Chicken tikka masala recipe – Learn to make the best Indian chicken tikka masala that yields one of the best gravy. Chicken tikka masala is a Indian boneless chicken gravy that is very popular around the world. Tikka meaning a chunk or a cube is marinated and grilled to perfection and then cooked in a gravy to yield a delicious, creamy tikka masala.
To make this, marinated chicken can be grilled in an oven or on stove top, the stove top method too yields a tasty dish. To make the tikka in oven, you can follow this Chicken tikka recipe.
Try this restaurant style chicken tikka masala gravy at home, I am sure you will ditch your regular restaurants and prepare this at home from now on.
For more popular Indian chicken recipes, do check
Butter chicken
Tandoori chicken
Chilli chicken
You may also like to check this chicken curry
Preparation
1. Mix all the marination ingredients. Hung yogurt, chili powder, salt, turmeric, ginger garlic paste, lemon juice and garam masala.
2. Wash chicken cubes under running water, drain completely, pat dry with few disposable tissues. and marinate and refrigerate for at least 2 hrs. Overnight refrigeration yields the best tender bites of chicken.
3. For grilling chicken tikka in a oven refer the recipe below in the recipe card. To make chicken tikka on tawa or pan, heat a non-stick pan with 1 tbsp oil, remove the excess marination from the chicken pieces and fry them on a high flame till they are almost cooked. Do not burn the pieces or the masala as they tend to leave a bitter taste. So continuously keep stirring the pieces, no problem if they brown. Doing this on a low flame or medium flame can entirely spoil your dish by releasing lot of moisture and can become like curry. So take care.
4. While the chicken is still frying, marinate the chopped cubes of onions and capsicums with the left over marinade. Once the tikka is almost cooked, remove the excess marination from the veggies and add them to the same pan and fry for 2 mins on a high flame. Set this tawa aside. You will be left with a moist meat and crunchy veggies with no left over wet mix on them.
How to make
5. Heat another pan or can use the same one by adding oil add all the dry masala / spices now and fry them till they begin to sizzle.
6. Add chopped onions, fry evenly till they turn slightly brown.
7. Add ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw smell disappears.
8. Add tomato puree, red chili powder, coriander powder and salt. Mix and fry for 2 minutes.
9. Add cashew and melon seeds paste.
10. Fry till the mixture leaves the sides of the pan.
11. Add sugar, chicken pieces and onions, capsicums, mix well and fry for 2 to 3 minutes.
12. Add water just enough to make a thick gravy. Adjust the consistency. Cook this till the gravy begins to boil well.
13. Add kasuri methi , cook for 2 to 3 mins or till the tikka turns tender.
14. Add garam masala cook for a while. Add cream and coriander leaves. Stir. off the flame.
Delicious Indian chicken tikka masala is ready.
Related Recipes
Chicken tikka masala recipe
Chicken tikka masala
For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card
Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml )
Marination
- 500 grams chicken cubes (1 lb boneless chicken)
- 1 tsp red chili powder , Kashmiri
- Lemon juice from ½ lemon (refer notes)
- ½ cup greek yogurt or hung curd or 1 cup curd (refer instructions and notes)
- 1/8 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- ½ tsp cumin powder
- 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
- 1 tsp fenugreek leaves , dried kasuri methi
- Salt to taste
- 1 tbsp oil for frying
Ingredients for gravy
- 3 tbsps oil
- ½ tsp cumin
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 to 2 black cardamom
- 3 green cardamom
- 3 cloves (can use up to 5)
- 2 inch cinnamon stick
- 3 onions medium , finely chopped
- 3 tomatoes medium , (pureed)
- 2 tsps ginger garlic paste
- 1 ½ tsp coriander powder
- 1 tbsp red chili powder
- ¼ tsp turmeric
- 15 to 16 cashew nuts (or 4 tbsps cashew paste)
- ½ tsp Kasuri methi
- ¼ cup cream (optional, can even use smooth almond or cashew milk or cream)
- ½ tsp Garam masala
- Coriander leaves chopped
- ½ tsp sugar (optional)
Vegetables (chop large cubes)
- 1 onion large , separate the layers of onion cubes
- ½ green capsicum , small
- ½ red capsicum , small . (optional)
- 1 to 2 tomato (remove the pulp) (optional)
Instructions
Making Hung yogurt or curd
- Add yogurt or curd to a thin cheese cloth or muslin cloth and knot it, hang it inside the refrigerator for 5 to 6 hours for the whey to drip off completely.
