Tandoori masala
Also known as tandoori spice mix, tandoori seasoning, tandoori masala powder
Quick answer
A marinade blend rather than a rub, and one where the colour has a longer history than the recipe. The red is traditionally Kashmiri chilli; in most commercial versions and restaurant kitchens it is food colouring.
In essentially every version: Kashmiri chilli powder, Coriander seed, Cumin, Ginger, Garlic powder, Garam masala, Turmeric, Kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaf), Black pepper.
2distinct versions are recorded below. None of them is presented as the correct one, because there isn’t one.
What goes in it
The defining core first, then the versions. Roles are recorded so it is clear what each ingredient is doing.
| Ingredient | Role | How essential |
|---|---|---|
| Kashmiri chilli (ground)Chosen for colour rather than heat — Kashmiri chilli is deep red and comparatively mild, which is exactly what a blend used in quantity needs. This is the single most consequential ingredient choice in the blend, and substituting cayenne makes it hot rather than red. | colour | defining |
| Coriander seed (ground) | base | defining |
| Cumin (ground) | base | defining |
| Ginger (ground) | primary aromatic | defining |
| Garlic | savoury depth | defining |
| Garam masalaA blend within a blend, and a common construction here. The warm aromatics — cardamom, clove, cinnamon — usually arrive as garam masala rather than individually. | primary aromatic | usual |
| Turmeric (ground) | colour | usual |
| FenugreekRecorded against fenugreek, the nearest entity held. The leaf rather than the seed is what belongs here — it is milder, more savoury and less bitter, and using ground fenugreek seed instead makes the marinade noticeably harsh. | supporting aromatic | usual |
| Black cardamomWhere present it adds a smokiness that stands in for the tandoor a domestic oven cannot provide. | supporting aromatic | optional |
| Black pepper (ground) | supporting aromatic | usual |
| Salt | salt | optional |
Moderate in the spicing and wide in the colouring. The coriander, cumin, ginger, garlic and warm-aromatic structure is consistent; what varies is how the red is achieved. A traditional blend relies on Kashmiri chilli and turmeric. Many commercial blends, and a great many restaurants, add synthetic colouring to reach the vivid red that customers now expect, because no quantity of chilli achieves it without also making the dish unbearably hot. That expectation is itself a product of restaurant practice rather than of Punjabi cooking, and it is worth knowing that the traditional colour is a deep brick rather than a bright scarlet.
The versions
Each attributed, with how firm its proportions are stated plainly.
Traditional
regional traditionalCommon Punjabi household and restaurant composition · proportions representative · medium confidence
Kashmiri chilli for colour, no added colouring. Brick red rather than scarlet.
| Ingredient | Parts | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Kashmiri chilli powder | 4 | 25% |
| Coriander seed | 3 | 19% |
| Cumin | 2 | 13% |
| Ginger | 2 | 13% |
| Garlic powder | 2 | 13% |
| Garam masala | 1 | 6% |
| Kasuri methi | 1 | 6% |
| Turmeric | 0.5–1 | 5% |
British restaurant style
contemporary commonTypical British Indian restaurant composition · proportions representative · low confidence
Milder and sweeter, with more garam masala and, characteristically, added colouring rather than more chilli.
| Ingredient | Parts | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Kashmiri chilli powder | 3 | 23% |
| Coriander seed | 3 | 23% |
| Cumin | 2 | 15% |
| Garam masala | 2 | 15% |
| Ginger | 1 | 8% |
| Garlic powder | 1 | 8% |
| Turmeric | 1 | 8% |
Recorded at low confidence as a shape rather than a formulation. The colouring is deliberately not recorded as an ingredient here: it is not a spice, it varies by kitchen and by jurisdiction, and SpiceHQ holds no source competent to describe which colourings are used or permitted where.
Using it
Chicken above all — tandoori chicken and chicken tikka — then paneer, lamb, prawns, white fish and cauliflower. It is used in a yoghurt marinade with lemon juice, ginger and garlic, left for several hours or overnight, and then cooked at high heat. It is not a dry rub: the yoghurt is doing structural work, carrying the fat-soluble aromatics into the surface of the meat and protecting it from the heat that follows.
