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 (US 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
Hi, my daughter has a nut allergy to cashews, can i use any substitute or if i leave this out will it still taste ok?
Hi Suni,
Yes you can leave it and add more cream
Hi, I’m exciting to try this recipe. For the gravy, it says “3 cloves” – I’m guessing this is cloves of garlic?
Hi Josh,
It is cloves, a spice
Oh got it, thanks!
I love your recipes too. Always a success. Trying to figure out how to increase ingredients.
So for the chicken tikka masala – if i wanted to cook for 18 people…your calculation says 3 kilos of chicken – is that correct?
Thanks
Hi Zara,
Thank you so much! If you have any other curries to go in the meal you won’t need 3 kgs. Also reduce the yogurt slightly. Start with 2 cups and keep the spices same. If the marinade is too dry then add more yogurt. Also cut down the whole spices. It won’t need so much. Hope this helps
Hi, I love your recipes! First time making this one, can i do the gravy the day before? all the way up to adding the cashew nuts, then let it cool down, and the next day cook and add the chicken, veggies and sugar? Thanks!!
Hi Lauren
Thank you! Yes you can.
Sorry, that should say cashew paste, not cashew cream. I was thinking about the cream later in the recipe, lol.
Hi Swasthi,
I have cashew butter on hand. Would I be able to substitute it for cashews/cashew cream, and if so, how much should I use?
Hello Swasthi,
It’s the first time I’m going to make your recipes. I’ve made this one before following other recipe but I’ve read such great comments on your site (on a few recipes) that I decided to try your tikka masala recipe. I have read the recipe a few times and I don’t see where are you using the lemon. Could you explain that part? Thank you.
Also, I saw in one of the comments that you use amul or nestle cream. Can you explain what do you mean exactly? I know nestle is a brand but, is there only one kind of nestle cream? And amul, is also a brand (I don’t remember that name)?
And, one more question, how long in advance can I make this recipe?
Thank you very much for your time. I’m planning on making this chicken for a group of friends on Saturday… I can’t wait.
Hi Eunice,
This is a very very old recipe on the blog so some details are missing. I will check and update them. Lemon juice is added to the marinade. But skip that if your yogurt is sour/tart.
Amul and nestle were the brands I would use many years ago. You can use any whipping cream/ heavy cream or cooking, sterilized cream. All of these work well. Choose any brand that is locally available to you.
You can make it 2 days in advance.
Sorry for the delay. Hope you all enjoy this.
Hi,
Thanks for the really tasty recipe, it’s always a success. I wanted to try to do the same but with cubes of lamb this time (legs boneless), should I follow the same recipe?
Hi Amina
Glad to know! Yes you can. Follow the recipe and grill the lamb in oven. If you do it on the stovetop it takes a lot of time. Hope this helps
Hi Swasthi, thank you for your prompt response. I’ll try then. I wanted to ask if you would recommend cast iron pot to cook curries?
Hi Amina
I love heavy bottom stainless steel pots/pans for most curries. If you want to use cast iron pots, look for enameled ones like le creuset or staub. They are good for making any dishes but are too heavy and difficult to maintain. Hope this helps.
Thank you Swasthi.
So the lamb tikka masala following this recipe turned out really good and tasty, I also used lumpwood charcoal to give a bbq smoked taste to the meat. I cooked the meat around 10 min and it was perfect. I will have a look at enamel pot then as I see a lot of professionals using it as well. Thank you for your help once again.
Hi Swasthi,
Thank you for your prompt response. I did follow your recipe by using boneless cubes of lamb (leg) and it was delicious. I grilled the lamb cubes on a skewer not well done as I was worried it would be too hard but it was not. I also smoked the meat using wood charcoal at the end to give a bbq taste. Thank you again.
Hi Amina
Glad to know it turned out good. Thanks for letting me know how it turned out.
🙂
I tried your chicken tikka recipe and it turned out awesome. The chicken was moist and the marinade was awesome. I’m going to make this curry with the left over tikka. Thanks for sharing the recipe. 🙂
Glad to know Priti
Yes do try it. Thank you
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?
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
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!
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.
🙂
I agree about the Fenugreek leaves.
They just make it all taste so good.
Yes
This recipe was great to make. The instructions were easy to follow and the results wonderful. Thank you.
Welcome!
Glad it turned out good.
Thank you!
Hi,
How do you make the cashew nut paste?
Thanks!
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.
Thank you!
Hi, can I cook Chicken in an air frier? Will the taste be different? Thanks in advance ❤️
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.
Thank you ❤️
Made this receipe yesterday.Was restaurant style.We enjoyed it.Thanks and God bless.
Can I use yoghurt directly instead of hung yoghurt? And what difference will it make ??
Meghana
With regular yogurt, as soon as you put the chicken on the griddle it will release a lot of moisture.
Thank you so much dear! We made this dish at home today… It tasted soooo yummy. My family thoroughly enjoyed the dinner.
So glad to know your enjoyed the dinner.
🙂
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
Hi Meena,
Thank you! I have no idea about the grilling time. You may check this regular lamb curry
Hello! Looks delicious! Have you ever made this dish with shrimp instead of chicken?
Hi Annie,
I have another similar recipe for seafood tikka. You can check it here Fish tikka masala
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.
Hi Natcha,
You are most welcome! Thanks a lot for the trust. So glad you liked it.
🙂
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
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.
🙂