Butter chicken calories and protein, next to 4 other chicken dishes.
Butter chicken has a reputation as a heavy dish, but most of its weight is chicken and tomato. How heavy it ends up depends on the butter and cream. Here are the numbers for a home-style butter chicken and four other everyday chicken dishes, all from the recipes in GymTribe's food catalog.
3 min read
01 / Butter chicken
How much is in a serving of butter chicken?
GymTribe's butter chicken is a home-style recipe: 200 g of cooked chicken in 200 g of tomato puree, with 60 g of Greek yogurt and a tablespoon of butter. One 450 g serving comes to 560 calories, 72 g of protein, 21 g of carbs and 20 g of fat, or about 124 calories and 16 g of protein per 100 g.
Many restaurant versions add cream and more butter. A tablespoon of butter adds about 100 calories and a tablespoon of cream about 50, so a richer sauce can raise the number well above this home version. Rice, naan or roti on the side are extra.
02 / Side by side
Five chicken dishes, one serving each.
| Serving | Calories | Protein | Fat | Protein per 100 calories | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken tikka | 310 g | 340 | 54 g | 8 g | 15.9 g |
| Chicken curry with roti | 245 g | 460 | 28 g | 18 g | 6.1 g |
| Butter chicken | 450 g | 560 | 72 g | 20 g | 12.9 g |
| Grilled chicken with rice | 385 g | 630 | 51 g | 20 g | 8.1 g |
| Chicken keema bowl | 445 g | 690 | 47 g | 34 g | 6.8 g |
A serving is one portion as the recipe makes it. Chicken curry with roti makes two servings from 200 g of chicken, with the roti included; the others are one serving each. Butter chicken and chicken tikka have no rice or bread in them.
03 / Why they differ
What changes the number.
- How much chicken. Butter chicken, tikka, grilled chicken and the keema bowl each use 200 g of chicken in one serving. A serving of chicken curry has half that, which is why it has the least protein.
- What it is served with. Rice, roti and quinoa bring the carbs. Grilled chicken comes with 200 g of cooked rice and the keema bowl with 180 g of cooked quinoa; butter chicken and tikka come without.
- The fat. Tikka is marinated in yogurt and has no added oil, so it is the leanest. The keema bowl uses minced chicken and a tablespoon of oil, which gives it the most fat, 34 g.
- The sauce. The 200 g of chicken is about 330 of butter chicken's 560 calories. The sauce adds about 230, roughly 100 of them from the tablespoon of butter. Cream, extra butter or cashews in a restaurant sauce are where the calories climb.
04 / Logging it
How to log your own version.
Treat these numbers as a starting point. In GymTribe, find the dish in the food catalog and set the amount you ate; the nutrition scales with it. For a takeaway or a plate made your own way, photograph it with the AI calorie counter and check each portion, rice and bread included, before saving.
Each dish has its own recipe page with ingredients and steps: chicken tikka, chicken curry with roti, butter chicken, grilled chicken with rice and chicken keema bowl.
Keep it simple
Count the sides, not just the curry.
Most of the difference between two chicken dinners is the rice, bread and fat around the chicken. These numbers come from GymTribe's recipes; they are estimates, not medical or clinical nutrition advice.
