Chicken Tikka or Chicken Kebab is a delicious and flavorful, easy-to-make Indian dish, where the chicken is first marinated in the aromatic spice mixture and then grilled on skewers to perfection. I bet this will be one of the best chicken recipes you will try.
Vegetarian Chicken Tikka or Chicken Kebab or Skewers
My mouth is watering as I am writing this post. So you can guess how tasty the dish is. For vegetarians, don't get disappointed.
For meatless or vegetarian tikka, follow the same recipe and substitute chicken with paneer to prepare the best paneer tikka ever or even with mushroom, babycorn, cauliflower (gobi), potatoes or even tofu.
The taste and the aromatic flavor and the ease of cooking makes this dish one of the most popular Indian recipes.
What is chicken tikka ?
For those who are new to this dish, tikka means chunks of chicken marinated and cooked on skewers using Indian spices. The spices that go into this dish is available in any Indian store and these days I see it even in Big stores like Walmart, Target, and Kroger.
What is the difference between chicken tikka and chicken tikka masala?
Chicken tikka is a dry item served as a side or starter or appetizer, where the marinated chicken in Indian spices is grilled to perfection on bbq (tandoor) or stovetop or oven.
Chicken tikka masala has more spices than chicken tikka, thus making it hotter and spicier. It is a gravy or curry-based that can be served as an entrée or main dish with Indian bread like naan or roti.
The secret to make the best and perfect chicken tikka or kebab or tandoor chicken
The key to the dish is marinating the chicken and the broiling time within the oven. When broiled, the chicken should develop uniform dark spots at the end of cooking, this is the signature of the yummiest tikkas.
Tikkas taste the best when it's spicy. Depending on the heat (spice level) you can tolerate adjusting the number of green chilies and red chile powder in the recipe below. I have used coriander seeds and cumin seeds. If you find it difficult to get the seeds you can substitute it with cumin powder and coriander powder.
How long should one marinate the chicken?
For maximum flavor, I would say overnight. But if you decide to make it all of a sudden or cannot resist to taste the dish, marinate at least for 1 hour and use thighs in this case.
You can serve the tikka with mint chutney over a bed of rice or along with any naan or roti. You can even build on this recipe and make chicken tikka masala. I will soon share the recipe for the same. So stay tuned.
Which works best for tikka - chicken thighs or chicken breasts?
Both work equally good but I generally prefer using thighs over breasts as I love it and the end result is amazing. The more juicer will be the chicken plus additional plus point is marination for thighs is less compared to breasts. If you want to prepare this dish as quickly as possible even for your weeknight dinner, then use chicken thighs.
If using chicken breasts for health reasons make sure marinate it a little longer. Overnight would give you the best results.
Ingredients for Chicken Tikka
4 Chicken Thighs, cut into at least 32 cubes or more.
2 Red onions, large cubes
4 Tomatoes, large cubes
2 Green bell pepper/Capsicum, large cubes
Marinade
¾ cup Water
2 tablespoon Coriander seeds
1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
8-10 Garlic cloves
1 inch Ginger
6 Green chillies
2 tablespoon Sour cream
1 tablespoon Kashmiri red chilli powder
½ teaspoon Turmeric powder
1 teaspoon Salt
4 tablespoon Oil for basting/brushing, optional
How to make best Chicken Tikka Recipe at home
Chicken Marination
- Grind all ingredients listed under marinade into to smooth paste using a blender.
- Transfer the above marinade to a bowl, and add chopped chicken thighs and mix well. Let it rest for couple of hours in refrigerator. I keep it overnight as it tastes the best.
Making of Chicken Tikka
- Preheat the oven to 500F.
- Skewer the marinated chicken and chopped veggies onto the skewers. I have used eights 12-inch skewers. I typically start with onion, followed by green bell pepper, tomato, onion, and chicken. I repeat this for four times on each skewer.
- Place the prepared skewers onto a 9 by 13 inch pan across the shorter edge. This ensures we have sufficient heat circulation around the skewers, and all the drippings are caught in the pan making for easy cleanup.
- Once the oven is preheated, change to broil mode. Brush the surface of the chicken with some oil and transfer it to the over. Broil on the highest setting available in your oven (approx 4 to 6 inches from the heating element.
- The total broil time is about 14 to 16 minutes till the chicken is cooked through. Flip the skewers half way through the cooking time and quickly brush more oil if required. This ensures the tikkas develop uniform dark spots that is signature of the yummiest tikkas.
- Serve tikkas over a bed or rice or over naan or as is as a side with drinks and enjoy!
Recipe Notes
- If you do not have an oven, you can prepare chicken tikka on a stove top. For this heat a non stick pan on medium heat, add 2 tablespoon of oil . Once the oil is hot add chicken (in two batches) to the pan and leave it undisturbed for 8 minutes, and then flip and cook for another 6 to 8 minutes.
