One of the main reasons why I chose this Chicken Tikka Masala recipe as my one of my first posts for The Kitchen Coalition is because it’s one of my family’s absolute favorite dishes to eat. This even includes my 4 year old son! This dish is almost as fun to make as it is delicious, so that doesn’t hurt either. In my opinion, this is greater than the sum of its parts (and there are a LOT of parts), so you’re in for a treat. Sure, the ingredient list is fairly daunting, but once you have all of the spices, you won’t have any reason to NOT make this. With how delicious this dish is, that’s a “win-win” if you ask me.
The Curry Paste:
The back bone of this Chicken Tikka Masala recipe is the curry paste. You can tailor the heat level with the type and quantity of peppers. I choose to use jalapenos mainly because of availability and the mild heat level they provide. If there is any room for creativity or experimentation in this recipe, it’s here. You could really get creative with the peppers and spice mixtures and tweak them to your preference. The key building blocks are garlic (lots of it), ginger, a spicy pepper of some variety, and spices. Other than keeping those components, the rest is open to interpretation. If you make this, please let me know how you make your paste. I’d love to see what you come up with!
The Chicken:
There a few ways to approach getting an adequate amount of char on the chicken in a home kitchen. Traditionally, this is cooked in wood-fired tandoor ovens that reach upwards of 900°F. This is pretty much an impossible feat to replicate at home. Some recipes call to broil the chicken on wire racks over foil-lined baking sheets. While, this does a good job of charring the chicken, it’s messy and leaves you with yet another dish to clean. Plus you leave out the ability to create any fond (the brown stuff that sticks to the pan that is paramount to making pan sauces). I have found this to be key to adding depth to the sauce.
I have found that the easiest (and tastiest) way to make this is to simply sear the chicken in a heavy bottomed skillet. This sacrifices some of the deeper charring you get with the other methods, but it accomplishes a few things: a good level of browning/charring on the meat, and it leaves a good base in the pan for the sauce. You will need to cook the chicken in batches, so be sure to let the pan heat back up in between to make sure both batches sear evenly.
Quick tip: I like to make sure that the excess liquid from the marinade thickens adequately after each batch of chicken has been removed from the pan.
The Sauce:
After much experimenting, testing, and tweaking, I’ve landed on using tomato paste in lieu of other canned tomato products. I understand that this might not be “classic” or “traditional”, but it really does provide the smoothest texture with the least amount of effort. Here is a quick breakdown of my experiments and their results:
- Whole canned tomatoes need to be broken up by hand or a spoon (or blended), then strained. The other option is to use an old school, manual food mill. This breaks down and strains the tomatoes all at once, but who still owns one of those?
- Diced tomatoes need to be strained or blended as they tend to leave pieces of peel in the sauce. Blending adds too much air to them, giving the sauce a pink-ish hue.
- Crushed tomatoes are smooth, however, they tend to leave too much liquid in the pan. This takes extra time to simmer off.
- Tomato sauce is slightly better than crushed tomatoes, but still requires some simmering to reach the right consistency.
- Tomato paste is already smooth and has a fantastic concentrated flavor. Plus, it combines beautifully with the curry paste and heavy cream.
Tomato paste is the clear winner in my book. It doesn’t need to be simmered forever and it doesn’t require any further processing. It lends a fantastic concentrated tomato punch to the dish that adds depth and flavor. It’s a beautifully elegant solution in my humble opinion.
The Rice:
There is only one rice to serve with Indian food: basmati. You can use other varieties if you don’t have it on hand, like white rice. The rice variety is not nearly as important as the chosen cooking method. You can use either a pot on the stovetop, a rice cooker, or a pressure cooker. I don’t own a rice cooker (yet), so I opt for the pressure cooker method. It’s an easy, no-fuss method that gives me consistent results time and time again. Just be sure to wash the rice with cold water before cooking.
I do like to add whole cardamom pods while the rice is cooking, but that is entirely optional. It adds a subtle layer of complexity to the dish that would otherwise be missing. I typically have whole cardamom on hand just for this recipe. A jar is a bit pricey, but it should last you well over a year. I feel the price is justified since it lasts so long.
Pairing Suggestions
To round out this meal, I like to serve it with fresh, Easy Garlic Butter Naan and a Refreshing Mango Lassi. This also pairs really well with any dark beer. I prefer stouts, porters, or even a black IPA if you can find one.
Did you make this recipe for Chicken Tikka Masala?
Let me know in the comments below how yours turned out, and don’t forget to leave a rating!
