Instant Pot Chicken Tikka Masala (Pressure Cooker)
INGREDIENTS
For marinating the chicken:
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken breasts about 2, chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 1 cup plain 2% fat greek yogurt 7 ounces
- 1 tablespoon
garam masala - 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon
ground ginger
For the sauce:
- 15 ounces
canned tomato sauce or puree - 5 cloves garlic minced
- 4 teaspoons
garam masala - 1/2 teaspoon
paprika - 1/2 teaspoon
turmeric - 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon
cayenne - 1 cup heavy whipping cream added last
For serving:
basmati rice naan - freshly chopped cilantro
INSTRUCTIONS
- Marinating the chicken: Combine all marinade ingredients (minus the chicken) in a bowl and mix well. Add chicken chunks and coat with the marinade. Let sit in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.
- Pressure cooker saute mode: Select the saute mode on the
pressure cooker for medium heat. When it has reached temperature, add chicken chunks (along with any marinade sticking to them) to the pressure cooker. Saute until the chicken is cooked on all sides, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Turn off the saute mode. - Pressure cooker high pressure mode: Add all of the sauce ingredients except the cream to the pressure cooker, over the chicken, and stir. Secure and seal the lid. Select the manual mode to cook for 10 minutes at high pressure. Use the quick steam release handle to release pressure.
- Pressure cooker saute mode: Select the saute mode on the pressure cooker for low heat. When it has reached temperature, add cream to the pot, stirring with the other ingredients. Simmer until the sauce is thickened to your liking, a few minutes.
- Serving: Serve with basmati rice or naan. Garnish with cilantro.
NUTRITION
| Makes 4 Servings |
| Amount Per Serving: |
| Calories 460 (53% from fat) | |
| Total Fat 27g | 41% |
| Saturated Fat 17g | 85% |
| Cholesterol 171mg | 57% |
| Sodium 880mg | 37% |
| Net Carb 10g | |
| Total Carb 14.5g | 5% |
| Dietary Fiber 4.5g | 18% |
| Sugars 5.5g | |
| Protein 33g |
Chicken tikka masala is one of my favorite dishes of all time, and one of the most popular Indian dishes ordered at American restaurants. It goes great with basmati rice to help soak up all of the delicious sauce, or with some slabs of naan bread on the side. I enjoy this dish frequently in various forms, whether it be in a restaurant or just at home with a microwaveable frozen version (the one at Trader Joe’s is quite good!). I’m somewhat embarrassed to admit that there have been times where I ate chicken tikka masala more than once in a single day. It’s just one of those dishes that ticks off all of the boxes for me: (1) warm and comforting, (2) thick and saucy, (3) tons of spices and flavor, and (4) tender bites of chicken.
I developed my one-pan stovetop chicken tikka masala recipe about half a year ago — it’s a made-from-scratch chicken tikka masala that’s surprisingly easy and tastes just as good as the restaurant version. Since then, I’ve been asked to adapt the recipe to make an Instant Pot version. Via pressure cooking, it only takes 10 minutes to cook the sauce, which is about half as long as the stovetop method. I’ve also made some minor adjustments such as tweaking the spice mix and using less heavy cream. All in all, this Instant Pot chicken tikka masala tastes just as amazing as the stovetop version, so you can pick whichever cooking method you prefer.
Recently, I added a slow cooker chicken tikka masala for those of you with crockpots and other slow cookers.
If you’ve ever made my stovetop chicken tikka masala, you’ll know that it comes with a generous amount of sauce. This Instant Pot version is the same. You won’t ever find me skimping on tikka masala sauce, otherwise, what’s the point of basmati rice and naan if there isn’t extra sauce to soak up? The flavors here are top notch — even the typically wary-of-Indian-food Mr. Savory Tooth loves it — and there’s also a wonderful hint of lemon flavor as an added bonus.
For a low carb and keto friendly version, simply make the recipe as follows and substitute white rice with riced cauliflower or low carb naan.
