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Gordon Ramsay’s reported 14-minute-58-second finish belongs to an on-camera cooking demonstration, not a reliable promise for every home kitchen. A Recipe Lane feature estimates 10 minutes of preparation and 15 minutes of cooking—25 minutes total—for its version of the recipe. The fast method gets there by cooking the chicken and sauce at the same time.
What the 15-minute claim actually means
DESIblitz reports Ramsay finishing the dish in 14 minutes and 58 seconds during a “Curry in a Hurry” demonstration. It also quotes him describing “the most amazing butter chicken, done beautifully in literally 14 minutes and 58 seconds”. Treat that as the demonstration’s reported finish, not a standard home-cooking time. DESIblitz’s report quotes Ramsay saying he went to India to understand the dish: “I actually went all the way to India to the birthplace of butter chicken to really understand what it takes to get this chicken curry absolutely right.”
For a more practical expectation, Recipe Lane lists 10 minutes of preparation and 15 minutes of cooking, or 25 minutes altogether. That estimate is for the version described in its feature, not a separately verified timing for every version of Ramsay’s recipe. Recipe Lane’s feature supplies the method and ingredient quantities.
How the reported quick method works
The speed comes from overlapping two jobs: marinate the chicken briefly while starting the sauce in a separate hot pan, then cook the chicken in another pan as the sauce simmers. Cut the chicken breast into small, evenly sized cubes so the pieces cook consistently within the short cooking window.
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- Season the chicken. Coat the cubes with natural yoghurt, salt, pepper, turmeric, cumin, ground coriander, cayenne and garam masala. Let them rest briefly while you begin the sauce.
- Build the sauce. Caramelize sliced red onion in a hot pan. Add cardamom, cloves, ginger, chilli and garlic, followed by butter and coriander stalks. Toast the ground spices, then add passata, double cream and lemon juice.
- Cook the chicken in parallel. While the sauce cooks, use a second pan to cook the marinated chicken.
- Blend and strain. Blend the sauce until smooth, then pass it through a sieve. This extra step gives the sauce a smoother texture.
- Combine and finish gently. Add the cooked chicken to the strained sauce. Finish with butter and lemon zest, taking the pan off the boil before adding the final butter. Recipe Lane attributes this instruction to Ramsay: “whenever you add butter into something, you never boil it.”
One reported ingredient version, without mixing quantities
The following amounts come from Recipe Lane’s feature. Some sauce spices are described only as a light dusting, rather than with precise weights, so this is a reported adaptation—not a definitive, transcript-verified recipe.
- About 500 g chicken breast
- 3 tbsp natural yoghurt
- 1 tsp each of turmeric, cumin, ground coriander and garam masala
- ½–1 tsp cayenne
- 350 g passata
- 100 ml double cream
- 40 g butter, plus two knobs for finishing
- One red onion, cardamom, cloves, ginger, red chilli, garlic, coriander and lemon
A separate report gives different quantities: 450 g chicken, ¼ cup yoghurt, 1 cup tomato puree, ½ cup heavy cream and 8 tbsp butter. It describes the same broad sequence of separately cooking chicken, blending and sieving the sauce, and combining them. Those amounts are not interchangeable with Recipe Lane’s list; follow one named version rather than merging the two. See the separate report for its version.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How this quick version differs from another published butter chicken recipe
“Butter chicken” does not describe one fixed ingredient list or technique. Jamie Oliver’s published murg makhani uses yoghurt-marinated chicken, fresh tomatoes, butter, cashews, cream, cardamom and dried fenugreek. It calls for at least a couple of hours of marination and includes oven cooking. The Recipe Lane version described above uses passata and cream, then blends and sieves the sauce. These are distinct recipes, with different timing and texture steps—not two sets of quantities to combine. Jamie Oliver’s recipe provides the murg makhani method.
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