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Home Collections Curries

Chicken Tikka Masala

By:Nagi
Published:6 Apr '18Updated:1 Jun '21
522 Comments
Recipe v Video v Dozer v

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!

Overhead photo of chicken tikka masala on basmati rice in a dark rustic bowl with a piece of naan wedged in on the side.

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.

Close up of Chicken Tikka Masala over rice in a dark bowl, garnished with coriander / cilantro.

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!

Marinade for chicken tikka made with yoghurt, spices, lemon juice, salt and oil.

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.

Close up of Chicken Tikka cooking in a black skillet, charred.

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).

Chicken Tikka Masala in a black skillet garnished with coriander / cilantro.

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. 🙂

Photo of chicken tikka masala on basmati rice in a dark rustic bowl with a piece of naan wedged in on the side. Pickled red cabbage and skillet of Chicken Tikka Masala in the background.

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!

Close up of naan bread being used to scoop up some Chicken Tikka Masala.

WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT

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Chicken Masala served with basmati rice and naan

Chicken Tikka Masala

Author: Nagi
Prep: 15 minutes mins
Cook: 45 minutes mins
Total: 1 hour hr
Mains
Indian
4.98 from 195 votes
Servings4 - 5 people
Tap or hover to scale
Print
  • 1164
Recipe VIDEO above. Make this iconic curry at home!!! It's a stunner - and although there's an extensive looking list of ingredients, it's astonishingly straight forward. Far better than paste in a jar, less oily than restaurants, and you can get everything you need from supermarkets!
Spice level: Low. Marinating time: 3 - 24 hours

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 cardomon 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

  • Basmati rice

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:

1. Chicken: Please don't try this with chicken breast! The high temp cooking required to achieve the char grilled crust on the chicken will overcook it and dry it out.
2. Garam Masala is a spice mix that is found in major supermarkets in Australia (Woolies, Coles etc) that is commonly used in Indian cooking. It smells like curry powder.
3. Oil - Or canola, coconut, grapeseed or other neutral flavoured oil with a high smoke point. NOT olive oil.
4. Charring - Try to keep the charred coating on the chicken, but don't fret if most gets stuck to the pan - you still get the flavour. This is the reason I use a non stick pan - less risk of charred crust sticking to pan (though you can make this in a well seasoned cast iron pan which is brilliant for getting that charred crust).
5. Don't skip the blending. When all those caramelised onions cooked with the garlic and ginger gets whizzed up with everything else, it's magic. It's one of the steps that we felt made "all the difference" - and restaurants do this too. It's all about the silky smooth curry sauce!
I transfer into a bowl because it's difficult to use a stick blender in a skillet. If you're making this in a pot, you can probably tilt the pot to use a stick blender. Or let cool slightly and do this in a blender - do not blitz piping hot sauce in a blender, it might blow the lid off and curry sauce will hit your ceiling!
GENERAL 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:

Serving: 365gCalories: 582cal (29%)
Keywords: Chicken Tikka Masala, Tikka masala
Did you make this recipe?I love hearing how you went with my recipes! Tag me on Instagram at @recipe_tin.

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


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Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative!

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522 Comments

  1. Sheila says

    December 2, 2023 at 10:15 am

    5 stars
    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.

    Reply
  2. BB says

    December 2, 2023 at 3:58 am

    Hi Nagi, I LOVE your recipes! Thank you so much! My husband way overdid cumin in a chili several years ago and now I can’t eat it, at least not straight as an ingredient. Can you recommend an alternative for Indian recipes? Thank you,

    Reply
  3. Bronte says

    December 1, 2023 at 1:05 pm

    5 stars
    Amazing!!

    Reply
  4. Zofia says

    November 20, 2023 at 7:27 am

    5 stars
    Wonderful recipe, easy to follow and turned out great – the best Indian recipe I’ve made so far!

