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
Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.
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!!!
BANGING!! Absolutely gorgeous! 10/10 from everyone! Miss Fussypants said it was the best curry she’d ever had.
Great recipe as always Nagi!
I do have to shout out to all to not skip the blending step. It seriously is the game changer in taking it to restaurant quality.
Nice recipe but I have two comments. Please don’t make me feel inadequate because I prefer chicken breasts. It’s not a crime so don’t go on and on about it.
Secondly, butter chicken does indeed have char on the chicken. If you have butter chicken in ANY restaurant in India, from modest to posh, the chicken will be cooked in the tandoor and will always have that smoky charry taste. The real difference is that genuine butter chicken is mostly butter whereas tikka masala is mostly cream.
Absolutely amazing!! Have made it 100 times!!
Just Delicious. That sauce is to die for and I sopped up every bit of it with some Naan. The chicken didn’t get as charred as I would have liked so next time I may hit it with the broiler or try cooking it in the air fryer, which has given me great results on other marinated chicken thigh recipes. Thanks for the recipe!
We love this recipe and its a all time fav… but the secret to its true success is cooking the chicken on the bbq grill to give it that authentic taste !
Very easy to make and I love that Nagi gives so many tips… everyone loved it!
I was looking for a Chicken Tikka recipe and in our family, we all know where to go for great recipes 🙂
This did not disappoint!
I made the marinade, cooked the chicken with chunks of onion in the oven. I added some broccoli in for the last 15 minutes and it was superb 🙂 The marinade does need the 24 – 48 hours in the fridge in my opinion as it really adds so much more flavour. Making it again tonight, yummo xx
Nagi this recipe is amazing thank you!! I made this pretty much exactly as stated, just made it with chicken breast for my fussy grownup daughter, added some spinach and served it with slivered almonds. Oh my goodness! To die for. I will definitely make this again and again.
Tried this last night. I enjoyed it, but next time I will cook the onions a little longer, and perhaps, cook in oven like the Lamb Kirma , just to give it a little more depth in the sauce. I did make it vegetarian, but coating cauli and mushrooms in the marinade, and then baking in the oven until quite golden. Added peas at the last moment. Will definitely make again.
I really love several of your other recipes and so I thought I’d try this one. I’ve tried so many tikka masala recipes before I was hoping this one would be the perfect one. I think it must be me and something I’m doing. This recipe and all the other ones I’ve attempted like it always turn out kind of bitter. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong! 🙁 I used paneer instead of chicken and after cooking it in the skillet I tried it and it was amazing! So I know it isn’t that part. Maybe some of my spices are too old?
After years of making my own chicken tikka masala, I find this recipe: The best!! I used crushed tomatoes but once I used the immersion blender, you could not tell. It was super smooth. I had ghee on hand from Costco. I’m inspired to make homemade naan now, to really make it company-worthy. I love Indian food!!
Love this recipe. FYI there’s a typo. 3 tbsp (65ml) vegetable oil. It should be 45ml.
Sent previously and forgot to rate the recipe!
Morning Nagi San. This dish was amazing. Have added this recipe to my list of favourites. Hugs to Dozer.
I made this for dinner tonight, Really good flavor! We had a lot of extra sauce, so next time I’d definitely make some naan or something extra to soak it up with – it’s too good to waste!
The dish turned out absolutely delicious! Thank you Nagi and the team! I am your huge fan! I thought that it might a strong flavor for the kids but they loved it!
I stumbled upon the website a few years ago. It never disappoints. Made this for the first time tonight. Doubled chicken and sauce. Added 1.5 the spices in the sauce. Added a can of chickpeas and a bag of frozen leaf spinach. I know not authentic but it was amazing. Better than a restaurant. To save effort, I did not puree sauce. The family did not mind. Original sauce amount is generous. Doubling it, I will make more chicken and add it to sauce for one more meal.
Delicious! Thank you!
A relatively simple and straight forward recipe for the amazing flavour it produces. Well worth the time taken to work through the long ingredient list, which seems a little overwhelming but as Nagi points out most of the ingredients are duplicated so it’s not as complicated as it first appears. One of my favourite Nagi curries- it is delicious.