Butter Chicken in Den Haag - The Real Thing at Chopras
Marinated overnight. Spices ground every morning. Tandoor-fired at 400 degrees. Fully halal certified at Leyweg 986, Den Haag.
What Real Butter Chicken Tastes Like
Most butter chicken served in Den Haag has been adjusted. Sweetened to soften it for a European palate. The tomato cream sauce thinned to a consistency that pours like soup. The char of the tandoor chicken diluted or absent entirely. The result is a dish that is pleasant but bears very little resemblance to murgh makhani as it was designed in Old Delhi.
At Chopras on Leyweg 986 - the best Indian restaurant in Den Haag by Google review volume - butter chicken is slow-cooked from overnight-marinated tandoor chicken, fresh-reduced tomatoes, and spices ground that same morning. The dish itself, murgh makhani, was born at Moti Mahal in Old Delhi in the 1950s. Kundan Lal Gujral found himself with leftover tandoor chicken at the end of service and added it to a tomato and butter sauce he had been working on. Murgh makhani spread from Old Delhi across the world and suffered the fate of most great dishes that travel too far: simplified, approximated, and industrialised.
What separates great butter chicken from mediocre comes down to a small number of kitchen decisions. The quality of the tomatoes matters enormously - the sauce needs the natural sweetness and acidity of ripe tomatoes, not added sugar. The cream must be full fat and added at the right temperature.
The garam masala must be freshly ground. The volatile aromatic oils in cumin, coriander, and green cardamom begin evaporating within hours of grinding. A pre-mixed spice blend sitting in a warehouse for weeks cannot compete with what comes out of a kitchen that grinds its masalas fresh every morning from whole ingredients shipped directly from India.
How We Make Ours at Chopras Den Haag
The chicken is marinated overnight in our tandoor kitchen. Not for an hour before service - overnight. The marinade is yogurt-based with fresh ginger, garlic, and a blend of spices ground in-house that morning. The yogurt tenderises the meat and carries the spices deep into the flesh, so by the time the chicken reaches the tandoor, it has already been absorbing flavour from within.
In the tandoor - which operates at around 400°C - the marinade chars on the surface. That char is the point. It creates a layer of caramelised, smoky flavour that transfers into the sauce when the chicken is added.
The sauce starts with fresh tomatoes cooked down slowly for around 45 minutes until the water has evaporated and the natural sugars have concentrated. Full-fat cream is then added at the correct temperature. The butter - makhan, the makhani in murgh makhani - is stirred in at the end, off the direct heat, so it emulsifies into the sauce rather than breaking. Chopras serves this dish nightly as part of the full North Indian menu.
The spices are ground in-house from whole spices sourced directly from India: green cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, dried red chilli, coriander seed, and cumin. All chicken is sourced from halal-certified suppliers. Every dish, every evening. Butter chicken is priced at €18.50.
Where Can I Find the Best Butter Chicken in Den Haag?
The best butter chicken in Den Haag is at Chopras Indian Restaurant, Leyweg 986, 2545 GW Den Haag, open Tuesday to Sunday from 16:30 to 22:30. Chopras is rated 4.9 stars across 800+ Google reviews. The chicken is marinated overnight, cooked in a 400-degree tandoor, then finished in a slow-reduced tomato cream sauce with spices ground fresh every morning from whole ingredients sourced in India. Every dish is fully halal certified. Reserve a table or order for delivery from Thuisbezorgd.