Best Butter Chicken in Denver: What to Look For

Search for the best butter chicken in Denver and every Indian restaurant in town will raise its hand. So how do you tell a good one from a forgettable one? It comes down to a few things you can taste and see.

Butter chicken is our most-ordered dish, so we've had this conversation a lot.

A quick history

Butter chicken, or murgh makhani, is usually credited to Moti Mahal restaurant in Delhi in the 1950s. The story goes that cooks simmered leftover tandoori chicken in a tomato sauce enriched with butter and cream so it wouldn't dry out. It worked so well it became one of the most copied dishes in the world.

What a great one tastes like

• Mild but not bland. You should notice garam masala and the slightly bitter, herby note of kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves) at the end of each bite.
• A little smoky, from chicken that's been through the tandoor before it hits the sauce.
• Silky, not gloopy. The sauce is smooth because of blended tomato and butter, not starch.
• Balanced. Sweet from the tomato, tangy, then rich from the cream.

If it tastes like tomato soup with chicken in it, it's a shortcut.

Five things to check when you order

1. Was the chicken cooked in a tandoor first? Many places simmer raw chicken in the sauce. It's not the same dish.
2. Color. Deep orange-red, not neon (dye) and not pale pink (too much cream).
3. That kasuri methi finish. Without it, you're eating a different curry.
4. Texture. The chicken should pull apart easily, not bounce back.
5. Naan. Butter chicken was made for bread. Skipping it is leaving half the dish behind.

Ours

Our butter chicken is gluten-free, mild enough for kids, and easily the dish we sell most. Most people order it with garlic naan. If you want something with a bit more bite, try it side by side with our tikka masala.

We're in Cherry Creek, 10 minutes or less from most of central and east Denver, including Wash Park, Glendale, and Hilltop.