Easy Chicken Tikka Masala
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10000x better (and faster) than take-out! And the chicken is perfectly tender with the creamiest, most flavor-packed sauce ever!
WHAT IS CHICKEN TIKKA MASALA?
Tikka masala is a very popular Indian dish (that may have actually originated from Great Britain) that consists of boneless chicken in a spiced curry sauce of tomatoes, cream, and traditional Indian spices such as garam masala and turmeric.
HOW TO MAKE CHICKEN TIKKA MASALA
- Cook the rice. Let’s get the rice going first so it can cook while we prep everything else. Now we love this over basmati rice but Jasmine rice can be substituted.
- Brown the chicken. Cook the chicken until nice and golden brown – we want a good sear to lock in all the flavors and juices inside the meat.
- Add your spices. Stir in all your spices and aromatics until fragrant – tomato paste, garlic, ginger, garam masala, chili powder and turmeric.
- Make the sauce. Simmer simmer simmer to let all the flavors blend together, about 10 minutes.
- Serve. Stir in heavy cream and sprinkle with cilantro, serving over rice and naan.
TIPS AND TRICKS FOR SUCCESS
- Chicken breasts can be substituted, but chicken thighs are highly recommended here.
- Make sure you have plenty of naan for serving, dipping, sopping.
- For a dairy-free version, coconut milk can be substituted for the heavy cream.
Easy Chicken Tikka Masala: Frequently Asked Questions
Yes, chicken breasts can absolutely be used here but chicken thighs have more dark meat and a higher fat content which will yield juicier, more flavorful chicken.
Heavy cream (or heavy whipping cream) has one of the highest fat contents with about 36-40% fat. Half and half or whole milk are suitable substitutes, but will yield a lighter result.
Yes! You can freeze the leftovers without the heavy cream in individual freezer bags, thaw overnight, and reheat on the stovetop, adding heavy cream when serving.
Easy Chicken Tikka Masala
Ingredients
- 1 cup basmati rice
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch chunks
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 ½ tablespoons vegetable oil
- ½ medium sweet onion, diced
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
- 1 ½ teaspoons garam masala
- 1 ½ teaspoons chili powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground turmeric
- 1 (15-ounce) can tomato sauce
- 1 cup chicken stock
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Instructions
- In a large saucepan of 2 cups water, cook rice according to package instructions; set aside.
- Season chicken with 1 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper.
- Heat vegetable oil in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add chicken and onion to the stockpot and cook until golden, about 4-5 minutes.
- Stir in tomato paste, garlic, ginger, garam masala, chili powder and turmeric until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Stir in tomato sauce and chicken stock; season with salt and pepper, to taste. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced and slightly thickened, about 10 minutes.
- Stir in heavy cream until heated through, about 1 minute.
- Serve immediately with rice, garnished with cilantro, if desired.
Did you make this recipe?
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1:3 questions before I make this. Can you use crushed tomatoes instead or a must for tomato sauce. Any can you prefer or does it not make a huge difference? 2. If you use chicken breast instead of thighs, do you feel it effect the richness and won’t yield the best results? 3. Same for the heavy cream is it a must or can you get great results with a alternative like coconut milk ?
Hi Meagan!
1. Yes, you can absolutely substitute crushed tomatoes but the consistency may just be a bit “chunkier”.
2. I recommend using chicken thighs for the best results possible.
3. You can certainly try to substitute coconut milk but without trying it myself, I cannot really speak for how much the consistency will vary.
Hope that helps!
Hi
Did you try it with coconut milk? I was planning to do so and I ran across your question. Please let me know if you did how it turned out. I am going to add nutritional yeast to thicken it up a bit.
I made this recipe this week. I have been trying different Chicken Tikka Marsala recipes over the last two months trying to find the perfect one. So far this is the best one. After reading the reviews, I added the cayenne pepper . It added a nice little kick. I would recommend this recipe.
Should have been called “Butters Chicken”. Total missed opportunity. 13/10.
