you, thanks for making it! xx