Making the chicken tikka
- Wash and drain chicken thoroughly, pat dry with a kitchen tissues
- Add the marination ingredients to a bowl and marinate the chicken. Set aside in the refrigerator for at least 2 hrs, overnight yields the best.
- You can grill these in a preheated oven at 240 C for 20 minutes. Adjust the timing slightly.
- If you do not have a oven, you can pan roast the chicken tikka. Add one tbsp. oil to a non-stick pan and heat it. Swipe off the excess marinade from the chicken and fry them on a high flame till they are almost cooked. The masala burns quickly at this stage, so take care. Do not cook on a low flame, the tikka gets spoilt with all moisture oozing out. Do not overcook the tikka, they turn hard
- While the tikka is getting cooked, marinate the veggies in the left over marinate that was swiped off the chicken. Repeat swiping off the excess marinade from the veggies and fry these for 2 minutes or more till the marinade dries up. Transfer this to a wide tray. The chicken should look moist, tender and veggies crunchy, with the marinade almost dried up
Making the gravy
- Soak cashews in hot water for 15 to 20 mins. Then grind them in a blender to make a smooth paste. Keep this aside and grind tomatoes to a smooth puree. Set this aside. If you have a powerful blender, you can blend cashews and tomatoes together.
- Add the oil for the gravy to the same pan. Add dry spices, allow them to sizzle
- Add chopped onions, fry evenly till turn golden
- Add garlic ginger paste, fry till the raw smell disappears
- Pour in the tomato puree, red chili, coriander powder, salt. Mix and fry for 2 to 3 minutes
- Add cashew paste, fry till the mixture leaves the sides of the pan.
- Add sugar, chicken tikka pieces and veggies, stir well and fry for 2 to 3 minutes
- Add water just enough to make a gravy. Bring it to a good boil
- Add kasuri methi cook for 2 to 3 mins.
- Pour in the cream, add garam masala and add coriander leaves, off the flame. Keep covered for at least 15 minutes
- Serve with paratha, roti, naan
Notes
- Lemon juice- you can skip using lemon juice if using sour yogurt.
- Making hung curd- one cup yogurt usually yields 1/2 cup hung curd. But that depends on the kind of yogurt
Alternative quantities provided in the recipe card are for 1x only, original recipe.
For best results follow my detailed step-by-step photo instructions and tips above the recipe card.
NUTRITION INFO (estimation only)
© Swasthi’s Recipes
Emily Chan says
Hi! Just wanted to start off by saying that your Hyderabadi biryani is the only biryani I make, and your butter chicken is to die for! For the chicken tikka masala, If I triple the recipe, I see that I am supposed to use 9 medium onions for the gravy. I chopped up 5 onions and I got nervous it might be too much! It’s a little hard to tell what people mean by “medium onion”. Can you tell me how much onion is that by weight/cups?
swasthi says
Hi Emily,
Thank you! To triple the recipe, you will need about 2.5 cups of chopped onions. Thanks for the mention I will update the recipe
Evi says
Hi, my husband and I, love the Indian food and we have changed a lot of Indian restaurants. So I discovered your site and I am sooo happy! It’s real Indian food!! Me Being Greek I use lots of spices . Last time I started buying also tikka and garam masala mixes and I’m trying your recipes. To make the story short , I can’t find feunogreek leaves. Can I use seeds?
Thank you!
swasthi says
Hi Evi,
Thank you! Fenugreek seeds won’t work here. You can skip it this time. I would suggest you look online if you can find it. There is no substitute. Hope you enjoy the recipes.
🙂
Jeff Platts says
I agree about the Fenugreek leaves.
They just make it all taste so good.
swasthi says
Yes
Marjorie says
This recipe was great to make. The instructions were easy to follow and the results wonderful. Thank you.
swasthi says
Welcome!
Glad it turned out good.
Thank you!
Rob says
Hi,
How do you make the cashew nut paste?
Thanks!
swasthi says
Hi,
Blend 15 to 16 whole cashews with 4 to 6 tablespoons water to a smooth paste. Alternatively, you can blend them with tomatoes. If you do not have a powerful blender, then soak the cashews in hot water for a while and blend/grind them.