I love this recipe! I’ve made it so many times now. I make a way unhealthier version with whole Greek yogurt, I double the amount of chicken and use thighs, double the amount of Garam Masala, serve it with Basmati rice and naan and sprinkle with cilantro and it’s about the best InstantPot recipe I’ve ever found. Thank you!
Can this be done dairy free? What’s a good substitute for the yogurt and heavy cream?
Check your supermarket for dairy-free options for yogurt — there are a lot of brands making coconut based or almond milk based yogurts. Even better if you can find one that is plain, unsweetened, with a very thick texture like Greek yogurt. As for heavy cream, I would substitute with canned coconut cream or canned full-fat coconut milk.
I’ve been using Nutpods original in place of heavy cream for recipes. It has a more neutral flavor than coconut milk/cream.
This was amazing! Everyone in my family loved it, my 16 year old got up in the middle of the night to eat more.
Great recipe!
I’ve modified it by adding a half a sautéed yellow onion and frozen peas right before pressure cooking. I also prefer to sear the chicken pieces in a separate pan so I can transfer the chicken over to the IP without all the liquid watering down the sauce. I also only use ½ a cup of heavy cream (cutting the amount of cayenne in half as well). It’s best to refrigerate over night and serve the next day, in my experience.
What types of veggies would you add to this? (red pepper? Yellow Pepper? White or red onion?) and when would you add?
Love this recipe! Making it for the second time right now. Doubling the recipe since it went so quick last time.
🙂
Hi Heather! I suggest adding an onion; I usually opt for a yellow onion and a smaller-sized one so that the dish isn’t overwhelmingly onion-y. For preparation, I would finely chop the onion and add it at the same time as the sauce ingredients, just prior to pressure cooking. If you’d prefer, you can saute the onions first with a bit of oil, but I don’t think it would make a noticeable difference.
Onions will release liquid as they cook, increasing the overall wateriness of your final sauce. After pressure cooking, you may need to use the saute mode for a longer period of time until the sauce reaches your desired thickness.
Hope that’s helpful!
This recipe has been in my almost-weekly rotation for a long time, and I love it! This time I prepped everything, marinated the chicken overnight, brought my IP to work and made it for my friends at the office. One pal brought her homemade naan. It’s a feast! I used a trivet to hold a pan of rice and broth over the chicken/sauce to cook at the same time, and it was just divine. Thank you for this fabulous recipe.
It’s really good (I quadrupled the cayenne and added a 1/4 tsp of ghost pepper powder so it’d have a little kick to it).
Does this freeze well, if at all?
I’m excited to try this! If I use thighs, do i still have to saute?
Yes, I would still saute if you’re using thighs.
I love this recipe! It was very easy and my boyfriend who grew up in India gave it 8/10 which is pretty high praise for an Indian recipe that I make!
I love this recipe! It’s one of my favorite Instant Pot recipes. However, my boyfriend is a vegetarian and I was wondering if there was a way to make this recipe with cauliflower?
I have a vegetarian tikka masala recipe that uses cauliflower https://www.savorytooth.com/cauliflower-curry/ but it’s designed for the stovetop, not Instant Pot.
Is the marinade a must? I’ve made this dish several times and it’s delicious!!! I don’t have time for a 1 hr marinade right now though!
Flavor was really good. However, I don’t quite understand sautéing the chicken in a yogurt marinade. It doesn’t sear with that sauce on it and then putting it in the instapot gave me a burn warning when trying to pressurize. I think I’m just not good at this instapot thing.
It’ll sear with the sauce on it if the pot is hot enough. To get it hot enough, sear the chicken in batches (to avoid cooling the pot too much) or turn up the saute setting temperature. After searing, use a stiff utensil to loosen anything stuck to the bottom of the pot, to avoid burn errors during pressure cooking. I’ll be updating this recipe with better instructions, but in the meantime, I hope you find these tips to be helpful and continue to use your Instant Pot.
