ChefSums: Recipe Costing & GP

Chicken tikka masala with rice: how much it costs to make, per portion

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Britain's curry-house standard, done properly: thigh marinated in yoghurt and spice, roasted hard, then dropped into a buttery tomato and cream masala. Ten portions with 80 g of dry basmati each, costed from wholesale prices dated 7 September 2026.

Chicken tikka masala in a metal tray next to rice
Photo: Chicken Tikka Masala @ Indian's Food @ Annecy (38894403364) by Guilhem Vellut from Annecy, France, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped and resized. A licensed photo of the dish, not the exact costing below.
Ingredients per portion£1.34
Batch of 10£13.44
Menu price · ChefSums' sample restaurant menu£15.50 inc VAT (£12.92 ex) · 90% GP
Lowest price · 68% GP£5.04 inc VAT (£4.20 ex)

The menu price is the one ChefSums uses for this dish on its sample restaurant menu, a realistic UK menu price (also on the takeaway menu £11.50). The lowest price is the one that just reaches 68% GP, the UK food GP benchmark (UKHospitality × Christie & Co, 2022: 65.9–69% food GP across every segment). It covers the ingredients at a normal margin, not staff, rent or energy, and most cafés, pubs and takeaways charge more for simple dishes. Check what places near you charge. GP is worked out on the ex-VAT price.

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Ingredients and cost, 10 portions

IngredientPack pricePack sizeUsedCost
Chicken thigh, boneless skinless£38.9910000 g1500 g£5.85
Greek-style yoghurt£2.491000 g300 g£0.75
Garlic£3.491000 g46 g£0.16
Fresh ginger£15.495000 g40 g£0.12
Garam masala£11.491000 g30 g£0.34
Ground cumin£9.491000 g20 g£0.19
Ground coriander£16.995000 g20 g£0.07
Paprika£2.99480 g20 g£0.12
Lemons£9.996000 g100 g£0.17
Onions£6.9910000 g667 g£0.47
Chopped tomatoes (tinned)£19.9917700 g1200 g£1.36
Tomato puree£7.493000 g60 g£0.15
Double cream£3.791000 ml300 ml£1.14
Ground almonds£9.29907 g50 g£0.51
Unsalted butter£31.995000 g100 g£0.64
Green chillies£10.493000 g30 g£0.10
Vegetable oil£8.505000 ml60 ml£0.10
Basmati rice£29.9920000 g800 g£1.20
Batch total£13.44
Per portion (÷ 10)£1.34

Cost per line is pack price × (amount used ÷ pack size), the same sum the tool runs. Change one pack price and every line that uses it moves.

What it really costs: waste and staff time

Ingredients£1.34
Waste allowance, 5% (trim, ends, the odd one binned)£0.07
Staff time: 30 min hands-on for the batch of 10 at £12.71/hr + 25% on-cost£0.79
Food, waste and staff per portion£2.20

At the sample restaurant menu price (£12.92 ex VAT) that is 17% of the price, before rent, energy and everything else. Many UK sites aim to keep food plus staff (prime cost) at or under 60–65% of sales. The staff line counts hands-on prep only, not unattended cooking, and uses the April 2026 National Living Wage; put your own rate, minutes and waste in the calculator's real cost section or the prime cost calculator. Every dish side by side: the UK dish cost index.

Method

  1. Marinate the diced thigh in the yoghurt, half the garlic and ginger, half the spices and the lemon juice for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
  2. Roast the chicken on a rack at 220 °C (430 °F) until charred at the edges, 12-15 minutes; rest.
  3. Soften the onion in the butter and oil, add the remaining garlic, ginger, chilli and spices, cook until fragrant, then the puree and chopped tomatoes. Simmer 20 minutes and blend smooth.
  4. Stir in the cream and ground almonds, add the chicken and any juices, simmer 5 minutes; season and finish with lemon.
  5. Rinse the rice until the water runs clear, cook by absorption (1 : 1.5 rice to water), rest covered 5 minutes and fork through.

Costing notes

Protein is under half the cost here, which is why curry is a margin dish: the sauce is onions, tinned tomatoes and cream. Spices look expensive per kilo and cost pennies per plate. Rice is 80 g dry a portion from a 20 kg sack. Naan, chutney and garnish are not costed: add rows.

Prep loss is costed in: each fresh vegetable line is the weight you buy, not the prepared weight that goes in the pan. Onions: 600 g peeled is 667 g as bought at 90% (onion yield); Garlic: 40 g peeled is 46 g as bought at 87% (garlic yield).

Where the prices came from

JJ Foodservice collection prices as shown on its public search pages on 7 September 2026 (delivery prices run about £1-2 a case higher). The site does not label VAT on most lines: raw food is zero-rated in the UK, while oil, vanilla and alcohol carry standard-rate VAT. Where JJ had no line that day, a Tesco retail price is used and marked. Your supplier's price is the one that matters: open the recipe and type it in.

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