Instant Pot Chicken Tikka Masala:
Tender chunks of chicken enveloped in a creamy flavorful, spiced, tomato and cream sauce, served over rice cooked in the same pot. An easy pressure cooker meal. And so tasty and delicious.
Serve it over rice, with Flatbread Naan, and a vegetable: Garlic Broccolini, Best Ever Roasted Broccoli, Air Fryer Asparagus.
One of my favorite parts of Indian cuisine is the smell. I love to be able to take in the aroma of spiced air. The scents are almost as tantalizing as the flavors. As a lover of curries, butter chickens, and spiced, flavorful foods, I was excited to try making chicken tikka masala in the Instant Pot pressure cooker because I knew it could help speed up the process of developing complex flavors, and making those rich spices pop.
Want to try other flavorful Indian dishes? Try Easy Butter Chicken, Keto Chicken Biryani, or Mixed Vegetable Chicken Curry.
Instant Pot Chicken Tikka Masala
Like this recipe? Pin it to your Chicken pinboard!
Follow Eazy Peazy Mealz on Pinterest for more great recipes.
If you do not have an Instant Pot yet, it is time to get one! It is awesome and easy to use, and easy to clean. I love it. But if you do not have one, don’t worry, I have included stove top directions below as well.
Let’s talk about Tikka Masala for a second:
No matter what Indian restaurant you go into, you are sure to find a Tikka Masala on the menu. It is traditionally composed of tender chunks of chicken enveloped in a creamy spiced tomato sauce, and served over rice and with naan.
I have had a lot of chicken tikka masala in my day, and they are all a little different. Some are more like a butter chicken (this is my favorite butter chicken recipe of all time), some have richer garam masala flavor, some taste more like curry. The thing is they are all good for their own reasons.
When I was in Scotland I had a tikka masala I could not get enough of. But it was a little sweeter than my friend liked. This Tikka Masala is just the way I like chicken tikka masala. But you might like it with more cumin, for example, or with a thicker sauce.
Someone once asked me why when they make the recipes they find on Pinterest they just don’t quite taste like the local restaurant’s version of the same food. I thought about it for a bit and explained how even using the same recipe people can get different results because of the brands of products they use, the equipment they cook with, etc.
It really got me thinking, and it also made me nervous. What if my Chicken Tikka Masala is not what this or that person expects? What if they want more garlic/ginger/tumeric/coriander/garam masala/cumin?
Then I realized that there was no way to please everyone, and that I just had to make it the way I like it. And that is what I did. And let me tell you, it pleased everyone in my house. And I was thrilled with having only one messy pot to clean up after cooking it. And loved how simple it was in the Instant Pot to get the flavors I wanted in a quick time frame.
Instant Pot Chicken Tikka Masala Tips
- Marinate that chicken. The spiced yogurt sauce is going to impart a lot of flavor to the dish, so be sure to give it time to do so.
- Deglaze the pot. If after sautéing the chicken in your instant pot liner, you do not deglaze the bottom of the pan by adding some liquid and scraping off the browned bits with a wooden spoon, the pot will read “burn” and not come to pressure. Do not skip this step.
- Use your senses, and taste and adjust. The best thing you can do as a cook is use your five senses in cooking. Look at the consistency, if you want it thicker, then simmer it longer. Sniff the air, does it smell appetizing to you. Look at it, is it the color you expect? Taste it, does it need more salt/cumin/coriander/garlic/etc.? Follow the recipe, but don’t be afraid to make it your own so you enjoy every last bite.
- Check out this Guide to Cooking with an Instant Pot to avoid common mistakes.
- Wash your inner sealing ring as soon as it is done cooking. Indian food has a lot of spices, and those spices are going to seep into that ring and it will smell. Soak it in some warm soapy water, run an empty pot with some vinegar, lemon, and water with the ring, or set it out in the sun to help rid it of the smell so it does not transfer to other foods. I also recommend purchasing a second sealing ring so you have one for savory dishes and one for sweet, and possibly a third for dishes like yogurt and cheesecake that easily absorb other flavors. This set of three sealing rings can be found on Amazon.
Other Favorite Instant Pot Recipes
The Instant Pot is a great tool, and here are a few more delightful instant pot recipes:
- Instant Pot Beef Stroganoff
- Instant Pot Sweet and Sour Chicken
- Instant Pot Korean Beef
- Instant Pot Chicken Broccoli Rice
- Instant Pot Tuscan Chicken
- Chicken Carnitas (Instant Pot and Slow Cooker)
Instant Pot Chicken Tikka Masala
Ingredients
- 2.5 lbs Chicken Thighs boneless/skinless cut into 1 inch pieces and trimmed of fat
Marinade
- 1/4-1/2 cup Greek Yogurt thick
- 1 Tbs Kosher Salt or 2 tsp Sea Salt
- 1 tsp Ground Coriander
- 2 Tbs Garam Masala
- 1 Tbs Lemon Juice
- ½ tsp salt
The Rest
- 1 Tbs olive oil
- 4 Tbs Butter
- 1 large Yellow Onion diced
- 1 clove garlic minced
- 1 inch fresh ginger root chopped fine or 2 tsps ginger paste
- 3/4 cup chicken stock
- 28 oz crushed tomatoes
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 Tbs Garam Masala
- 1 cup Heavy Cream or more
Garnish
- Cilantro
Butter Rice
- 16 ounces basmati rice white
- 2 cups water
- 3 Tbs butter
- ¼ tsp salt
Instructions
- Cut chicken into 1 inch pieces, and trim excess fat.
