Calories and protein in a katori of butter chicken, with and without butter and oil
Also called murgh makhani.
The short answer
1 katori with pieces, about 150 g, normal butter and oil
250 kcal
18 g protein
Fat 17 g · carbs 8.5 g · fibre 1.5 g · With meat or fish
Portion: boneless pieces with gravy. Calculated from USDA FoodData Central
The cream and cashews are counted as ingredients, the butter and oil as the fat you can adjust. A takeaway version often has more of all of them.
With and without butter and oil
The same 1 katori with pieces, changing only the butter and oil in the sauce. Normal is about 8 g in this portion. A little halves the recipe’s fat and a lot doubles it, so in a portion of the same weight a lot comes out a little under double. These are the four levels the app asks about, with the same numbers.
| Butter and oil | Added | Calories | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|
| None | 0 g | 200 kcal | 19 g |
| A little | 4 g | 230 kcal | 18 g |
| Normal | 8 g | 250 kcal | 18 g |
| A lot | 15 g | 300 kcal | 17 g |
What moves the number
- Chicken thighabout 95 kcal
- Butter and oil (the butter and oil in the sauce)about 60 kcal
- Creamabout 45 kcal
The recipe behind these numbers
Raw ingredient weights in one 1 katori with pieces, scaled from the batch recipe in the Homekcal app’s dish table, with normal butter and oil. Water, salt and spices add almost no energy but are listed so the recipe is complete. If your version has more of something, the numbers move with it.
| Ingredient | Weight | Calories | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken thighUSDA: Chicken, broilers or fryers, dark meat, thigh, meat only, raw | 79 g | 95 | 16 g |
| YogurtUSDA: Yogurt, plain, whole milk | 13 g | 10 | 0.5 g |
| Tomato pureeUSDA: Tomato products, canned, puree, without salt added | 47 g | 20 | 1 g |
| CreamUSDA: Cream, fluid, heavy whipping | 13 g | 45 | 0.5 g |
| CashewsUSDA: Nuts, cashew nuts, raw | 3 g | 15 | 0.5 g |
| GingerUSDA: Ginger root, raw | 1.5 g | 0 | 0 g |
| GarlicUSDA: Garlic, raw | 1.5 g | 0 | 0 g |
| Chilli powderUSDA: Spices, pepper, red or cayenne | 0.5 g | 0 | 0 g |
| Garam masalaUSDA: Spices, curry powder | 0.5 g | 0 | 0 g |
| SugarUSDA: Sugars, granulated | 1 g | 5 | 0 g |
| SaltUSDA: Salt, table | 1.5 g | 0 | 0 g |
| ButterUSDA: Butter, saltedThe butter and oil in the sauce | 6.5 g | 45 | 0 g |
| OilUSDA: Oil, canolaThe butter and oil in the sauce | 1.5 g | 15 | 0 g |
What we could not match
Stand ins and assumptions in this recipe that a person still has to check.
- Restaurant versions usually carry much more oil, ghee, butter or cream than this home recipe.
How this was worked out
This is the same dish the Homekcal app logs, from the same table. Each raw ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its per-100 g values in USDA FoodData Central, the batch is added up and divided by the cooked weight it makes. Calories are rounded to the nearest 10 and grams to the nearest gram, because a standard recipe is not your recipe. These are calculated values, not weighed or lab tested meals, and home versions vary a lot.
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. FoodData Central, 2026. fdc.nal.usda.gov. Public domain (CC0).
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Compare with other South Asian dishes
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