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I love butter chicken/paneer butter masala - how do I cut its calories?

I love butter chicken/paneer butter masala - how do I cut its calories?

You don't have to give up butter chicken or paneer butter masala. A home-style bowl of the curry alone is around 480-530 kcal, and almost all of that comes from the butter, cream, cashew paste and sugar in the makhani gravy - not from the chicken or paneer. The naan or rice on the side often adds as much as the curry itself.

10 Jul 2026 · Burnie Academy

Butter chicken (or its vegetarian cousin, paneer butter masala) is the dish most people feel guilty ordering - but the chicken or paneer sitting in that gravy is mostly protein and isn't what's pushing the calories up. The real levers are the makhani gravy itself (butter, cream, cashew paste, sugar) and what you mop it up with (naan vs roti vs rice). Every figure below comes from a real recipe and real food data (IFCT 2017, USDA FoodData Central), given as an honest range, not a scare number.

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