Chicken tikka masala — whether originally Scottish or Punjabi in invention — is now the most-ordered Indian dish in the world and one of the most misrepresented. Correctly made, it requires two distinct techniques: the tandoor-marinated, charred chicken tikka (producing pieces with char-Maillard complexity) and a specific tomato-cream-spice sauce. The char from the tikka is essential — it is the flavour element that makes the dish what it is. Tikka made in an oven without char is simply baked marinated chicken; it produces a different dish entirely.
- **The tikka marinade:** Two-stage — first marinade of salt and lime for 30 minutes, then yogurt, ginger-garlic paste, spices (coriander, cumin, chilli, garam masala, turmeric) for 4–24 hours. [VERIFY] Bharadwaj's specific marinade sequence. - **The char:** Under the hottest possible broiler — the yogurt-marinated chicken should show dark char at the edges and tips. This char is not a mistake. - **The masala sauce:** Tomato-onion base, butter, cream — the "makhani sauce" structure. Blended smooth after the onion-tomato stage. - **The fenugreek leaf:** Kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaf) added to the sauce provides the characteristic flavour note that makes tikka masala taste specifically of itself — it is the ingredient that most cooks omit and most miss when they try to recreate the dish.
Indian Cookery Course