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Almost effortless, One Pan Spicy Sesame Butter Chicken – incredibly delicious and nutritious comfort food. Indian-inspired butter chicken made with plenty of spice, creamy coconut milk, and even some sesame seeds for a unique little twist. Finish each bowl off with steamed rice, then serve with spicy chili butter. You’ll have the perfect dinner that can be enjoyed any night of the week. This meal is quickly made all in one dish. Then simply bake and serve, easy peasy!
Without a doubt, this is my favorite recipe I’ve been able to share in quite a while. It’s not that it’s anything incredibly creative or different. It’s more that I was able to take a recipe we all LOVE and make it in such a simple, almost effortless, way.
And the outcome is just as delicious (if not more so) than the traditional way of making butter chicken on the stovetop. I’m so happy to share this recipe with you all! I know this is going to be a staple for many of you!
Often, when my brothers are here in Colorado, they request recipes I’ve already shared with you all: tacos, ramen, and the very popular butter chicken.
I love making my brothers new recipes, but I also love making them their favorites too. So when the boys asked for butter chicken, I started thinking of a few ways to reinvent the recipe.
Unfortunately, I made a variation of this dish twice before calling it quits. So I put aside the idea for a sesame butter chicken and decided I was done with it. But after about a week, something gave me the idea to try baking the dish instead. To my surprise, the baked variation turned out INCREDIBLE. The flavors are perfect, the sauce is creamy, and what’s possibly even more exciting – it’s the easiest recipe!
The Details
Step 1: season the chicken
Start with the chicken. For this dish, I use boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Sometimes, I use chicken breasts, too, but since the chicken is baked, I didn’t want the breasts to dry out in the oven. Small chicken thighs work perfectly.
In a baking dish, toss the chicken with yogurt and add plenty of garlic and fresh ginger. Then, add all of the spices: garam masala, cumin, turmeric, and cayenne.
If time allows, you can marinate the chicken for 30 minutes or overnight. If you’re in a time crunch, just start cooking. I’ve now made this both ways, and there’s not a huge difference.
Step 2: everything else
Now, top the chicken with a chopped onion. Pour over a can of coconut milk, add the tomato paste, and mix it all together until you have a very creamy sauce. Make sure you season with salt too.
Add pats of cold butter over the chicken, then sprinkle the entire dish with sesame seeds.
Step 3: bake
And now you bake. In about 30 to 40 minutes, you’ll have perfectly cooked butter chicken in a very creamy, very delicious sauce.
All you have to add to this is steamed rice. Well, ideally some warm, buttery naan too. Oh, and fresh cilantro, can’t forget that! And if you’re up for going over the top, I did a quick chili butter using butter, chili flakes, and paprika. It makes the dish just a touch more special. We love the extra sauce and spice!
How are the leftovers?
They taste even better the following day. The flavors have time to mend, and the sauce is just that much more intense.
I can’t tell you how much I love this recipe. I’m already looking forward to remaking it for my parents and Asher now that they’re back. This dish is so flavorful, so full of color, and even though they’re small, the sesame seeds are such a nice addition. I really think you’ll love this!
Looking for other Indian-inspired dinners? Here are my favorites:
30 Minute Butter Chicken Meatballs
Super Simple Coconut Chicken Tikka Masala
Gingery Coconut Sweet Potato and Rice Stew with Chili Oil
30 Minute Spicy Indian Butter Chicken
Crockpot Creamy Coconut Chicken Tikka Masala
Lastly, if you make this One Pan Spicy Sesame 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!
Easy Baked Spicy Sesame Butter Chicken
Servings: 6
Calories Per Serving: 529 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 2 pounds small boneless chicken breasts or thighs
- 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt
- 6 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger
- 2 tablespoons garam masala
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 1 teaspoon turmeric
- 1-2 teaspoons cayenne pepper, use to your taste
- salt and black pepper
- 4 tablespoons salted butter
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 1 can (14 ounce) full-fat coconut milk
- 1/2 cup tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons cold, salted butter, sliced
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
- 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
- steamed rice and naan, for serving
Chili Butter
- 3 tablespoons salted butter
- 1 teaspoons chili flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon paprika
Instructions
- 1. In a baking dish, toss together the chicken, yogurt, garlic, ginger, garam masala, cumin, turmeric, cayenne pepper, and 1 teaspoon salt. Let sit 5 minutes. 2. Preheat the oven to 400°.3. To the chicken, add the onion, then pour over the coconut milk. Add the tomato paste. Stir until creamy and well-mixed. Arrange the butter slices over the chicken. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Bake 30-40 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Top with cilantro. 4. Meanwhile, melt the butter, chili flakes, and paprika together. Cook until the butter is browning. Remove from the heat.5. Serve the chicken and sauce over bowls of rice with chili butter and naan. Enjoy!
I would love to see a vegetarian version of this, maybe with chickpeas. The chicken version was delicious!
