Chicken Tikka Masala is a classic, spiced, tomato-based curry.
This curry is for you if you enjoy dipping your warm naan bread in a creamy butter chicken curry!
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After a long day at work, you just want to have a wholesome, comforting dish to feed your hunger.
You want a dish that makes you happy, food which takes you over and which numbs your mind.
When this happens, your smell, and especially your taste senses, go berserk. The solution? Homemade easy Chicken Tikka Masala!!
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Ingredients Overview
For the Marination
- Chicken boneless — Breast or thighs.
- Yogurt or curd
- Cumin seeds powder
- Coriander seeds powder
- Black pepper powder
- Turmeric powder
- Cinnamon powder
- Red chili pepper or cayenne pepper powder
- Ginger & garlic — A paste of the two is my choice, but you can use crushed garlic and grated ginger too.
To cook the curry:
- Onion — white, yellow or purple, chopped.
- Bay Leave
- Tomato — diced
- Butter or clarified butter
- Tomato sauce — unseasoned
- Table Cream or heavy cream
- Water
- Salt to taste
How to make it?
Step 1
Combine in a bowl the marination ingredients, the yogurt, and spices, and coat the chicken with it.
Step 2
Sauté onion and briefly cook the bay leaf with the onion.
Cook diced tomatoes soft.
Step 3
Stir in the tomato sauce, cream, and water to create the sauce base.
Toss in your chicken marination and combine everything well.
Step 4
Simmer everything until the chicken is cooked and soft.
Take out bay leaf and discard before serving your curry hot.
📖 Recipe
Chicken Tikka Masala Recipe
Ingredients
For the marination:
- 10.6 Ounces Chicken Boneless cut into cubes
- ⅛ Cup Yogurt
- 1 Teaspoon Coriander Seeds Ground
- 1 Teaspoon Cumin Seeds Whole
- ¼ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground
- 1 Teaspoon Turmeric Ground
- ½ Teaspoon Cinnamon Ground
- ½ Teaspoon Red Chili Pepper or Cayenne Pepper Powder
- 1 Tablespoon Ginger Garlic *see Notes for options
For the curry cooking:
- 2 Tablespoons Butter or Clarified Butter
- 1 Onion choped
- 1 Piece Bay Leave
- 1 Tomato diced
- 5 Tablespoon Tomato Sauce unflavored
- 3 ½ Tablespoons Table Cream or Heavy Cream
- ½ Cup Water or Broth for extra flavor
- To Taste Salt optional
- Cilantro fresh, to top
Instructions
- 10.6 Ounces Chicken Boneless
- Add in the yogurt, coriander seed powder, cumin seed powder, black pepper powder, turmeric, cinnamon, red pepper powder/cayenne powder, and ginger garlic.⅛ Cup Yogurt, 1 Teaspoon Cumin Seeds Whole, 1 Teaspoon Coriander Seeds Ground, ¼ Teaspoon Black Pepper Ground, 1 Teaspoon Turmeric Ground, ½ Teaspoon Cinnamon Ground, ½ Teaspoon Red Chili Pepper, 1 Tablespoon Ginger Garlic
- Mix everything well so that the chicken is evenly coated with the marination. The longer you keep it marinate the better for the flavor, however, if you are in a hurry just marinate it as long as you can spare time and then continue with the preparation.
- For the cooking process, heat a deep pan and add the butter. Add in the onion and cook soft.2 Tablespoons Butter, 1 Onion
- Add a piece of bay leaf to the pan and let it cook for a minute. This will bring out the bay leaf flavors.1 Piece Bay Leave
- Throw in the diced tomato and stir cook until a bit soft. Don't let them burn on.1 Tomato
- Add in your tomato sauce with the cream and mix the whole pan contents well. Pour in the water, mix again, cover and let it cook until the tomato has softened considerably.5 Tablespoon Tomato Sauce, 3 ½ Tablespoons Table Cream
- Now you can add in the chicken with the marination, and the water and salt. Mix it all well!½ Cup Water, To Taste Salt
- Cover and cook on medium heat until chicken is soft.
- Pick out and discard bay leaf.
- Garnish with fresh cilantro (aka coriander)
Notes
Nutrition
Tips
For the best chicken tikka curry masala: The longer you marinate the chicken the more flavorful it will turn out.
For the quickest chicken tikka curry masala: Marinate the chicken for 5 minutes and move on to cooking it.
I adjusted the recipe over the years to make it easier for you while retaining all the flavors.
I skip garam masala in my chicken tikka curry because, to be honest, you don't really need it. The other spices with the yogurt add a lot of amazing complex flavors to your chicken.
Serving Ideas
We make this with Indian flat bread. Either plain roti or a cheesy nan. We prefer roti because they are easier to prepare.
Alternatively, steamed or boiled rice is a great addition to your chicken tikka masala. In that case, I still prefer lemon rice or cilantro lime rice because they are aromatic.
Storing & Meal Prepping
You can prep this meal in advance for the workweek in batches. I like to use rectangular glass containers for that because the food can be directly reheated in them.
The tikka masala with chicken is good for about 3–5 days in your fridge. Depending on the best before date mentioned on your chicken cuts.
Or freeze the meal after you are done preparing it. It will remain good for at least 1 month in your freezer.
What is Chicken Tikka Masala?
