A made-from-scratch Chicken Tikka Masala recipe with the signature yoghurt marinated chargrilled chicken smothered in an incredible spice infused curry sauce. It’s astonishingly straightforward – and no hunting down hard to find ingredients!
Chicken Tikka Masala is an Indian favourite along with Butter Chicken and Biryani. Serve with Basmati Rice, else add a side of chewy and fluffy Naan or basic Homemade Flatbreads to mop up the sauce!
Chicken Tikka Masala
There are various tales about the origins of Chicken Tikka Masala, and most are along the lines of the following: That a British aristocrat was served Chicken Tikka (chicken on skewers chargrilled in a tandoor) and sent it back to the kitchen, complaining it was dry. In response to which the enterprising chef added a curry sauce and sent it back out again where it was well received.
And thus, one of the most popular curries in the world was born. 🙂 And even though it’s not a traditional Indian dish, the roots of it certainly are!
Proper Chicken Tikka Masala served at good Indian restaurants is made with yoghurt marinated chicken which is then chargrilled so it has that gorgeous smokey flavour.
Regretfully, I don’t have a tandoor sitting in the middle of my kitchen. So this recipe aims to replicate the flavour using my good old stove.
How to make Chicken Tikka Masala
We start off with a Chicken Tikka yoghurt marinade for chicken thighs. Thighs, my friends. Not breast! We need juicy meat for this recipe because we’re going to blast it with some serious heat to replicate the char grilled flavour of Chicken Tikka!
Leave it to marinade for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight. Then heat your pan until it’s smoking hot – and I mean smokin’ hot!! – then cook those chicken pieces so the yoghurt coating gets chargrilled.
After that, we make the sauce, then toss the chicken back in to bring all the flavours together. And this is the vision that you will be bestowed with – your very own homemade Chicken Tikka Masala, made from scratch. With the signature deep orangey red sauce, wafting with aromatic curry flavour, smothering chicken with a beautiful chargrilled flavour.
Tikka Masala is deceptively easy!
This isn’t your everyday mid week meal. The ingredients list in the recipe looks alarmingly long, but it’s deceptive because there are duplicate ingredients. And we’re making a serious curry here! We can’t skimp on flavour!
And though the list might be long, here’s the best news – no hunting down unusual ingredients. You can get every single ingredient from the major supermarkets here in Australia (Woolies, Coles, Harris Farms, most Aldi’s and large IGA’s).
RECIPE REFERENCES
This recipe is the result of a mountain of reading, researching, tasting and cooking we did in pursuit of the ultimate Tikka Masala recipe for the home cook.
We visited some of our favourite Indian restaurants in Sydney just to taste the chicken tikka masala, and recounted our memories of curries we experienced in the UK and India.
We looked at existing recipes by authors both well known (Madhur Jaffrey and Heston Blumenthal) and unknown, including many Indian food bloggers. We even watched Youtube videos in Hindi and went to the library and dug up faded old Indian cookbooks!
We pulled out the best bits from every source of inspiration as well as adding our own ideas to come up with this recipe!
Difference between Chicken Tikka Masala and Butter Chicken
In case you are wondering about the difference between Chicken Tikka Masala and Butter Chicken, the main thing is the char grilled flavour of the chicken which Butter Chicken does not have. Also, the sauce of Tikka Masala is more intense and complex. 🙂
For curry lovers everywhere, it’s truly worth making your own curry from scratch at least once in your life. Like Thai Red Curry, a store bought curry paste (even a really great one) simply doesn’t compare. If I were to make this using a jar of paste, I would pimp it up quite a bit with fresh garlic, ginger and spices, and it would be not much less effort than making it from scratch!
I really hope you love this. This is a recipe that my brother and I developed together, tag teaming with the recipe until we “got it right” (meaning, as close as possible to good Indian restaurants). Hope you enjoy! – Nagi x
MORE GREAT CURRIES OF THE WORLD!
- Butter Chicken – one of the most popular curries in the world
- Rogan Josh – fall apart lamb in a rich creamy tomato sauce
- Biryani (it’s amazing!)
- Dal (Indian lentil curry)
- Thai Red Curry
- Beef Rendang
- Massaman Curry
- Goan Fish Curry (Indian) – an amazing seafood curry from the tropical beaches of Goa
- Browse the Curry Collection
ON THE SIDE
- Indian Tomato Salad
- Samosas – The perfect appetiser / starter. Or snacks and lunch tomorrow!
- Pakoras – Spiced Indian vegetable fritters
- South Indian-style Cabbage & Carrot Salad with Coconut
- Refreshing Cucumber with Lemon Yogurt Dressing
- Give this Everyday Cabbage Salad an Indian spin by sauteing garlic and cumin seeds in oil before mixing up with other Dressing ingredients
- Real Naan! Chewy, stretchy, fluffy – the ultimate homemade naan recipe right here
- No Yeast Easy Soft Flatbread. Perfect to use as naan, but simpler and without yeast so you can get it on the table fast!