Hi Luli,
Thanks so much for your comment, so glad to hear this dish was enjoyed! You might like these vegetarian versions:
https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/30-minute-indian-pumpkin-butter-chickpeas/
https://www.halfbakedharvest.com/butternut-squash-butter-chicken/
I hope this helps! xT
So good and an easy meal. Made it Keto with cauliflower rice. Love your recipes and how easy many are to add to my keto lifestyle
Thank you for trying out the recipe! I’m so so glad you enjoyed it! 🙂 xT
Not only was this simple to make it but also earned the highly coveted “this might be the best *insert food here* I’ve ever had” remark from my husband (my most sought after form of praise, that has been increasingly difficult to achieve after 10 years of new to him home cooked meals). I love that the chicken goes in whole. It cooks perfectly and still takes on all of the flavor you are looking for with this dish. Thanks for another banger version of this great dish, Tieghan!
Wow, thank you SO much Valerie! Love to hear that! xT
Made this tonight for my husband and he will not stop talking about it!! Absolutely incredible. Soooo delicious. So flavourful. One of our favourite dishes is butter chicken but I always felt intimidated to try! This recipe is the perfect, easy way to get such a glorious meal!! Can’t wait for lunch tomorrow! Thank you, Tieghan!
Hi Martha! Thank you for trying out the recipe! I’m so so glad you enjoyed it! 🙂 xT
We Loved the butter chicken -however placing onion on top of chicken did not work as onion burned. Next time I will mix onion with sauce and pour over ( I might even sauté onion first) baked it in convection oven.
I highly recommend this recipe
Thank you for the input Lori! Love to hear that! xT
Only have 5 minutes to prep? Make this!! I have a newborn and very little time and this was foolproof. And delish! Thank you Tieghan.
Thank you SO much Abby! And congratulations on your newborn! 🙂 xT
Made this for dinner tonight and it was a huge hit! So easy. I marinated the meat in the dish the night before so dinner took no time to make. Definitely a keeper!!
Hi Dana! Thank you for trying out the recipe! I’m so so glad you enjoyed it! 🙂 xT
Made this tonight. Absolutely delicious. SO much flavor. So easy. We eat a lot of Indian cuisine—homemade or from a restaurant. This was so good. Highly recommend.
Thank you for trying out the recipe! I’m so so glad you enjoyed it! 🙂 xT
I just got done eating my first plate of this and came here to say…. I just realized it was 1-2 TEASPOONS of cayenne, not tablespoons… my mouth is on fire.. but I kept on eating because it’s so darn delicious!! I will definitely be making this again!
Hi Katie! Oh no! I’m glad you still enjoyed the recipe despite the heat! xT
My husband and I LOVED this dish. We enjoyed leftovers for lunch today! Once question I have is do you think this could be done in a cast iron so I could sear the chicken first and finish baking in the oven? How long would you sear and would you reduce the bake time? This was delish I just prefer a sear on my chicken!
Thank you SO much for trying outt he recipe! Yes, that should work just fine! xT
Hi! I think my question may have been inadvertently missed – when do you use the 4 tablespoons butter vs the 2 that are cold and sliced? Or should it be 6 tablespoons cold and sliced? Thanks for the help!
Hi Elizabeth! So sorry for the confusion. Use 4 tablespoons on top of the chicken before baking. The remaining 3 tablespoons of butter is for the chili butter in step 4. I will adjust the read to read more clearly. Again, sorry for the confusion!! Hope you enjoy the chicken! Xx
So sorry but the way it reads is still confusing to me! I get the chili butter part, but up above that it still calls for 4 T, then 2 T. Please help!
Sorry, you are just going to top with 6 tablespoons of butter:) I hope this helps! Xx
Amazingly easy recipe for a superb end result. Especially when craving butter chicken. It’s missing a bit of sweetness that I thought I get from the onions but also could be the quality of tomato paste I used. Can’t wait to try again!
Hey there! Thank you so so much for trying out the recipe! I appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment as well! 🙂 xT
I made this last night and doubled the recipe for 8. We LOVED it–it was a great success and now I’m going to serve it to a party I’m having in two weeks for 14 people. We all loved that it had a kick, but with no burn that stays on the tongue. My husband and I plated it in large shallow bowls with a trail of chopped cilantro on top then added three asparagus spears at the side of the bowl and it was so pretty! Thank you for the recipe. Leftovers tonight!
Hey there! Thank you so so much for trying out the recipe! I appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment as well! 🙂 xT
Do you serve the chili butter on the side? Or do you pour it over the top?
Hi there! I drizzle it over the top! 🙂 xT
Thought this was easy and delicious – used breasts cut in half and added chopped sweet potato. Came out pretty and just like the picture. Can I freeze extra sauce for use another time?
This sounded really tasty but we ended up deciding we liked other versions of this recipe better. I only used a half tsp of cayenne because I have a kiddo who thinks ketchup is spicy and thought it was a pleasantly warm, but not hot, spice level. I left out the sesame seeds because it felt right and skipped the extra chilli butter too (because, kids) but I think that may be what I was missing? It maybe needed the extra richness from what I left out.
I think I would likely cut the chicken up before baking (we used thighs) too. The cutting board is already out for other things so it isn’t really getting much extra dirty. Just easier to serve. It sure smells amazing while it bakes!
Hi there! Yes, you can definitely freeze this sauce! xT