Chicken Tikka Masala is a flavorful spicy tomato based creamy curry.
A combination of spices is used to marinate the chicken before the meat is cooked in a gravy-like spiced sauce.
Origins
Chicken Tikka Curry Masala was created by North Indian Punjabis. There are numerous claims from the British and Indian side.
I think the curry meal was made popular by Punjabi immigrants in the UK because chicken tikka masala is better known in the UK and not in India.
Hence, why chicken tikka curry masala is the national dish of England (I'm not kidding!)
People will claim that chicken tikka masala is Indian, but to be fair, it's not. The dish rarely appears on Indian menus (and I traveled all over the country).
That is why this chicken tikka curry is a British Curry house dish, just like Chicken Balti and Chicken Pathia Curry.
To add to the confusion, the Chicken Tikka Masala curry is a derivation from the Indian Chicken Masala dish (curry meal), the Chicken Tikka (boneless dry tandoori chicken tikka) and the all famous butter chicken.
The Indian Chicken Masala is usually prepared with a nut (cashew or almond base) or tomato base. Besides, they don't taste the same at all.
This is the major difference between the Indian chicken masala and the British chicken tikka masala. YES, there is a difference!
Related Recipes
- Mushroom Masala
- Cashew Tikka Masala Curry Paste
- Matar Paneer (Green Peas & Indian Cottage Cheese Curry)
- Basic Chicken Tandoori Paste
Could you use coconut milk instead of yogurt?
Yes, you can switch out the yogurt, but instead of coconut milk, I recommend using coconut cream because it's much thicker in consistency compared to coconut milk. Coconut cream would compare better to yogurt in this marination recipe.
Hi Helene,
could You please specify : 1/3 ginger from how big ginger and 2/3 garlic, is it from whole head of garlic or 1 clove of garlic ?
I have never make this dish. So thirst time I would like make it correctly.
Thank You,
Elizabeth
Hi Elisabeth, sorry for the confusion. You need a Tablespoon of ginger and garlic finely chopped or in paste form. You can grate the ginger too. So for 1 tbs of both together, you will need about 2 normal-sized cloves of garlic (or one super large one), and about 1 centimeter or 1/2 inch ginger. This is an estimate, the easiest way to get this right is to use ginger and garlic paste. Some online stores and special Asian stores sell ginger and garlic, either as one paste or as two separate pastes. Ginger and garlic paste mixes in well into the curry and ginger has the ability to thicken a sauce. You can also prepare your own ginger and garlic paste at home with my recipe.
Thanks a lots for your meal
You are welcome 🙂
what kind of yogurt?
any, whichever you like. In India they use curd which is a thinner yogurt variety (without the cultures) but I tried it with greek yogurt too and it turned out nice and thick, simply amazing.
So easy to
thanks for your feedback! 🙏
I made mine with Tofu and added Bok choy and used chicken broth instead of water and heavy whipping cream. I had to double up kind of on the spices, because I felt like my portions were more than the recipe called for and it was a good move! Delicious!!
Also, instead of adding cilantro as a topping I lightly fried the white rice with onion and Cilantro and the pairing was amazing.
Thanks for sharing your version Ilka, that gives us some space to get creative in the kitchen. 🙂
😋😋 love the outcome.
Awesome! 🤤
Thank you so much! A wonderfully easy recipe with an incredible taste. Immediately became a family favorite and if a week passed without your Chicken Tikka Masala, the kids start protesting!
Wow thank you Natacha! I'm so happy to read that your family enjoys the chicken tikka masala as much as we do. Thank you for your feedback!
One of my most favorite Indian dishes. This recipe is delicious. As true to traditional flavor from other recipes I have made in the past.
Thanks so much for your feedback 🙏
Yummy ♥️
Excellent recipe! Flavors were popping!
Hi Desiree, thanks for your feedback. I'm happy to read that you enjoyed the chicken tikka masala. 🙂
Really good chicken tikka masala.
Chicken Tikka Masala is heavenly. 🙂 In india, you'll see how crazy people are for this this dish! I'll try your recipe next time I make this.
Looks great! I just perfected my chicken tikka masala a couple of weeks ago. Wish I had seen your version. It would have saved me a lot of time.
First bite, second bite...all of the way to the last bite, I would be in heaven with each one. Such a beautifully rich looking sauce!!!
Hi Helene, I love dishes like this, so much flavor and color.
This is one of my favorites to order when I eat out at an Indian restaurant, but I've never made it myself! Thanks for the inspiration!
I couldn't agree more "Good food has a magnetic effect on us" for sure! And this chicken tikka sounds wonderful Helene! So satisfying on so many dimensions!!
I love chicken masala but have never made it at home. This recipe looks so simple and yet, it has complex flavors. Can't wait to try it.
This is one of those dishes I've never made! I've had it numerous times in restaurants, but just haven't gotten around to making it. I will though -- and use your recipe. 🙂 Thanks!
I am very interested in your ginger paste. The recipe I use does not encourage you to cook the chicken WITH the marinade, which is such a loss in flavour (although, I ALWAYS do!). I am looking forward to giving your recipe a try, we have so enjoyed your Palak Paneer recipe which I have made several times when we do an Indian-themed dinner party. Everyone raves about it.
Chicken! I like it. I also love this food. Thanks! 🙂
I would lick the whole bowl clean!