This was the first Instant Pot recipe that I’ve tried!
The instructions were great and easy to follow, and the food delicious! I’ve made this a few times. This last time I cut the garam masala in half; it was a little too sweet for our tastes. My husband requests this dish often!
If I double the recipe, do I need to double the time as well?
Thanks for the feedback, Kira. If you double the recipe, the pressure cooking time remains the same.
This was so good! I heavily recommend this recipe for first-time users; I often mess up recipes but this was quite easy.
I added chickpeas during step 4, just before adding the heavy cream and simmering. I served with rice and naan bread.
Not bad. Probably a little too much garam masala in there since the cinnamon flavor was a bit overpowering compared to what I’m used to. The sauce was definitely runny and did not thicken up at all at the end, even after over 5 minutes of simmering, but that was easy enough..just serve in a bowl. I added a few tablespoons of butter at the end based on reading some of the other comments. Overall I do feel like the dish is missing something. Onions perhaps? I will keep searching for my perfect tikka masala at home. My chicken did not come out dry or problematic at all like others commented. I used tenderloins (exactly 1lb) and pretty much dumped in all of the marinade.
So you added butter and all of the marinade and you’re surprised your sauce was runny?
My first time using a pressure cooker and this was delicious and easy. Thank you.
I haven’t made homemade chicken tikka masala in years and we just got a new instant pot so I figured I’d give this a try! It was personally my first time using the instant pot so I was a little intimidated but the recipe and instructions are very straightforward making it really easy to make. However, I burned the some of the chicken and the marinade that got stuck to the bottom of the pot. I may be dense here- but should I have used a cooking spray or oil before putting the chicken in the pot? It wasn’t in the instructions so I didn’t, but I really don’t want this to happen again! Luckily the sauce had a couple of minutes to pressure cook before the burn message came on so I think I salvaged it by quick releasing and then simmering and adding the cream. It’s a little smokier than I think is intended but at least I didn’t have to throw it all away! Also, my husband and roommate will love this because of the extra kick from the cayenne but I’m not as fond of spicy food so I would omit it next time. Otherwise DELICIOUS!
Thank you for your feedback, Kaitlyn! You aren’t being dense — there isn’t supposed to be any oil that you need to add beforehand. I’ll make a note to update this recipe with more clear instructions. Glad you were able to salvage it!
We also had this problem. We had to pull it out of the instapot and cook on the stove. Should we have added water or something?
Is the bottom of your pot deglazed? Before pressure cooking, I would make sure that the bottom of the pot doesn’t have any browned bits stuck to it, which may lead to burn errors during pressure cooking. You can deglaze by using a stiff wooden spoon to loosen the browned bits (adding a bit of water may help loosen them as well). Please let me know if you try this again and deglazing helps solve your issue.
Hi Julia,
I made this recipe again tonight before I saw your comment. I didn’t specifically deglaze the pot, but there were no brown bits or anything stuck to the bottom of the pot. I did use a little cooking spray this time and at first it seemed promising but then as soon as the pot got up to pressure, it cooked for about 1 minute then I got the food burn message again. I released the pressure and opened it up and the whole bottom of the pot had a layer of what looked like burned marinade on it. Because I had the cooking spray down it did seem to scrape off easily but all of my sides were done and I didn’t want to try to preserve those while waiting for the pot to get up to pressure so I just stirred in the cream and simmered. The taste is still ok but the texture could be a little better. I just don’t know what I’m doing wrong 🙁
Thanks for the detailed feedback, Kaitlyn; it’s very useful as I’m trying to figure out why some readers have a burn issue and others don’t. Since you mention the burnt marinade as what likely triggered the burn message, here are my thoughts:
(1) What is the consistency of the marinade? It should be pretty thick, coating the chicken well. I use the Fage brand for plain Greek yogurt. If your marinade is a bit thin-looking, pat the chicken chunks dry with paper towels to make sure they’re not contributing liquid.
