In this paper we present the wave propagation method for the retrieving of effective properties of media with circularly polarized eigenwaves, in particularly for chiral metamaterials. The method is applied for thick slabs and provides bulk effective parameters. Its strong sides are the absence of artificial branches of the refractive index and simplicity in implementation. We prove the validity of the method on three case studies of homogeneous magnetized plasma, bi-cross and U-shaped metamaterials.