Warm, savoury and earthy, with coriander and cumin forming the body and the garam masala fraction supplying sweetness behind them. It is a blend designed to work through yoghurt and high heat rather than to taste of much on its own — dry on the tongue it is dusty and unremarkable, and in a marinade left overnight it becomes something else entirely.
Mild to moderate. Kashmiri chilli is used for colour rather than heat, so the blend is far less hot than it looks. Versions made with cayenne instead can be genuinely hot.
Scaling: Scales linearly. The variable that matters is not the blend but the marinating time and the heat: a tandoor runs far hotter than a domestic oven, and the char that a home cook is missing is better recovered with a very hot grill for the last few minutes than by adding more spice. If the blend tastes flat, the likely cause is a short marinade rather than an under-spiced one.
If you have none
Garam masala with Kashmiri chilli and Cumin and Coriander seed
Good matchUse: 1× by volume — Four parts Kashmiri chilli powder to three parts ground coriander to two parts each cumin and garam masala, plus garlic and ginger powder, at the volume the recipe gives.
Reproduces the spicing closely and the colour only partly. Kashmiri chilli gives a deep brick red, which is the traditional colour; the vivid scarlet associated with restaurant tandoori comes from added colouring rather than from any spice, and no combination of spices reaches it.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| close | close | partial | similar |
Works for
- Yoghurt marinades for chicken, paneer, lamb and prawns
- Any case where a brick-red result is acceptable
Does not work for
- Cayenne in place of Kashmiri chilli, which makes the dish hot rather than red — the most consequential error with this blend
- Expecting restaurant colour from spices alone
Cuisine: None. This is a reconstruction of the same blend rather than a shift in tradition.
If the marinade tastes flat, the usual cause is a short marinating time rather than an under-spiced mix. Yoghurt needs several hours to carry the fat-soluble aromatics into the surface of the meat.
Curry powder with Kashmiri chilli
PoorUse: 1× by volume — Like for like, with Kashmiri chilli added for colour. Curry powder already carries turmeric, so no more is needed.
Shares the coriander, cumin and turmeric base and misses both the colour and the character. Curry powder is a British construction built for sauces and reads as yellow-brown rather than red, and it lacks the garam masala sweetness and the fenugreek leaf that make a tandoori marinade taste as it does. In yoghurt it produces something edible and not something anyone would call tandoori.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| partial | partial | partial | similar |
Works for
- A yoghurt-marinated grilled chicken when nothing better is available
- Dishes where the marinade is one element among several
Does not work for
- Anything served as tandoori chicken or tikka
- Cases where the brick-red colour is expected
- Delicate proteins, since curry powder is coarser in flavour than the blend it replaces
Cuisine: Moves a Punjabi dish towards a British Indian restaurant one, which is a real distance rather than a nuance.
The better route is to build the blend from garam masala and Kashmiri chilli, recorded separately. This record exists because curry powder is what most Western kitchens actually have.
Storage
Good for: 6–12 months (typically 9 months)
Cool, dark, dry and closed.
Stale tandoori masala is a quality matter. Kept dry it does not become unsafe. Colouring in commercial blends is a regulatory question rather than a storage one, and SpiceHQ holds no source competent to address which colourings are permitted in which jurisdictions.
Culture and origin
Punjab, and popularised through Delhi restaurant cooking from the mid twentieth century. Tandoor cooking is far older than the blend, which is a restaurant-era standardisation of the spicing that went into a yoghurt marinade.
Punjab and northern India
Tandoor cooking in clay ovens is ancient across the region; the specific dish of yoghurt-marinated chicken cooked in one and the blend that seasons it are a twentieth-century restaurant development, associated with Punjabi cooks and popularised from Delhi after Partition. The distinction matters because tandoori chicken is regularly described as an ancient dish, and the oven is the ancient part.
Britain
Tandoori and tikka dishes are the foundation of the British Indian restaurant menu, and chicken tikka masala — a British dish built on tandoori-marinated chicken — is among the most eaten in the country. The bright red colour that British diners associate with the style is a restaurant convention rather than a Punjabi one, and it comes from added colouring rather than from spice.