Tikka masala paste substitutes

The paste rebuilt from scratch in the pan, which is what a restaurant kitchen does anyway.

Best for

chicken tikka masala, paneer or chickpea tikka masala, marinating chicken before grilling, any recipe that says brown the paste first

Better than the jar, not merely equal to it, and the dried fenugreek leaf is the reason. Kasoori methi is the slightly bitter, hay-and-maple smell that makes restaurant tikka masala recognisable, and cheap jarred pastes use very little of it. Crush the leaves between your palms as you add them so they release properly. Fry the whole mixture in the oil for two full minutes until it darkens and smells toasty; skipping that step is what makes homemade versions taste raw and tinny.

The closely related jarred paste made for marinating tandoori chicken, with the same spice family and more colour.

Best for

chicken tikka masala, marinating chicken, paneer or cauliflower, when tandoori paste is what your shop stocks, getting a stronger red colour

Very close, and in fact tandoori paste is the more traditional starting point since chicken tikka is tandoori-marinated chicken to begin with. The differences: tandoori paste is more heavily coloured and usually more acidic, because it is designed to work with yoghurt on raw meat, and it carries less tomato and onion body. So the curry comes out redder and tangier and slightly thinner. The tablespoon of tomato paste restores the body and softens the acidity.

Any mild-to-medium jarred Indian curry paste, adjusted toward tikka masala's tomato-and-paprika profile.

Best for

using an open jar rather than buying another, chicken, lamb or vegetable curries, weeknight cooking, family meals where mild is the priority

All work fine and nobody will complain. Rogan josh paste brings more clove, cardamom and fennel, so the curry tastes warmer and more perfumed; balti paste is a little sharper and often has fenugreek leaf already, which suits this well; korma paste is sweeter and usually contains coconut or almond, so the result comes out closer to a butter chicken than a tikka masala. In every case the added tomato paste and paprika are what stop the finished sauce looking pale and tasting off-profile.

The ready-made finished sauce, a genuinely different product that is sold in a very similar jar.

Best for

the fastest possible dinner, when the shop only had the sauce, cooking for one or two, reheating leftover cooked chicken

This is the swap most likely to go wrong, purely through quantity. Paste is a concentrate meant to be fried and then diluted; simmer sauce is already diluted, sweetened and thickened. Substituting spoon for spoon leaves the curry watery and bland, and substituting jar for spoonful leaves you with far too much liquid unless you drop the other wet ingredients. It also tastes sweeter and smoother than a paste-based curry, since manufacturers add sugar and cream. Add a teaspoon of garam masala and some crushed kasoori methi to give it back some edge.

A hotter paste toned down toward tikka masala's mild, creamy profile.

Best for

cooks who only keep hot pastes, chicken and lamb, people who find tikka masala too mild anyway, curries served with plenty of rice and yoghurt

Works well as long as you handle the heat. Madras paste is considerably hotter and more cumin- and mustard-forward, so the curry tastes sharper and more South Indian, and the extra cream is what pulls it back toward the mellow, rich character tikka masala is known for. Use two thirds the quantity if your brand is fierce. A teaspoon of sugar helps too, since commercial tikka pastes are lightly sweetened and Madras paste is not.

The pantry-only version, honest about being a step down.

Best for

no Indian pastes or blends in the house, chicken, chickpeas or cauliflower, cooking abroad with a limited shop, mild versions for children

It makes a decent creamy tomato curry, but it will not taste like tikka masala and it is worth knowing why. Curry powder is turmeric- and fenugreek-seed-led, which gives a mustard-yellow, earthy, slightly bitter flavour, where tikka masala should be red-orange, warm and faintly sweet. If you can add anything at all, add ½ teaspoon of ground cinnamon or cardamom for warmth and ½ teaspoon of paprika for colour, and fry the mixture hard in oil before the liquid goes in.