(2) How thoroughly are you stirring the sautéed chicken with the sauce ingredients, before pressure cooking? I would make sure that the sautéed chicken is not directly in contact with the bottom of the pot, to avoid burning. It’s possible that adding a bit of water (2 to 4 tablespoons) to thin out the tomato sauce may help.
If you try any of these suggestions, I’d love to hear how it goes for you.
I have had the burn message twice now but not ready to give up on the Instant Pot! I scraped the bottom each time and the second time I’ve added about a cup of water and it’s working!
Hi Julia!
Okay, so tonight I tried this recipe for the third time. This is the easiest tiki masala recipe I have found and I refuse to give up! I think I finally got it!
I used almost two pounds of chicken this time around. I’m cooking for three and we like to have leftovers when we can and I found that one pound of chicken just didn’t do it for us. I did not double the marinade and it was still plenty to coat all of the chicken.
Because I used more chicken and am lazy and didn’t want to brown the chicken in batches, I browned the chicken in a large skillet. While the chicken was browning, I mixed the sauce in the instant pot. When the chicken was done, I put it into the instant pot and mixed everything together. I set the instant pot for 10 minutes on high.
Right when the pot got up to pressure, I got the “food burn” message. As I angrily stomped over the counter, the message went away and the icon disappeared from the screen. I watched it intently and the food burn message never showed up again. When cooking time was up, I let the pot naturally release for 2 minutes (I was tending to rice, bad timing) and then quick released the rest. After adding the cream, I let everything simmer for about 5 minutes.
I FINALLY DID IT!!! I made this recipe with nothing getting burned and it was AMAZING. Though I dirtied an extra pan by browning the chicken, it was worth it. Yay!
Great!! Thank you for sharing your experience. I’m happy to hear that the skillet browning step worked out for you 🙂
I am going to try this recipe tonight. Do you think it would help to just cook the chicken in another pan first and then transfer it to the pressure cooker? I have often had issues with the burn message with thicker sauces, so I am trying to avoid it all together. Thanks for any feedback!
Since you often have issues with burn messages, I think it would help to cook the chicken in another pan first and then transfer it to the pressure cooker. I hope this turned out well for you!
We. Love this recipe! I usually double the amount of chicken for my family. We are having a friend over that is vegetarian. I’ve seen a lot of Tikka recipes with checkpeas. Do you think I’d need to change anything to substitute the chicken for chickpeas? Thanks!
I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe! I haven’t tried using chickpeas before, but an older comment from a reader named Kirsten said that she added chickpeas and it worked out well. I don’t think she made any other changes. Besides chickpeas, you can also try cauliflower or extra firm tofu. The main thing to watch out for is any differences in cooking time. Hope that helps!
I added a pinch of ghost pepper flakes for extra kick. It worked. The recipe turned out great.
So, if this is the ONLY dish I make with my instapot, I will have considered it a great investment. I love this dish so much. I have left out the lemon juice before by accident and it was still fine. HOWEVER…has anyone tried to double it in the instapot? I am having a bunch of people over Friday and would like to serve it, but I am still not familiar with the pressure cooker. Would you straight double it or just add more chicken? Thoughts?
You should be able to double this by using 2x ingredients and keeping the pressure cooking time the same.
Our favorite meal, we make it once a week.
The chicken breasts were dry. I don’t see the point of attempting to saute chicken that has marinated (in my case, 24 hours) in Greek yogurt; it doesn’t really sear with the yogurt on it. I ended up sauteing it for 5 minutes (per the recipe), IP for 10, and the meat was dry. Next time I’ll skip the sauteing and use thighs instead. Tasty sauce.
I have chicken thighs. Will it taste just as good with those?
I tried to make this and found it to be way, way, way over spiced. Either I made an error, which may be likely, or this is just a super spicy dish. I haven’t found that to be true at Indian restaurants, but they could have been Americanized.