Butter Chicken vs Chicken Tikka Masala: What’s the Difference?

The quick distinction: Butter Chicken (murgh makhani) is a classic North Indian dish built around a velvety, butter-enriched tomato sauce with cream and nuts. Chicken Tikka Masala features charcoal-grilled chicken tikka pieces folded into a spiced curry sauce that's generally a little lighter and more tomato-forward. Both are mild, creamy and enormously popular — but the flavour profiles, origins and textures are noticeably different once you know what to look for.

What Is Butter Chicken?

Butter chicken — or murgh makhani, if you ask someone speaking Hindi — didn't start out as a recipe anyone planned. Back in the 1950s Delhi, there was a restaurant called Moti Mahal, and the cooks there had a problem: tandoori chicken left over at the end of the night. Rather than toss it, someone threw it into a pan with butter, tomatoes, and cream. No fancy reason, just didn't want to waste good chicken.

A classic butter chicken sauce comes down to slow-cooked tomatoes, plenty of butter and cream, plus ground cashews or almonds thrown in for that smooth, slightly sweet finish. At Mt Everest Tandoori in Amsterdam Noord, theirs is boneless grilled chicken swimming in a cream, coconut, and nut-based sauce — staying loyal to that rich, indulgent North Indian style.

• Rich, velvety sauce thickened with cream, coconut and nuts
• Mild heat with a naturally sweet, buttery finish
• Tomato base that's smooth and silky rather than chunky
• Chicken is typically grilled or tandoori-cooked before being added to the sauce
• Originated in Delhi, India

What Is Chicken Tikka Masala?

Nobody actually agrees on where chicken tikka masala came from — that's just the truth of it. The story most people tell is that it started in a British-Indian restaurant sometime in the 60s or 70s — a chef added curry sauce to dry chicken tikka, the legend says, because a customer sent it back complaining it was too dry. Other people push back on that, saying it's older and rooted in Punjab. Neither side's won the argument, and at this point, probably nobody ever will.

It starts with the tikka itself — boneless chicken, marinated in yoghurt and spices, then grilled hot enough to get real char on it. Smoky bits, straight into the masala — tomatoes, onions, garlic, ginger, whatever spices are going in that day. Butter chicken's all cream at its core; this one's not. It's lighter, and the spice gets to actually stand out instead of hiding behind dairy.

• Spiced curry sauce with a pronounced tomato and onion base
• Slightly more heat and spice complexity than Butter Chicken
• Chicken pieces carry a noticeable smoky, chargrilled flavour from the tikka preparation
• Sauce is thinner and more textured compared to Butter Chicken
• Likely originated in the UK, inspired by Indian tandoori cooking

Butter Chicken vs Chicken Tikka Masala: Key Differences

Here's a side-by-side look at how these two popular curries compare:

Taste and Spice Comparison

Creaminess? Butter chicken, hands down. Butter, cream, coconut, ground nuts — that sauce turns thick and rich, almost like a dessert, clinging to every bite of chicken.

Tikka masala has cream in it too, sure, especially at restaurants that splash some in near the end. But it's not really a cream dish at heart. Spice and tomato are doing the real work. That's the difference.

Butter chicken's the sweeter one — slow-cooked tomatoes, cream and nuts mellow everything out, no sharp edges. Tikka masala swings tangy instead. Yoghurt-marinated chicken and that tomato-onion base bring the acidity, keeping the spice from going flat.

Neither dish sets out to be spicy — honestly, that's probably why they both caught on the way they did. But if you're stacking them up, tikka masala edges ahead on heat. That masala blend's doing the work there — cumin, coriander, chilli, garam masala, paprika, all in the mix. Butter chicken keeps it low-key. Butter and cream run the show; the spices mostly stay in the back seat.

Prep-wise, the two aren't far apart — boneless chicken, marinated, grilled, then folded into the sauce. But that chargrilled smokiness comes through stronger in tikka masala, which makes sense — the whole dish was built around showing off the tikka. Butter chicken flips that. The sauce is the main event, and the chicken's really just there to soak it up.

Which One Should You Choose?

Truthfully, you can't really go wrong either way — both are a great entry point if Indian food's new to you, and both still get ordered by people who've been eating this stuff for years. But if you want a nudge one way or the other, here you go:

• Go for rich, creamy, spice turned down low
• Like things sweet and mild rather than sharp
• Want a sauce worth mopping up with naan until it's gone
• Just fancy something comforting and a little indulgent

• Want more heat, more going on in the sauce
• Love that smoky, chargrilled bite in the chicken
• Prefer tangy and tomato-heavy over creamy
• Fancy something a touch lighter on the stomach

And honestly? The best strategy is to order both and share. They pair beautifully with basmati rice, garlic naan or butter naan.

Try Authentic Indian Curries at Mt Everest Tandoori in Amsterdam Noord

If all this back-and-forth has got you leaning one way — or you just want to try both and decide for yourself — Mt Everest Tandoori in Amsterdam has you covered. Both dishes are on the menu, part of a wider spread of North Indian and Nepalese cooking.

Their Butter Chicken (€20.95)is grilled chicken in that cream, coconut, and nut sauce we've been going on about. The Chicken Tikka Masala (€19.95) uses the same grilled chicken, just dropped into a spiced curry sauce instead. Nothing's pre-made — their chef, who's Nepalese, still fires up a proper charcoal tandoor to cook it the old way.

You'll find Mt Everest Tandoori in the Vogelbuurt, up in Amsterdam Noord — about ten minutes on the metro from Centraal. They're open every day, 15:00 to 23:00, and you can eat in, take away, or get it delivered.

There's more than just the two curries, too. Tandoori dishes, lamb curries, Nepalese momos, biryani, a solid vegetarian selection, naan baked fresh — plenty to work through whether you're a regular from Noord or just passing through Amsterdam.

👉 Reserve a table or order online to try Butter Chicken and Chicken Tikka Masala at Mt Everest Tandoori.

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