    Reply
  5. Ail says

    November 7, 2023 at 2:40 pm

    5 stars
    Absolutely loved this! So impressed with your ethos and quality of the recipes! Am going to buy your book as well! From New Zealand x

    Reply
  6. Ash says

    October 26, 2023 at 8:29 pm

    Made this tonight with Lamb and a 12 month old in tow! It is absolutely divine! So rich and moreish

    Reply
  7. Matt says

    October 10, 2023 at 4:01 am

    5 stars
    Delicious, I used Hot Paprika and a tsp of chilli powder to spice this up a bit and was perfect. Also as my wife is a pescatarian I substituted the chicken tikka for cod and prawns cooked in the sauce at the end. Worked very nicely as a fish curry, I’ll try it as a chicken tikka next time I have meat eating friends over. I’ve made 5 or 6 things from this site and they have all been spot on, very good recipes 😊

    Reply
  8. Karen says

    October 6, 2023 at 4:24 pm

    Is the cream in this recipe heavy cream?

    Reply
  9. Sue says

    September 24, 2023 at 7:26 pm

    Been a while since I cooked this and forgot how much sauce there is. Have made a note on my recipe card to increase the chicken. This is one of my fav recipes. Once you get all the spices out of the cupboard the prep time is fairly close (my spice cupboard is messy lol)

    Reply
  10. Jaime says

    September 15, 2023 at 9:12 am

    This was super delicious!!! We had 900gm of chicken thigh to use so marinated that (and adjusted the marinade ratios). I kept the same amount of sauce ingredients (banking on there being extra sauce like with the butter chicken recipe). Next time, I think I might even double the chicken and keep the sauce amount the same (lots left over.. which isn’t necessarily a bad thing!). Such a tasty curry – my partner declared it even better than the few we’ve tried at restaurants! Thanks Nagi!!!

    Reply
  11. Alice says

    August 7, 2023 at 9:29 am

    5 stars
    I followed the recipe exactly as written. It was fantastic! I served it with basmati rice and naan. My family loved it!

    Reply
  12. Jan says

    July 16, 2023 at 4:40 am

    5 stars
    I’ve just made this for the umpteenth time and again it’s turned out wonderfully. I added spinach to the sauce to sneak some vegetables into my husband without him knowing. I always make double so I have some stashed in the freezer. My favourite recipe of yours Nagi ☺️

    Reply
  13. Ally says

    June 24, 2023 at 10:51 pm

    Hi Nagi! I’ve made this a couple times and it is near perfect. I am experiencing a slight funny taste, and in hindsight I wonder if it could be from the garlic (from chicken marinade) burning when charring the chicken. How do you get around this? Should I consider not marinating in garlic and just adding it in later? Thanks!

    Reply
  14. Angela Dyer says

    May 27, 2023 at 12:27 pm

    Love your recipes

    Reply
  15. Eluned says

    May 21, 2023 at 12:51 am

    5 stars
    These were 10/10. They tasted better next day, because I didn’t marinate overnight, lol.

    Reply
  16. Bobby says

    May 11, 2023 at 11:01 am

    Should you leave the skin on the chicken? I see a lot of indian recipes where they useless skinless chicken pieces.

    Reply
  17. Bev says

    April 17, 2023 at 2:29 pm

    5 stars
    cooked this today, used chicken tenderloins as not a fan of the thighs. Turned out perfect, juicy and full of flavour and very tender,

    Reply
    • Laura says

      June 9, 2023 at 6:59 pm

      Bev, did you cut up the tenderloins before cooking? I also want to use breast meat even though Nagi says not to but I do worry about drying it out. Thank you!

      Reply
  18. alimak says

    March 18, 2023 at 4:26 pm

    5 stars
    I’ve just made this for the umpteenth time – I love it!
    Only thing different I do is to grill the marinated chicken as I’ve never had success charring it in a skillet. Oh, and I add fenugreek leaves to the finished dish instead of garam masala.

    Reply
  19. Thalia Perez says

    March 9, 2023 at 2:13 pm

    5 stars
    This recipe was spot on! I followed it exactly except I doubled the yogurt since I made it in the instapot and added chicken broth. The combination of ingredients was just awesome. It came out AMAZING! Thank you!!

    Reply
  20. Lana Kirsten says

    March 8, 2023 at 9:13 pm

    5 stars
    Made this over the last 2 days together with the naan and it was an absolute hit! Loved it 😍

    Reply
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Hi, I'm Nagi!

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative! Read More

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