Chicken Tikka Masala recipe (tastes EXACTLY like Indian restaurants)

I can’t believe what I’ve just eaten. I’ve spent YEARS trying to make curry that taste just like they do in ‘Indian’ restaurants – but they never really did, until now. This Chicken Tikka Masala recipe was absolutely incredible. It’s an effort, sure – but I am confident in recommending you make the effort and give it a go.

How to make a Chicken Tikka Masala that tastes like it does in the restaurants

I discovered this recipe in a curry Facebook group I’d recommend you join if you’re into this kind of thing, called British Indian Restaurant (BIR) Curry At Home.

There’s a chef called Misty Ricardo who has a book with all this in, but he also has YouTube videos where you can get all the information for free.

There are four steps to make a perfect Chicken Tikka Masala, which are:

Spice Mix
Chicken Tikka
Base gravy
The Chicken Tikka Masala

What everyone in the group does, and what I did, was batch cook and freeze the Tikka and the curry base.

This means that when you have all the ingredients sorted, you can cook up a Chicken Tikka Masala – or any other of the curry from the group/Misty’s book in about 15 minutes.

How to make the Spice Mix

You can’t make ANY of it without making the spice mix first. I was actually able to buy all of the ingredients for the mix at the big Tesco by my house – and it didn’t take too long to mix up when I got going.

You will need a pestle and mortar to grind up all the spices. They come in all sorts of materials, sizes and prices – it doesn’t matter which one you have/get.

You’ll also need a little pot or jar to keep the spice mix in. Honestly, just make a big batch so you’re good to go whenever you want to knock up a curry.

How to make Chicken Tikka

For me, it was collecting all the herbs and spices from asian shops that took me the longest time.

There’s stuff coating this chicken that you won’t find in your corner shop.

That said, my local world foods aisle in the supermarket had mostly everything. I do suppose this depends on where you live. I live in a diverse place, so my local Tesco caters to that.

But of course – you can buy online too – Spice Mountain is good.

Now for me, if I was going to spend all this time on making a perfect Chicken Tikka Masala, I didn’t want to skip any ingredients. I wanted to give it 100%. I even bought ghee.

I don’t want to list the ingredients here or the instructions, because I feel it’s a little disrespectful to Misty Ricardo to bypass his books/youtube videos where he makes money – so watch the above video or of course, by his book.

Of course, you don’t need to go through this step if you really don’t want to.

You could just stick grilled chicken in (or prawns), but I really think you should if you want your Chicken Tikka Masala to taste just like it does in restaurants.

How to make the base gravy

So this is the secret to making Chicken Tikka Masala – and all other curry taste like it comes from an Indian restaurant.

Apparently this is what they use in restaurants and it’s used like a stock.

This takes HOURS to cook (it’s mostly simmering a huge amount of onions slowly), but once you’re done, you’re left with this ‘stock’ that is stunning.

It’s almost like a curry, carrot and coriander soup. It’s delicious.

I stuck it in good bags and have put them in the freezer.

How to make the Chicken Tikka Masala

Once you have the Chicken Tikka and the curry base – the Chicken Tikka itself takes no time at all.

Again, all the info you need is in the videos – but important things you’ll need include:

red food colouring (I like the powder stuff which you can again get in Asian shops)
almond flour
coconut powder

So there you go. I don’t usually write up things I cook, but I was so impressed with this, I had to!

The herbs and spices did cost me quite a bit initially (but probably not more than one takeaway to be honest), but I’ll be able to make A TON of curry from it – so it will 100% work out cheaper in the end.