Chicken Tikka Masala Just Got Easier Thanks To Your Slow Cooker

Forget take-out, this slow cooker chicken tikka masala is a restaurant-quality dish that you can make at home for a fraction of the cost. The slow cooker converts this beloved dish from one that can take hours of prep and require various cooking techniques to a recipe made nearly entirely hands-off.

According to Ksenia Prints of At the Immigrant's Table, chicken tikka masala is an Indian restaurant favorite for a reason. It's made by first toasting aromatic spices, then mixing them with yogurt to make a marinade for the chicken, cooking the chicken in the tandoor oven, and then finishing it off in a layered, sweet and spicy creamy sauce: It's the crown jewel of many a restaurant. In our recipe, we follow much of the same pattern, except we leave out the tandoor and use the long, slow cooking of the crockpot to make succulent, tender chicken pieces that are swimming in a velvety, deeply seasoned sauce.

Topped with a smattering of jewel-red pomegranate seeds, a drizzle of tangy yogurt, and some freshly minced, fragrant cilantro, the dish feels luxurious and looks like you've spent hours making it. And if no one knows that most of those hours involved a machine doing the work for you? That's not our secret to tell.

For the marinade, you'll need fresh grated ginger, minced garlic, garam masala, paprika, ground coriander, ground cumin, ground turmeric, yogurt, salt, and boneless chicken thighs. 

For the sauce, you'll need to start with ghee, butter, or oil for sauteing. Ghee, which is regular unsalted butter that has been cooked and clarified of all the milk solids, is the traditional Indian option. If you have it on hand, great — it'll give your chicken tikka masala a more traditional taste and a clear base for the sauce. But if you don't have any, you can use regular butter or your preferred neutral-tasting oil. 

To make the sauce, assemble a diced onion, a can of crushed tomatoes, heavy cream, pomegranate juice, honey, garam masala, and salt, to taste. For serving, we recommend accompanying the chicken tikka masala with cooked basmati rice, pomegranate arils, plain yogurt, and fresh cilantro leaves, though it's also great just on its own.

Toast the ginger, garlic, garam masala, paprika, coriander, cumin, and turmeric in a dry skillet over medium heat for 2 minutes until fragrant. Let cool.

In a bowl, combine the toasted spices with the yogurt and salt.

Add the chicken and toss to coat. Marinate for at least 2 hours or overnight in refrigerator.

In a skillet, heat the ghee, butter, or oil over medium-high heat.

Sear the marinated chicken in batches until browned, about 3 minutes per side.

Transfer to the slow cooker.

In the same skillet, saute the onion until softened, about 5 minutes.

Add the onion to the slow cooker with the crushed tomatoes, cream, pomegranate juice, honey, and garam masala. Stir to combine.

Cook on low for 4 hours until the chicken is tender. Season with salt.

Remove the chicken from the slow cooker, and chop it into 1-inch pieces.

Return the chicken to the pot and garnish the chicken with pomegranate arils, yogurt, and cilantro. Serve over basmati rice, if desired.

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Legend has it that the original chicken tikka masala was developed in the 1970s by a Pakistani British man as a way to perk up and flavor overly dry roasted chicken, and millions around the world are thankful to Ali Ahmed Aslam for this contribution. The original chicken in question would have been thighs cooked in a tandoor oven, which had been marinated and flavored by a mix of ground spices.

Our recipe takes a similar approach, but aims to simplify it slightly. Many chicken tikka masala shortcut recipes try to take the chicken preparation entirely out of the equation. A Trader Joe's TikTok recipe uses a store-bought mix of spices and pre-cooked chicken strips as the base, while another takes a different spin by starting off with frozen chicken nuggets. Our recipe tries to stay a bit more faithful to the original by making our own marinade and sauce, starting off with toasted spices, and searing fresh, marinated chicken.

Of course, another main difference in our recipe from the typical approach is that instead of finishing the chicken in sauce in a large pot or pan, we use the slow cooker. This helps us break down any toughness in the chicken and ensures that the sauce develops a deep, nuanced flavor. With our slow cooker approach, you won't find any raw tomato flavor or undercooked chicken. Finally, we elevate our presentation by topping the dish with pomegranate, cilantro, and yogurt, giving this weeknight-friendly chicken tikka masala an appearance worthy of the maharaja.

We love this recipe just as it is, but it's always fun to tweak a recipe and make it your own. To that end, we have a few ideas for changes and additions you can make to this slow cooker chicken tikka masala.

If you want something a bit lighter, you can omit the heavy cream from the recipe and add an equal amount of yogurt or coconut milk in the last ten minutes of cooking — this prevents it from curdling. If you want the creaminess but you're avoiding dairy, coconut cream will give the dish a luxe texture and an amazing nutty scent.

If you can't find pomegranate juice, you can skip it and add a bit of tomato paste. If you go this route, taste the dish and add a touch of lemon or apple cider vinegar for tartness, and sugar, honey, or maple syrup for sweetness, which will more closely resemble the original sweet and tangy flavor. We also love to add a bit of ground cardamom and cinnamon to the dish.

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