- In the stove top method you can skip adding vegetables, or if you prefer you can saute in a similar fashion as described above.
- Adjust the amount of red chile powder as per your taste.
- Depending on the spiciness of the green chilies, vary it in the recipe. Feel free to add jalapenos or even Serrano pepper.
- You can also substitute coriander seeds and cumin seeds with coriander powder and cumin powder.
SOME OF THE BEST POPULAR CHICKEN RECIPES TO MAKE AT HOME
- Orange chicken
- Chicken lollipop
- Butter chicken - best and popular recipe
- Satay Chicken
- Cranberry chicken
- chicken tikka biryani
- tandoori style grilled chicken
- chicken kali mirch
- easy chicken biryani
- tandoori chicken wings
- spicy sriracha chicken wings
Detailed Recipe for Chicken Tikka or Chicken Kebab or Tandoori Chicken
Best Chicken Tikka | Chicken Kebab | Grilled Tandoori Chicken Skewers
Ingredients
- 4 Chicken Thighs cut into at least 32 cubes or more.
- 2 Red onions large cubes
- 4 Tomatoes large cubes
- 2 Green bell pepper or Capsicum, cut into large cubes
- 4 tablespoon Oil for basting/brushing, optional
For the Marinade
- ¼ cup Water (add more if needed)
- 2 tablespoon Coriander seeds
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
- 8 cloves Garlic cloves
- 1 inch Ginger
- 2 to 4 Green chillies small, check tips
- 2 to 4 tablespoon Sour cream or Yogurt, check tips
- 1 tablespoon Kashmiri red chilli powder check tips
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric powder
- 1 tablespoon Lemon juice optional
- 1 teaspoon Salt
Instructions
Step I
- Grind all ingredients listed under "For the Marinade" into to smooth paste using a blender.¼ cup Water, 2 tablespoon Coriander seeds, 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds, 8 cloves Garlic cloves, 1 inch Ginger, 2 to 4 Green chillies, 2 to 4 tablespoon Sour cream, 1 tablespoon Kashmiri red chilli powder, ½ teaspoon Turmeric powder, 1 tablespoon Lemon juice, 1 teaspoon Salt
- Transfer the above marinade to a bowl, and add chopped chicken thighs and mix well. Let it rest for couple of hours in refrigerator. I keep it overnight as it tastes the best.4 Chicken Thighs
Step II
- Preheat the oven to 500F.
- Skewer the marinated chicken and chopped veggies onto the skewers. I have used eight 12-inch skewers. I typically start with onion, followed by green bell pepper, tomato, onion, and chicken. I repeat this four times on each skewer.2 Red onions, 4 Tomatoes, 2 Green bell pepper
- Place the prepared skewers onto a 9 by 13 inch pan across the shorter edge. This ensures we have sufficient heat circulation around the skewers, and all the drippings are caught in the pan making for easy cleanup.
- Once the oven is preheated, change to broil mode. Brush the surface of the chicken with some oil and transfer it to the ove. Broil on the highest setting available in your oven (approx 4 to 6 inches from the heating element)4 tablespoon Oil
- The total broil time is about 14 to 16 minutes or till the chicken is cooked through. Flip the skewers half way through the cooking time and quickly brush more oil if required. This ensures the tikkas develop uniform dark spots that is signature of the yummiest tikkas.
- Chicken Tikka is now ready. Serve tikkas over a bed or rice or over naan or as a side with drinks and enjoy!
Notes
- If you do not have an oven, you can prepare chicken tikka on a stovetop. For this heat a nonstick pan on medium heat, and add 2 tablespoon of oil . Once the oil is hot add chicken (in two batches) to the pan and leave it undisturbed for 8 minutes, and then flip and cook for another 6 to 8 minutes.
- In the stovetop method, you can skip adding vegetables, or if you prefer you can saute them in a similar fashion as described above.
- Adjust the amount of red chile powder as per your taste.
- Depending on the spiciness of the green chilies, vary it in the recipe. Feel free to add jalapenos or even Serrano pepper.
- You can also substitute coriander seeds and cumin seeds with ground coriander powder and cumin powder.
- Vary all the spices as per your taste.
- Yogurt or Sour cream or Buttermilk or Curd tenderizes the meat as a result of which cooked meat is juicier and easily falls apart.
- Check the full recipe for chicken tikka masala.
Nutrition
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Krystle
This has amazing flavor. The chicken was super juicy too. Will make again!
Clarice
This is one of my favorites though to be honest, I haven't tried making one at home. We just order this from our fave kebab place. Would love to try your recipe. It's going to be my first time so wish me luck.