Name: Chicken Tikka Masala
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 675 g (1.5 lb ) cooked Chicken Tikka; 2 tbsp mustard seed oil (see notes); 4 large cloves of garlic , finely chopped; 200 g (7 oz ) onions , finely chopped (optional); 1 tin (28 oz ) plum tomatoes , chopped; 1–4 chopped fresh green chiles (depending on strength of the chiles and the desired strength of the sauce); 2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro (coriander leaves); 50 ml (4 fl oz ) single cream; 1 tbsp malt vinegar or tamarind extract; 2 tbsp curry paste; 2 tbs p tandoori masala paste; 1 tbs p tomato paste; 1 tbs p garam masala

Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,053 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Mustard + oniontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,259 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Plum + tomatotop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,480 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Onions: Soften and brown to build a sweet, savoury base for the sauce.
Garlic: Adds pungent aroma that mellows and deepens as it cooks.
Plum tomatoes: Provide acidity and body, forming the main liquid of the sauce.
Single cream: Adds fat and richness, softening the sharpness of the tomatoes and spices.
Curry paste: Supplies concentrated spice flavour that blooms when stirred into hot oil.
Tomato paste: Concentrates tomato flavour and adds colour and body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir-frying the garlic and onions until browned. Browning creates sweet, deep flavours through the Maillard reaction and caramelisation; pale, undercooked onions leave the sauce tasting flat and raw.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, mustard, clove, garlic, plum, tomato, sauce):

Capsicumfits better
Broccolifits better
Shallotfits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, mustard, clove, garlic, plum, tomato, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Plum	1 medium (66g)	30
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1
Seed	not in our table	0
Sauce	not in our table	0
Coriander	not in our table	0
Malt	not in our table	0
Tamarind	not in our table	0

Chicken Tikka Masala