Chicken Tikka Masala

I had been wanting to cook Chicken Tikka Masala at home for quite some time but the thought of making kebobs first and then cooking the gravy separately seemed like too much work for a person who is working non-stop for about 16 hours a day, not to mention the continuous interruption during sleep time. As a result, I had been procrastinating making this dish. I wanted to finish cooking this dish in roughly 30 minutes, just like I need to finish writing my blog on the train in 20 minutes, before my station arrives ☺

With time-limits in mind, I did some planned grocery shopping before hand.

Pre-cooked grilled boneless chicken thighs from Costco (about half a packet)
Red onions – I medium sized (roughly chopped)
Garlic – 2 cloves whole
Ginger – 1” cube
Tomato – 1
Jalapeno -1
Olive oil
Turmeric, salt, Paprika, sugar – all about a pinch or to taste
Liquid whipping cream – 1tbsp
Any ready to cook meat masala or a mix of cumin powder, coriander powder, garam masala (about 2tsp each)


My weekend nanny used to work at a restaurant so I gathered her knowledge on how they manage time when cooking this dish. She mentioned she would cook all the vegetables first and then puree them to make it taste richer and save time. Good idea! Works for me.

On warming the olive oil in a deep dish pan, I added garlic, ginger cube, roughly chopped onions and jalapeno with a little salt. The salt brings water out of the onion and would help it cook quickly. About cooking them on medium heat for about 5-7 minutes, I added the chopped tomatoes and cooked this covered for another 5-6 minutes stirring occasionally. I set it aside for about 5 minutes to cool. Later, this was transferred to a magic bullet grinder and pureed.

Meanwhile, I chopped up the grilled chicken thighs to bite-size and warmed some more oil in the pan. For curries or gravies, I prefer dark meat (thighs) as they tend to remain softer in the curry. I added turmeric directly to the oil (to avoid the smell of uncooked turmeric) . To this, I added a ready-to-cook Meat masala (Shan’s Matka gosht masala). You can use any Indian meat spices available in the spices section of the international cuisine aisle. Typically these spices have instructions on the package regarding how much spices to use. The spices need to be fried but take care not to burn them. The onion-ginger-garlic-tomato puree was added. The mixture cooked for about 10 more minutes after which I added some water and the chicken pieces. When the curry thickened to desired consistency, I turned off the heat and added cream.

Result – It is often said that if you use good ingredients in your cooking, the final product is usually good. Quite true and naturally, this dish turned out pretty well. This was my first attempt at making this recipe. Would I have done anything differently? Perhaps 2 things: Pre-cooked chicken already has salt, so I would have used a little less salt for the gravy and I would have liked to use tomato puree instead of fresh tomatoes to give the dish a darker color. But yes, the chicken tikka masala was worth the 30 minutes of work!