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Paleo Instant Pot Butter Chicken with gluten-free dairy-free coconut milk cream. This Keto and Whole30 Instant Pot Butter Chicken recipe is easy and takes 10 minutes cook time. Use chicken thighs or breasts for the most easy flavorful Paleo Whole30 Instant Pot recipe plus tips on what to make with extra butter chicken sauce !
I’m so in love with my instant pot lately. I purchased mine more than a year ago but only until now I realize I haven’t fully used it to its potential. Not only because my readers are asking for more Paleo and Whole30 Instant Pot recipes, I found myself really enjoying this all-in-one pressure cooker that’s perfect for busy weeknight and when times you just want to set it and forget it type of meal. 🙂
Paleo Instant Pot Butter Chicken – Easy, Flavorful, Little Hands-On Time, Whole30/Keto friendly
A quick web search will show you tons of different ways in making butter chicken. But here I opted for the most basic and simple spice combos to make my Paleo Instant Pot butter chicken. You can use either boneless/skinless chicken thighs or chicken breasts. If you are okay with either the thighs or breasts, I highly recommend using chicken thighs as the meat will be more tender and flavorful.
A few things I did differently than other recipes …and makes it more yummy !
I highly recommend using diced and fire roasted tomatoes from a can. WholeFoods own fire roasted tomatoes are my favorite whereas Trader Joe’s has a pretty good version too. The fire roasted tomatoes add extra smoky and sweet flavor and adds extra depth to the butter chicken sauce.
I puree the sauce with an immersion blender until the sauce is creamy smooth. I also use coconut cream to make my Paleo Instant Pot butter chicken extra creamy delicious.
Is butter chicken gluten free ?
It depends on the ingredients in the butter chicken recipe. For my Paleo Instant Pot Butter Chicken it is gluten-free, Paleo, Keto, and Whole30!
We use ghee (that’s clarified butter) and coconut cream (dairy-free) to make Paleo Instant Pot Butter Chicken creamy and smooth. For a complete gluten-free butter chicken, you’ll need to read your spice seasoning labels to see if there are any gluten products in the seasoning bottles.
This Paleo Instant Pot butter chicken is –
Creamy
Easy
Flavorful
Little hands-on time
10 minutes of cook time
& Paleo, Whole30, Keto, Gluten-Free
If you give this Paleo Instant Pot Butter Chicken a try, let me know ! Leave a comment and rate the recipe. And don’t forget to take a picture and tag it #IHeartUmami on Instagram. I’d love to see what you come up with. XOXO !
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Paleo Instant Pot Butter Chicken
Video
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp ghee (or clarified butter) divided
- 10 garlic cloves peeled
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger root
- 2 to 3 large shallots
- 2 lbs chicken thighs , boneless & skinless (alt. Chicken breasts)
- 28 oz. diced fire roasted tomatoes , canned. I use 365 Whole Foods brand
- ¼ cup full fat coconut milk , canned and stir-well. I use 365 Whole Foods brand.
- Cilantro , garnish, optional
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instant Pot Butter Chicken Dry Spice Seasonings:
- 1 tbsp garam masala powder
- 2 tsp smoked paprika alt. sweet paprika
- 1.5 tsp coriander powder
- 2 tsp turmeric powder
Instructions
- Prep: Roughly chop garlic cloves, ginger, and shallots. Combine ingredients under “Dry Spice Seasonings” in one bowl. Set aside.
- Instant Pot: Press Saute function - add 2 tbsp ghee. When the oil is melted, add chopped garlic, ginger, and shallots. Season with pinch of salt. Saute until fragrant (about 2-3 mins). Add Dry Spice Seasonings. Give a quick saute to slightly warm up the spices (about 10 seconds). Turn off Saute function.
- Add fire roasted tomato and scrape the bottom of the pot to ensure that nothing is stick to the bottom. Add chicken and cover the sauce over each pieces. Seal the lid and valve. Press Manual - 10 minutes. When done, natural release until the valve drops (should take about 10 mins).
- Scoop out the chicken. Add ¼ cup full-fat coconut milk and 2 tbsp ghee. Puree the sauce using an immersion blender until creamy smooth. Dice the chicken to bite sizes and add them back to the sauce pot. Give it a stir and garnish with chopped cilantro. Serve the butter chicken over slightly cooked cauliflower rice or mashed (sweet) potatoes.
