Paneer tikka masala recipe | Paneer tikka masala restaurant style

Paneer tikka masala is a dish full of flavor. Best paired with a butter naan or a tandoori roti or basmati rice. You can serve the paneer tikka as a starter. Later serve some of the grilled tikkas in the creamy tomato sauce for main course. Both are wonderful dishes with a fan-following of their own. There is something so magical about this dish that everyone says yes immediately after looking at it, in the restaurant menu. Trust me, you are impressing most of the guests by making tikkas in the starter.

Indian cottage cheese can be used to make various dishes too. Make an appetizer like paneer pakoras for the starter with cubes of paneer. Use fresh paneer and make a paratha for breakfast or restaurant style curry like bhurji. You can make use it to make matar paneer or palak paneer for mains.Use it to make baked cheese cake or chenna poda, rasmalai, rasgulla. It is the stalwart of Indian food. Gives a good run for money to any meaty option too.

These days you can get the paneer block even in Costco or supermarkets abroad. You must always check that it does not contain animal rennet. It should be made by adding citrus juice or apple cider vinegar to warm milk. This makes paneer cheese different from cheese like mozzarella, Parmesan,  Gorgonzola, Pecorino Romano ,Gruyere ,Camberbert etc. where animal enzymes are added. I always check the cheese ingredients and try to avoid these types where animal rennet is added abroad as I am vegetarian.

Jump to:

• Benefits of Cottage cheese
• How to make cottage cheese at home?
• Ingredients
• Equipment
• How to make paneer tikka masala ?
• Substitutions
• Variations
• Storage
• FAQs
• Try more simple cottage cheese recipes:
• homemade paneer tikka masala | restaurant style paneer tikka masala recipe

How to make cottage cheese at home?

Best part is you can make chenna or fresh cottage cheese easily at home. Follow the below steps to see how it is made at home

1. Boil milk.
2. Add some apple cider vinegar or teaspoon lemon juice to it. Let it coagulate. You can increase the juice/cider according to the quantity of milk to get fresh chenna.
3. Strain it with a sieve lined with cheese cloth or muslin cloth. Easy peasy!
4. Keep the chenna in the muslin or soft cotton cloth and keep under some heavy kitchen vessel to let it solidify. I use a spring form cake tin to keep the cottage cheese (in the cotton cloth) in the cake tin without the base first, then add the base,add a box on top of the base, then add some weight.I will take the picture of this arrangement next time and share it here.

Note: You can store the strained whey for 1-2 days and use it to make curries or knead dough for roti.

Refer to our details post on making paneer at home here

Ingredients

To cook paneer tikka masala dhaba style, you will need the dry Paneer tikka prepared. Read our recipe to make this .Apart from this you will need to make the paneer tikka masala paste or the paneer tikka masala gravy.

For tikka masala sauce

• thick yogurt/ hung curd/ Greek yogurt
• ghee or oil
• onions
• tomatoes

Tikka masala spices

• garam masala
• ginger-chilli paste
• red chilli powder
• coriander powder
• cumin powder
• turmeric powder
• Salt as per taste

For garnish:  chopped coriander leaves and kasuri methi / dried fenugreek leaves (optional)

How to make paneer tikka masala ?

• Heat oil over medium flame in a pan. Add ginger, chilly and finely chopped onion with salt. Cook until brown.

• Add the tomato purée to the onion and cook for few minutes
• Once the tomato has dried out a bit,add the spices and mix well.

• Add yogurt and cook for few minutes until the sauce comes together
• Keep stirring and add 2 cups of water.

• 5. Let it come to a boil and add the cottage cheese cubes to it.  
• Garnish it with kasoori methi and chopped coriander leaves optionally. 

• Serve with roti , naan bread or jeera rice.

Substitutions

For vegan tikka : Make a tofu tikka and use vegan yogurt or coconut milk along with oil in the curry.

Halloumi is also a close substitute of firm cottage cheese for vegetarian version, if latter is not available.

Non-vegetarian: If you like your chicken tikka, you can make a chicken tikka masala in the same fashion. Cooking time will change according to the core ingredient.

Variations

• Add red chili powder or more green chilies if you like a spicier recipe. You may also add ginger garlic paste or increase a teaspoon garam masala according to your taste.
• You may also increase bell pepper /capsicums in the recipe if serving to more people. Just add after onions.
• You may use paprika/ Kashmiri red chilly powder if you like a milder version.
• Another variation you can do with the recipe of paneer tikka masala is to use Tofu instead of paneer.
• You may add less water to the gravy if you want to make the paneer tikka masala dry recipe

Storage

You can make the curry and freeze a batch. Make fresh tikka and add to gravy whenever you wish to eat this recipe mid-week. You can also store marinated paneer for 2-3 days or freeze it for later.

FAQs

Try more simple cottage cheese recipes:

• Easy Paneer Tikka Recipe | Paneer tikka in air fryer
• Easy Air fryer paneer recipe
• Falhari tikka ( Air fry / bake in oven )
• Keto Paneer tikka | Low carb Indian food
• Paneer Butter Masala dhaba style

Read the tandoori paneer masala recipe below