Recipe
Chicken Tikka Masala
Equipment
- 1 Blender
- 1 Pestle and Mortar Optional
- 1 Heavy Bottom Skillet
- 1 Pressure Cooker (InstantPot) Optional
- 1 Sieve or strainer
Ingredients
Curry Paste
- 1 tablespoon Coriander Seeds Toasted
- ½ teaspoon Whole Black Peppercorns Toasted
- ½ teaspoon Cumin Powder Toasted
- Pinch Red Pepper Flakes Toasted
- 1 tablespoon Garam Masala
- 1 teaspoon Turmeric
- ½ teaspoon Ground Cardamom
- 7 cloves Garlic
- 1 – 2 inch Piece Ginger Peeled and Minced
- 1 Jalapeno Deseeded and Rough Chopped
- ¼ cup Water
- 2 tablespoon Neutral Oil
- ½ teaspoon Kosher Salt
Marinated Chicken
- 1 Neutral Oil
- 4 thighs Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs Approx. 1 ¼ – 2 lbs.
- 1 cup Full Fat, Plain Yogurt (not Greek)
- 2 tablespoon Curry Paste
- 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt
Rice
- 2 cups Basmati Rice Rinsed twice with cold water until it runs clear
- 2 cups Water
- 2 tablespoon Unsalted Butter
- 3-4 Wole Cardamom Pods
- 2 teaspoon Kosher Salt
Sauce
- 4 tablespoon Unsalted Butter
- 1 Large Onion Finely Minced
- 1 Can (6 oz.) Tomato Paste
- 1 tablespoon Paprika
- 1 teaspoon Kashmiri Chili Powder Substitute plain chili powder if you can't find this.
- 1 cup Heavy Cream
- ½ cup Whole Milk
- ¼ Lemon
- ¼ cup Cilantro finely minced
Instructions
Curry Paste
- Toast the coriander, crushed red pepper, whole black peppercorns, and cumin until spices become fragrant in a small saucepan over medium high heat, 2 – 3 minutes. The spices should start to smoke lightly, but not scorch or burn.
- Add the toasted spices to a pestle and mortar, and grind into a fine powder. (This step is optional. If you don't have a pestle and mortar, add the seasoning to the blender first and grind them before the next step).
- Add the toasted and ground spices, garam masala, turmeric, ground cardamom, garlic, ginger, jalapeno, water, oil and salt to a blender. Blend until a thick paste forms, approx. 2 – 3 minutes. (Optionally, this could be made with an immersion blender, and you could drizzle the oil in slowly as you blend).
Chicken Marinade
- Combine the yogurt and 2 tablespoons of the curry paste.
- Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces, approx. ½ – 1" cubes. While the chicken is on the cutting board, pour the salt over the chicken and rub to combine.
- Add the chicken to the marinade mixture and let sit at least 20 minutes. Overnight is ideal.
Basmati Rice
- Place rice in a fine mesh sieve and rinse with cold water until water runs clear.
- Add water, butter, salt, and cardamom pods to InstantPot. Add rinsed rice, and cover. Set time to 8-minutes on manual mode and cook. When timer goes off, turn off the keep warm setting, and let pressure naturally vent for an additional 8- minutes.
- Release the remaining pressure from the InstantPot. Remove the lid and remove the cardamom pods. Fluff the rice with a fork and taste for additional seasoning. Add additional salt as needed.
Sauce
- Heat a heavy bottomed skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 – 2 tablespoons of neutral oil to the pan and heat until slightly smoking. Add half of the chicken and leave undisturbed for 2 – 3 minutes until heavily seared. Flip and cook the remaining side for an additional 2 – 3 minutes. Remove chicken from pan and bring the pan back up to temperature. Cook remaining chicken and set aside. (The chicken does not need to be cooked all the way through – it will cook through when the sauce is simmered later in the recipe.)
- Reduce the heat to medium and add butter to pan and melt.
- Add onion and a small pinch of salt. Cook for 5 – 8 minutes, stirring occasionally until soft and some color begins to form. Scrape the fond from the pan as the onion releases some of its liquid.
- Add the remaining curry paste, tomato paste, chili powder, paprika and stir. Sauté for an additional 2 – 3 minutes, until everything starts to stick to the pan.
- Add the heavy cream and milk, stirring to combine. Increase heat to high and bring to a slight boil. Add the chicken back to the pan. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 – 15-minutes until thick.
- Add the juice from the quarter of a lemon, minced cilantro, and stir. Taste and adjust salt and pepper as needed.
Assembly
- Take several scoops of rice and place in half of a bowl. Place several scoops of chicken and sauce in the other half. Garnish with additional cilantro and serve warm.
Anna
This is my favorite meal to date!
Spencer Klickman
Thanks Anna! So glad you guys liked it!
Chris Doyle
This one is a personal favorite at our house. We’ve been trying to do more meals at the table and this dish has been revisited several times already. We’re excited for more recipes ?
Spencer Klickman
Glad you liked it!
Mars Hall
Can’t believe how good this recipe turned out. Wife literally said “restaurant quality,” and when I said, “So is there anything you’d change? Want more of? Less of?” and before I could even get my entire sentence out, her response was just “Nope. Nothing. It’s perfect.”
Also, I am never cooking rice any other way. It was amazing.
Spencer Klickman
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it so much!