Notes
- Please note that different brands of fire roasted canned tomatoes might have different consistency. Some cans have less liquid than others. Some people have mentioned that there's not enough liquid in the instant pot during pressure cook. Please refer to the video or the process shot photos included in this blog post. As you can see there's enough liquid left in the pot after it's done cooking. If yours look drier than my video (or the photos included in this blog post), try adding 1/4 cup chicken stock before you pressure cook.
- If you don't have an immersion blender, you can also pour the sauce into a blender and blend until creamy smooth. Be careful the sauce will be hot.
- Tip: After the sauce is blended to creamy smooth (before adding the chicken back to the pot), ladle some extra chicken butter sauce aside for Healthy Shakshuka !
- Stove-top users: Follow the same cooking method/steps above. I recommend using a large size Dutch oven (or heavy bottom stock/soup pot). Adjust the stove-top cook time (it will be longer than 10 minutes). Cook over medium to medium-low heat. Cover with a lid and stir-often. Cook until the chicken is completely cooked through. You can either pre-slice the chicken to bite-size chunks prior to cooking (this will ensure them cook through faster) OR follow the Instant Pot directions above (dice them afterwards).
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
What to do with extra Butter Chicken Sauce?
Make my Healthy Shakshuka Recipe for breakfast ! It’s the perfect way to use up the creamy butter chicken sauce.
Also check out my Best Whole30 Instant Pot Recipes, Instant Pot Beef Brisket Pho, Instant Pot Vietnamese Beef Stew, Instant Pot Bone Broth, Chinese Chicken Bone Broth, Instant Pot Sweet Potato Yam Mash, and Instant Pot Chinese Chicken Sparerib Soup.
I’m new to the Instant Pot. Have you had any success with frozen chicken & this recipe?
Hi Dee, that’s great question. I have yet to use frozen chicken for this recipe. My initial guess is it might release more liquid. If you do try with the frozen version, let me know how it goes!
I just made this recipe with frozen chicken. I added 2 minutes to the cook time. It came out very watery. After blending I turned on the saute function, added tapioca starch, whisked it in and let water cook off for 5-10 min. Seemed to do the trick!
Thanks for sharing, Nancy. The recipe is written for non-frozen chicken though. I have yet to try it with frozen ones. Instant Pot seals all the moisture inside and that tends to make things more watery right after you open the lid.
Sooooo. Good. We had a ton of leftover sauce and I added some jalapeños for a little kick and it’s AMAZING!
Ohhhh that jalapenos touch sounds fantastic!
I made this Thursday night for dinner. It did NOT disappoint. It was so flavorful and colorful, so pretty on the plate and every bite was savored. It was also extremely easy to prepare and pretty much cool-proof. I served with cauliflower rice and a bag of steamed “Asian-style” veggies. I can’t wait to make more recipes from ChihYu on iheartumami!
Thank you so much, Nicole! I’m so happy to hear that. Also thanks for taking the time to share with us. Appreciate it!
Delicious and easy! Thank you. I served this over mashed sweet potato (such a great idea!) Toddler and husband approved. I definitely will make again.
That’s so awesome. Thanks for sharing with us, Miriel!
Made this and will definitely make again! So good!
That’s awesome. Thank you so much, Rosalba!
Hello!!
This was my first ever instant pot recipe and I had to come here to say how easy and delicious it was!
I was going to serve it over cauliflower rice but instead I just dumped it all into the pot and I’ve been eating this with a spoon like soup! So good!
Thanks!
I’m so happy to hear that, Sarah! Very happy for you, too! Thanks for sharing. I appreciate it :))
Amazing
Made it Sunday – REALLY yummy! It took me a bit longer than the stated recipe times, but it was worth the wait!
Yay! So glad you like it!
Well first of all it sounds delicious and I can’t wait to make it! But I would hesitate calling it dairy free. Technically, ghee isn’t dairy-free because it’s butterfat. However, it’s lactose-free because all of the milk solids are completely removed during production. So if someone is avoiding dairy because they’re lactose intolerant, ghee is great. Just not truly dairy free.
This sounds amazing and I can’t wait to make it. I was wondering if this can easily be frozen before cooking to have on hand as a quick meal for busy nights.
HI Carly, thank you. Yes. I freezer extra curry dish all the time. They taste great after reheat! 🙂
This recipe was excellent! I doubled the coconut cream to make it extra indulgent, but it was delicious as written as well. So simple and surprisingly so much better than all the more complicated recipes that I have previously tried using dairy! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much, Kristina! So happy to hear and thank you for sharing! XOXO!