Rob says
Thank you!
Dilini says
Hi, can I cook Chicken in an air frier? Will the taste be different? Thanks in advance ❤️
swasthi says
Hi Dilini
If you want to air fry then marinate the chicken for longer at least 6 hours or more. Otherwise the tikkas will not be super soft.
Dilini says
Thank you ❤️
Imogen says
Made this receipe yesterday.Was restaurant style.We enjoyed it.Thanks and God bless.
Meghana says
Can I use yoghurt directly instead of hung yoghurt? And what difference will it make ??
swasthi says
Meghana
With regular yogurt, as soon as you put the chicken on the griddle it will release a lot of moisture.
Subhashini says
Thank you so much dear! We made this dish at home today… It tasted soooo yummy. My family thoroughly enjoyed the dinner.
swasthi says
So glad to know your enjoyed the dinner.
🙂
meena says
Hello Swasthi,
This recipe is really tasty, I cooked it so many times. Now i was wondering if I can do the same recipe using cube of lamb legs boneless. I’m looking for a creamy lamb curry recipe. Any suggestions ?
Thanks
swasthi says
Hi Meena,
Thank you! I have no idea about the grilling time. You may check this regular lamb curry
Annie says
Hello! Looks delicious! Have you ever made this dish with shrimp instead of chicken?
swasthi says
Hi Annie,
I have another similar recipe for seafood tikka. You can check it here Fish tikka masala
natcha says
Hi Swasthi,
After reading this recipe one too many times and watching countless clips on youtube from random chefs, I finally gave it a try. It was incredible. My first ever chicken tikka masala couldn’t have been better. Thanks for sharing the recipe. You nailed it again. What can I say, I only trust you when it comes to Indian food.
swasthi says
Hi Natcha,
You are most welcome! Thanks a lot for the trust. So glad you liked it.
🙂
Amena says
Hi Swasti,
Thanks for posting this amazing tasty recipe. I tried it yesterday, i did not have cashews so I used blanched almonds instead and also I wanted a smoke flavor to the chicken so after marinating overnight, I heated up a small lumpwood charcoal and I put it in the container of the chicken and I covered it (I saw this on YouTube).
I would like to make it again but for 1kg of chicken. How should I do as I always fail whenever I try to cook a bigger quantity.
Thank you so much for this recipe
Amina
swasthi says
Hi Amena,
You are welcome. Thanks for trying. You can just double the recipe. No worries this will turn good even when you double the recipe.
🙂
sana says
today i made this and it trun out to be very tasty 🙂 thank you
swasthi says
Welcome Sana
Thanks for trying
Sofiya says
Awesome recipie… my husband loved it … tastes exactly like restaurant … looking forward to more such kind of recipes
swasthi says
Thanks Sofiya
Glad to know you liked it
Kakali sarkar baidya says
Too too too much good
swasthi says
thank you
Mahek says
Hi,
Made it today and came up very well. Did not discard the marinade added it along with the tomatoes. Tasted like a restaurant gravy. Thanx for the recipe was not too spicy n my kids enjoyed it thoroughly including my 21 month old daughter.
swasthi says
Hi Mahek
You are welcome
Yes it is kids friendly too. Glad to know you all liked it. Thank for the feedback
Mohd. Ahmad says
Do we have to discard the marinade.?
When is it supposed to be used?
swasthi says
Yes discard the marinade or use it along with cashew paste. But the taste of the gravy differs slightly if marinade is used in gravy. It adds a tangy taste to the gravy
sabah says
what kind of cream do you use?
I live in the US. Jst visited my grocery store and there were two types of cream.
1. Sour cream
2. Heavy whipping cream
Is it either of these two?
swasthi says
Hi Sabah,
This recipe calls for cooking cream. I use amul or nestle cream. Heavy whipping and sour creams curdle once added to the curry. You can also use heavy cream but not heavy whipping cream. Hope this helps
Reena says
Made chicken tikka masala… came out awesome.. thanks for sharing
umema says
Very healthy and tastier
umema says
Yummy food!!!
swasthi says
Thanks
ASHWINI says
super taste
swasthi says
Thanks Ashwini