I added some cayenne based on other peoples’ comments (and my love for spice), but otherwise perfect! I did add a little sugar to cut the acidity from my canned tomatoes. Used water over chicken broth and added a few pinches of salt to compensate. Always taste your food!!!
I highly recommend this recipe! The sauce is delicious and chicken thighs are not overcooked and chewy. We ate with Jasmine rice.
Delicious. Just curious if you knew roughly the amount of calories per serving.
Hi Stephanie! Nutritional information is provided only for select recipes at this time. However, if it is not available for a specific recipe, we recommend using free online resources at your discretion (you can Google “nutritional calculator”). Hope that helps!
This is just great! Thanks for sharing your recipe and awesome tips!
Thank you so much for this recipe and everything else you post! Your food is slowly but surely converting my picky eater of a husband!! We make this almost every other week!
Thank you for the recipe! I just made it and everyone loved it! This is the perfect balance of flavors. Definitely making again 🙂
I just made this for dinner and it was delicious. My whole family enjoyed it. It’s not spicy, so I added cayenne to my serving but it was great for the kids. Definitely a make again!
You can’t go wrong with some extra spice. Thank you for your feedback, Stephanie. So glad your whole family enjoyed this!
Holy Moley- this recipe is Delicious!! My 12 year old daughter had a MS class presentation on India and wanted to bring in some Indian food to share. She asked me to make Chicken Tikka Masala with only one days notice. I’ve never made it before, So I googled an “easy” recipe for it and found this one. I did not expect it to be as flavorful and deeply satisfying as it was! It did take some time to Prep everything beforehand, but it was well worth it. I placed all the dry spices, combined, in a nonstick pan and toasted them on high for a couple of minutes while stirring them until they were fragrant (about two minutes) being careful not to burn them, then I set them aside into a small bowl to cool. When I added the toasted spices in order of the cooking process, the flavors were enhanced and the sauce became so delicious that we could’ve eaten it without the addition of any dairy cream. This recipe is a winner! Thank you for creating and posting it.:)
We love hearing that! Thank you for sharing, Heidi!
This is my new absolute favorite recipe! I’ve made it three times already since you posted it. It really is perfect as is, but I’ve also substituted cauliflower and potato for the chicken and it was sooooo good. Perfection itself!
Absolutely beautiful.
Such a tasty and easy meal to prepare.
Fantastic flavours and the sauce is to die for.
Thank you so much for all your wonderful recipes.
This was very easy and very delicious for quick tikka masala! I have to say it was not as complex as at our favorite Indian restaurant, but it more than satisfied our craving for tikka masala. I will definitely be making this again, thank you!
Thanks for sharing, Eileen!
Surprised my husband with this dish tonight and we both loved it!! Rivals our favorite Indian place in town!
This was delicious! I was worried it would taste bad because my best friend is Pakistani and makes Indian food, and in addition to that I grew up in England with authentic Indian food. However, this was a great recipe! I wouldn’t recommend making it alone, you’ll need a partner, but it was soooo good! Very delicious!
Hi, I have a question. Is there nutritional info available for this dish? Thank you!
Nutritional information is provided only for select recipes at this time. However, if it is not available for a specific recipe, we recommend using free online resources at your discretion (you can Google “nutritional calculator”) to obtain such information. Hope that helps!
Really if I could give this 10 stars I would. We recently had take out Chicken Tikka Masala while visiting our son and daughter -in-law. I fell in love with it. The day after we got home this recipe showed up on my feed! It was meant to be LOL. Made this tonight and added a couple dashes of cayenne to give it some heat. SO SO SO GOOD!! This will definitely be in our rotation! Thanks Chunga
Thank you Michele! That’s awesome 🙂
This curry is so delicious my son has asked me to make a freezer load for work. It is fast and easy too, so it’s a win win situation. Thank you Chungah.
That’s great!
I made this last night for a friend and it was absolutely DELICIOUS!! Thoroughly enjoyed by all and will be kept in the favorite recipe collection. Thank you 🙂
We love that!
My family absolutely loved this meal. I doubled for leftovers. The sauce tastes like heaven!
It’s truly the the best!