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!!!
Hi nagi from UK it’s Fatima
Hi nagi from UK
Just making your chicken tikka masala 3rd time now
Chicken just cooking in the sauce as i type
Will serve it with naan bread
Absolutely delighted to find this recipe in your web.
You are amazing cook
Thank you
Ps yes it was chicken tikka masala I was thinking off
I thoroughly enjoyed cooking and eating this dish! Thank you for sharing your recipe!
Awesome Fatima, I hope you loved it!
Do you use the rest of the chicken marinade or you discard it? Thanks
Hi Insherah, discard it – N x
I made with chicken breast….. first I soaked it overnight in Brine made 1 LTR water 50g salt 25 g sugar couple of dried chillis cardamon pods and cumin seeds to taste all heated to release flavours andcooled before soaking chicken in fridge overnight then followed your recipe with marinade in morning cooked at. 6pm. I found the sauce a little thin so next time I will not use a little water and add as needed. Good recipe so yet again thought I share the trick to keep chicken moist when cooking.
Sounds like a great idea David, sorry you found the sauce thin – but yes, easy fix is to hold back on the water ❤️
Just made for the secon time. So good. I freeze leftovers and still really great. Tin Eats is my go to for different recipes.
Love it!
Thanks so much Wendy!!
Has anyone tried to freeze this recipe? If so, what is your experience with it – how long does it stay good, and does the sauce “separate” when thawed because of the fat/cream content?
Hi Ami, I havent frozen before and kept for a month, the sauce was fine after thawing ☺️
My husband said this was the best curry I had ever made. It was fab and I will be making it again. Thank you Nagi!!
That’s so great to hear Alyson!
Thank you for the recipe!
Instead cream can I put coconut milk?
You sure can! – N x
This recipe is literally to die for
Thanks so much!
Very authentic, made a great Friday night dinner. Not had a TTM for a few years but this has awakened my interest!
Amazing!
Thanks so much Milda!
I made this tonight and it was ON POINT. Just so good.
Woot! Great Catherine! ❤️
Happy new year Nagi and Dozer. This was a fantastic recipe but with your track record for great recipes I didn’t doubt it in the least. Looking forward to making your cottage pie this weekend! Cheers from Canada.
Thanks so much for the feedback Judy, I hope you loved the pie!
What can I use instead of yogurt? I need a dairy free option! Thx!
I have tried a lot of tikka massala recipes and while many of them are good they are not restaurant great. This recipe was absolutely fantastic. I used chicken breast and just cut them into big cubes and was able to get a nice char on them. The meat was not dry at all since it didn’t cook through. I more than doubled the Cayenne because we like things a bit spicier and it was perfect. I just wanted to eat the sauce with a spoon. Thank you for this recipe.
I love to cook but have never attempted Indian cuisine. I followed the recipe exactly and Holy cow what incredible flavor. My husband couldn’t speak, he just kept moaning and shaking his head. We loved it thank you!!
Woah what a compliment! I’m so glad you both enjoyed it! ❤️
I have made this recipe over 5 times it is phenomenal, I panicked today looking fornit and had to really search, usually yours was first in line! But was so happy to find it!! Currently cooking it and my house smells amazing!!
Awesome!! I’m so glad you love it! ❤️
I wish I could give this 10 stars! This was first time trying my hand at a traditional Indian dish, let alone chicken tikka masala. Because of the complex flavors to this dish, I was so worried about getting it wrong. I don’t think your instructions or your recipe could be any better! My chicken turned out perfectly using your method (getting the oil to its smoke point prior to charring in the very hot skillet) and the sauce was beyond my own expectations. I wasn’t going to use an onion (because I generally don’t like onions) but as I read and re-read your instructions, I was convinced I was wrong. I was so intimidated by this dish, but it was just perfect. I can’t wait to make it again. Thank you so much.
Ms. Nagi, I am thrilled I found your web site and I have just begun to try your recipes. Last week was Asian Marinated Chickem, it was great, tonight Chicken Tikka Masala. It was fun to cook and it came out great. I appreciate the heat was subtle aand came to life late in the taste. (Here in California the taste is often over powered but the heat.)
Questions: if want to increase the heat a little how would you suggest I go about it?
Thank you
Glad you enjoyed this Dennis!! To increase heat, add more cayenne pepper. – N x
Nagi,
Let me say that the recipe is delicious.
However, I find it almost impossible to get the kind of char that you do in my home kitchen. I’m not sure my gas burners are hot enough. Nevertheless the recipe is overall great.
Dear Nagi,
Without a doubt you do my favorite food blog. The recipes are unfailing delicious. I usually tweak recipes but yours I confess I do not–sometimes because I am unfamiliar with the style of cooking and now because I realize you have it down! Please do a cookbook!
Best,
Claire (from Oregon, USA)
PS I tell everyone I can about your recipes. I’m a one woman promotion!