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
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Chicken Tikka Masala
Ingredients
Chicken Tikka Marinade:
- 600g/ 1.2lb chicken thigh (boneless, skinless), cut into 3cm / 2.2″ cubes (Note 1)
- 1/2 cup plain yoghurt, full fat best (Greek is fine)
- 6 cloves garlic , minced (~1.5 tbsp)
- 1 tbsp fresh ginger , grated
- 1 tsp garam masala (Note 2)
- 1 tsp each salt, cumin, ground coriander, paprika (sweet, normal or smokey)
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
- Pinch black pepper
- 2 tsp lemon juice
Cooking Chicken:
- 1 – 2 tbsp oil (Note 3)
Curry Sauce Spices:
- 2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp garam masala (Note 2)
- 2 tsp coriander
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/8 tsp cardamom powder
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
Curry Sauce:
- 3 tbsp (65ml) vegetable oil (Note 3)
- 30g / 2 tbsp unsalted butter OR ghee
- 1 onion, finely chopped (brown, white or yellow)
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp fresh ginger , grated
- 6 cloves garlic , crushed or grated
- 1 tbsp paprika (not smoked)
- 1 2/3 cups (400ml) tomato passata (tomato puree)
- 1 2/3 cups (400ml) water
- 100 ml (1/3 cup + 1 tbsp) cream (thickened or pure is fine)
- 1 tsp sugar
- 50g / 3 tbsp unsalted butter OR ghee
Serving
Instructions
Chicken Tikka:
- Combine all ingredients except chicken in a bowl and mix. Add chicken and turn well to coat.
- Cover with cling wrap and leave in fridge to marinate overnight (3 hours minimum).
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in a non stick pan over high heat until smoking. Add half the chicken and spread out. Leave for 2 minutes or until charred. Turn each piece and cook the other side until charred – don’t worry if not cooked inside. (Note 4, also Video helpful here) Remove into bowl.
- Scrape out charred bits left in pan and discard. Add more oil if required and cook remaining chicken.
Sauce:
- Wipe skillet with paper towels (or do this part in a pot as you need a lid). Turn heat down to medium high.
- Add oil and butter. When butter is melted, add onions, ginger and salt.
- Cook, stirring constantly to ensure it doesn’t burn, until the ginger is starting to turn golden and the onions smell sweet, about 5 – 7 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to medium. Add the garlic and paprika, and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add the Curry Sauce Spices, and cook a further 2 minutes, stirring.
- Add tomato passata and water, and mix. Bring to a simmer, then cover and reduce heat to low.
- Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Pour curry into a bowl, then use a stick blender to puree until smooth (Note 5).
- Return sauce to skillet. Add cream, sugar and butter. Stir to melt the butter.
- Add chicken, stir. Simmer for a few minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
- Optional: Sprinkle with a pinch of extra garam masala at the end.
- Serve over basmati rice, sprinkled with coriander/cilantro if desired. Try this No Yeast Flatbread as a quick naan!
Recipe Notes:
* Indian cooking uses a lot of oil. Don’t be tempted to skimp on the butter and oil for this recipe, it really affects the resulting richness of the dish at the end. We were quite surprised at the difference it made. AT MOST you can reduce the cooking oil by 1 tbsp and omit the butter at the end (but taste it first!). And even using the full amount of butter + oil, it only works out at about 1.7 tbsp per serving which isn’t as obscene as one might expect. 🙂
* You can use ghee instead of the oil/butter used to sauté the onion. I find oil + butter produces a similar end result. I do use ghee sometimes – if I have it on hand (which I usually don’t).
* The dish is deliberately saucy because it’s SO GOOD!
* The salt level looks high but curries need it. Generally, intense flavours = more salt required. 5. Storage / make ahead – Chicken can be marinated for up to 48 hours in the fridge, or pop it straight into the freezer then it will marinate while defrosting overnight in the fridge. Cooked curry will keep in the fridge for up to 3 days, or freezer for 3 months (defrost then reheat in microwave or on stove with splash of extra water). However, unlike stews, curries are at their prime freshly made, when the spices are at their most aromatic. A good trick to freshen up curries is to add a pinch of garam masala when reheating. 6. Recipe references: See in post. 7. Nutrition per serving, assuming 5 servings (excludes rice, naan etc).
Nutrition Information:
More Curry For Curry Lovers
Thai Red Curry | Chickpea Potato Curry (Chana Aloo) | Beef Rendang | Vegetable Curry | Cauliflower Chickpea Curry | Queema (Indian Curried Beef Mince) | Chicken Satay Curry
LIFE OF DOZER
Miserable, sulky post-swim hose down. No feeling sorry for him! He just spent the last hour swimming and rolling in sand!!!
Chicken Tikka Masala- under the “sauce” ingredients you have “butter” listed twice- as 30gm then again at the end 50 gm?
Hi Don – yes you use two amounts as per the recipe 🙂
Tikka masala
When all else fails read the recipe properly
So much flavour, the right amount of heat, delicious. My go to Tikka Masala recipe, now.
That’s so great to hear Suzin!!
