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. Add a side of 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!
- Biryani (it’s amazing!)
- Dal (Indian lentil curry)
- Thai Red Curry
- Beef Rendang
- Massaman Curry
- Browse the Curry Collection
ON THE SIDE
- Indian Tomato Salad
- Give this Everyday Cabbage Salad an Indian spin by sauteing garlic and cumin seeds in oil before mixing up with other Dressing ingredients
- No Yeast Easy Soft Flatbread. Perfect to use as naan!
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
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Chicken Tikka Masala
Ingredients
Chicken Tikka Marinade:
- 600 g/ 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 cardomon powder
- 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
Curry Sauce:
- 3 tbsp / 65ml vegetable oil (Note 3)
- 30g / 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 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)
- 400 ml / 1 2/3 cups tomato passata (tomato puree)
- 400 ml / 1 2/3 cups water
- 100 ml / 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp cream (thickened or pure is fine)
- 1 tsp sugar
- 50g / 3 tbsp unsalted butter
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 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!!!
Did you try making it with bone in and skin on chicken tights?
Hi Zuzanna, I prefer without the skin as it doesn’t stay crispy in the sauce – N x
Nagi, Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I love making it for friends and family. My sauce tends to turn out a bit thin- maybe it’s something I’m doing wrong but I follow the recipe as given. I end up adding ground almonds to thicken, which seems to work well. A question? If I make double the amount, do I double the spices? Thank you for your generosity in sharing this recipe.
Hi Celine, yes if you’re doubling the amount you should double the spices too 🙂
Cooked this yesterday night. It was such a massive hit. The sauce was just fantastic and as always the recipe was so easy to follow. We all really enjoyed the amount of garlic (it was a really strong flavour that came through though that could have been down to the size of the cloves I used).
I did find that the amount of chicken could have been doubled as there was a LOT of sauce. That being said, a few naan breads mopped up most of it!
I do love everything SAUCY Justin, but you could always add more chicken if you prefer ☺️
This was amazing. Anyone who says otherwise is crazy. Totally worth the time and fun to make. Thank you!!
That’s great to hear Jill!
This was time consuming, but delish!! I would definitely make this again, and would be happy to serve it at a pot luck or a dinner party. YUM!
It is a little time consuming but so worth it Peta!
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?
Hi Nycolle, I haven’t made it with tofu but would love to know if it works!
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.
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!