- Rinse rice, and set aside.
- Mix together marinade ingredients (yogurt, salt, coriander, Garam Masala, lemon juice, and salt) in a large bowl, and add chicken to it, stirring it to coat completely. Put in fridge to let marinate for 20-30 minutes minimum, up to 24 hours.
- Meanwhile, chop onions, garlic, and ginger
- Turn your Instant Pot on to Saute, and put olive oil in the bottom of the pot.
- Add some of your chicken, and sear it on both sides, browning it, then remove from pot to a plate. Do this in batches until all chicken is browned.
- Add butter to the bottom of the pot, along with the onion, garlic, and ginger, and saute 2-3 minutes until onions are translucent and fragrant.
- Add chicken stock, and use a wooden spoon to scrape everything off the bottom of the pot to deglaze it.
- Once nothing is stuck to the bottom, add your chicken back in, along with any juices that collected on the plate, as well as the crushed tomatoes, cayenne pepper, and paprika. Use your wooden spoon to stir it once.
- Add a long legged trivet to the pot, so the trivet is sitting above the chicken
- Using the Pot in Pot method, take a separate pot, and add the rice, butter, salt, and water, and set it on top of the trivet so it is above the chicken mixture.
- Lock your lid into place, and manually set your pot to cook at high pressure for 4 minutes.
- After the 4 minutes is up (pot beeps), let the pressure naturally release for 10 minutes, then remove lid.
- Remove rice pan, and use a fork to fluff rice. Then cover rice, and set rice aside.
- Remove trivet from the pot, and add in your Garam Masala.
- Stir the mixture together, at this point it will still be fairly runny.
- Turn the pot on to Saute, and adjust to the low setting, and let the mixture simmer, uncovered for 15 minutes, allowing sauce to reduce.
- Add cream, stir well, and then taste sauce, and adjust seasonings as desired. Simmer until desired consistency is reached.
- Serve over butter rice with fresh chopped cilantro for garnish.
Stove Top Instructions
- Cut chicken into 1 inch pieces, and trim excess fat.
- Rinse rice, and set aside.
- Mix together marinade ingredients (yogurt, salt, coriander, Garam Masala, lemon juice, and salt) in a large bowl, and add chicken to it, stirring it to coat completely. Put in fridge to let marinate for 20-30 minutes minimum, up to 24 hours.
- Meanwhile, chop onions, garlic, and ginger
- Put a large skillet over medium-high heat, add olive oil, and add chicken, and sear it on both sides, browning it, then remove from skillet to a plate. Do this in batches until all chicken is browned.
- Add butter to the bottom of the skillet, along with the onion, garlic, and ginger, and saute 2-3 minutes until onions are translucent and fragrant.
- Add chicken stock, and use a wooden spoon to scrape everything off the bottom of the skillet to deglaze it.
- Once nothing is stuck to the bottom, add your chicken back in, along with any juices that collected on the plate, as well as the crushed tomatoes, cayenne pepper, and paprika.
- Stir it well, and turn heat up to allow it to come to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, cover it, and turn it down to low to let simmer for 20 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.
- Once chicken is cooked through, add remaining garam masala and cream, then cook until sauce is reduced to desired thickness.
- Prepare rice according to package directions.
- Serve over rice with cilantro garnish.
Notes
Simmer to reach desired sauce thickness, the liquid content of the chicken and tomatoes varies, so it may take longer than the 15 minutes, or less.
Nutrition
Our recipe card software calculates these nutrition facts based on averages for the above ingredients, different brands, and quality of produce/meats may have different nutritional information, always calculate your own based on the specific products you use in order to achieve accurate macros for this recipe.
Want to use this recipe in a meal plan?Try PrePear, my FREE Meal Planning App that allows you to save your recipes, plan meals, shop for groceries, and cook simply in one place. Join Here!Pin to your Instant Pot board on Pinterest:
Conor O'Sullivan says
This is the best recipe for Masala I’ve found for Easy Pot (JoCook’s recipe is awful), and it gives you a bit of flexibility at the end. It’s creamy and good. If I were to make it again, I would use slightly less cayenne, slightly less lemon juice, slightly less garam masala in both stages, and more cream. I also added a dollop of greek yogurt at the end when you add the cream, and also added some sugar at the end (which maybe would be better to add in earlier? I don’t know much about food science, and wanted to be able to taste-test). I like my Tikka Masala pretty sweet, erring on the side of unhealthy. 😛
Michelle says
This recipe was soo good! So flavorful and delicious! Will keep this as a staple in our house!
Rachael says
I am so glad you enjoyed it. Thank you for the comment.
Gayle Masters says
Is the yogurt sauce only used to marinate the chicken? If not, when is it added in.
Rachael says
Yes for the marinade.
Dawn says
I made this today and it was delicious! We ate it over cauliflower rice to keep the carbs down. I was a little confused about the second salt in the marinade, so just used the 2 tsp sea salt, is there a reason for the extra salt? Thanks for the great recipe!