Thanks for another great recipe Nagi! Honestly since I’ve discovered how great your recipes are I have been cooking your meals nearly every night! Every recipe has worked and they are always spot on for flavour. Cooked this tonight when we had my sister in law and her hubby over. It took me longer than anticipated but it was really good and totally worth the wait 😋😃
That’s so nice to hear Adele, thanks so much for letting me know ❤️
Oh this was so delicious! Thank you Nagi! I am low fodmap and it’s been so long since I’ve enjoyed Indian food. I replaced the onion with spring onion, and garlic with garlic infused olive oil. I also used lactose free cream. I omitted the cayenne pepper because I was cooking for kids. And finally, I added some chopped jap pumpkin when simmering the sauce, and then removed it before blitzing the sauce. Seriously delicious. We just enjoyed leftovers three days later and it was even better today. Can’t wait to try your tandoori chicken next.
I’m so glad it worked for you Melanie, that’s awesome to hear!
Absolutely beautiful!! My 5 year old daughter had 3 serves
Woah she has amazing tastes Natalie!
This curry recipe is so good I nearly cried with happiness whilst eating! We went to India on holiday in Feb & this curry reminded us of a little amazing place we ate often. I used chicken breast & it stayed moist. I had no cream so used coconut milk & I also added ground almonds. We loved it. Thank you for your amazing recipes.
That’s the best compliment Karen, thanks so much!
My wife made it and it was nice. We enjoyed it . Can we used few teaspoon of yogurt to the sauce?
Sure could Mobasir!!
This came out amazing! Big hit in my house. Made it for my husband who is a very big chicken tikka masala fan! I used chicken breast because it’s all we had, cooked it a little less on the cast iron pan and finished cooking it in the sauce, came out great!! Will use chicken thighs next time!!
Wahoo, thanks so much for letting me know Liz – N x
Do you think this would work with lamb? If so, what cut? In your experience, can you marinate lamb in yogurt?
By the way, I made this a few weeks ago with chicken and my husband was freaking out!! (He loved it. So did I).
OMG Nagi! You have surpassed yourself again!
I made this last night & the house smelt like an Indian Restaurant, the meal was to die for, I would be happy to go out & pay for this & chicken was sooooo tender. Thank you.
Woah that’s great Jennifer! I’m so glad you loved it!!
Hey Nagi, YUM! I’m not too good at cooking but love your recipes and this one was delish. Hubby loved it too. Thanks! I have a vegetarian mate – could I recommend her this one with tofu?
I would suggest using roasted cauliflower coated in lemon juice, oil, garam masala, smoked paprika and some salt. Pop in the oven for 25 minutes at 400°F.
Hi Nycolle, I haven’t made it with tofu but would love to know if it works!
Wow I cooked this tonight and it’s easily one of the best things I’ve ever cooked! Such an incredible flavour and worth every minute of the extra preparation time, which was very enjoyable in itself.
Woah what a great compliment, thanks so much for letting me know Bec!
I have to say, I never leave comments but I should have ages ago!! Nagi, this curry was amazing and even though I am full to the brim after making it tonight, my mouth is still watering even writing this post!! Thank you so much for your honest, easy to follow and absolutely delicious recipes. I never even look on other sites anymore and I get so excited when I get your email updates!!
Thank you so much for all you do!!
That’s great to hear Miranda, thanks so much for letting me know!
Excellent recipe – marinated it for 48hrs, and BBQ’d the chicken on skewers to try to get more authentic tandoor flavor. It was amazing – so grateful for your brilliant recipes!
Hi Nagi,
Is the coriander in the Curry Sauce Spices – fresh, dried or ground? Can’t wait to make, thanks again! X
Hi Pete, ground coriander – N x
We loved it! Served with flatbread as side and sliced tomatoes and cucumbers sprinkled with salt, pepper and lime.
I made a low-fodmap version subbing cream with coconut cream, onions with green onion leaves, garlic cloves with garlic-infused oil.
Sounds great Magdalena!
Oh Nagi – this was wonderful. I’ve always been a bit scared of using spices, but you’ve given me confidence. Such a beautiful rounded flavour. Thank-you to you and your brother for all of the research! I’ve made your prime rib and chilli con carne, so now I have 3 of your wonderful dishes in my repertoire (I’m stealing the credit – only kidding. I’d recommend you to everyone) Thanks again and give Doser a big kiss from here I’m Scotland xxx
Thanks so much for the great feedback Davina!!
Hi Nagi, is there a good way to cut down on cream and/or butter and not lose any of the amazing flavor?
Hi Nina, try cutting the butter in half and reducing the cream and adding a little milk if you’re calorie conscious – N x
My favorite recipe to follow!! It is so amazing! Made the “mistake” of making it once and now my husband wants it almost every week haha! We add a little more of the Spicy ingredients because we like it that way. LOVE this recipe!!
Hi Nagi,
All your recipes are delicious and I use your website alot. This is one is one of our favourites, which the whole family get excited about when I cook it. You really are an amazing cook. Thank you for sharing!😊
I’m so glad you love it Claire!!