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
3/4 cup Water
2 tbsp Coriander seeds
1 tsp Cumin seeds
8-10 Garlic cloves
1 inch Ginger
6 Green chillies
2 tbsp Sour cream
1 tbsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Salt
4 tbsp 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 tbsp 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
Chicken Tikka is a delicious and flavorful, easy to make Indian dish, where the chicken is first marinated in aromatic spice mixture and then grilled on skewers to perfection. I bet this will be one of the best chicken recipes you will try. This tikka can be prepared on oven, grill or on stovetop.
- 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
- 3/4 cup Water
- 2 tbsp Coriander seeds
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds
- 8-10 Garlic cloves
- 1 inch Ginger
- 2 to 4 Green chillies, small (check tips)
- 2 to 4 tbsp Sour cream or Yogurt (check tips)
- 1 tbsp Kashmiri red chilli powder (check tips)
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice (optional)
- 1 tsp Salt
- 4 tbsp Oil for basting/brushing, optional
-
Grind all ingredients listed under "For the 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.
-
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.
-
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)
-
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!
- 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 tbsp 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 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 can be easily pulled part by hand.
- The full recipe for chicken tikka masala is here.
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This is what I always get at the Indian takeout because I thought it would be impossible to get that perfect charr without a tandoori oven! Thanks SO MUCH for this amazing recipe. I cannot wait to try this at home! Looks AMAZING!
There is so much flavor in these! Love all the spices
Loving all those flavors going on in the marinade. Bet it smells amazing!
These are awesome. These Chicken Tikka kabobs are so flavorful and pretty.
This chicken tikka looks so flavorful and filling. I’d love this over a bed of rice!
I adore chicken tikka, it’s such a delicious dish and can be enjoyed as snack, starter, main, part of buffet, however you like!
I absolutely love chicken tikka! So glad I can make this at home instead of getting takeout!
I love the color you got on these! I bet these would taste great packed for a picnic too.
This looks really good I have never tried chicken tikka. Indian food is impossible to find where I live, so I have been in search of some good recipes to try at home.
There’s not a lot of very good Indian restaurants near me so I have to make mine at home and this looks like a great recipe to try!
These look yummy and best party platter too. Flavorful and spicy too.
This chicken tikka is so full of delicious flavor. I love all the spices in it.
Oh, I usually use yogurt instead of sour cream. But the sour cream version is not bad at all. 🙂
I loved the idea of broiling this dish to prepare it and it worked beautifully! So flavorful!
I love a good tikka and the spices in this are amazing and so flavorful!
This recipe turned out to be the crowd favorite at tonight’s party. Perfect combination of spices and flavor. Followed the exact recipe, would not change a bit. Waiting to try out tikka masala recipe. Thanks for sharing.
These skewers are grilled to perfect. Definitely so flavorful and mouth melting delicious and best to have it for a party.
I am so making this for our next BBQ! I have all these spices in my spice drawer, and the skewers look FABULOUS!
These skewers look so good! I love the sound of the flavour of the Chicken Tikka, it seems amazing. This will be my Friday night dinner!!
Chicken tikka is a family favorite ~ love how easy this is!!
Everyone at my house liked this! It is so good and delicious!
I love Chicken Tikka so much – I didn’t realise how easy it was to make at home! This looks delicious!
I can’t wait to give this a try! It sounds so flavourful and delicious!
Looks so good! Can’t wait to try this one!
Wow. These are the perfect way to start a party! I love how simple they are and yet the marinade adds so much flavour. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe!
This looks perfectly cooked. I bet it is really juicy. I can’t wait to try it.
I am literally drooling reading the ingredients for the marinade. The best ever and that color is just the best! Thanks for suggesting the vegetarian options as well.
I’m going to try a veggie version of this. It looks so colourful.
Yummy this looks fantastic. I love trying chicken prepared in many different ways. This recipe is new to our family and it was delicious!
I’m in love with this dish. I don’t usually make Indian cuisine because it seems complicated, but your recipe made making it so easy! And it was delicious!
Guys, Thanks For sharing this Great Recipe. My Family Loved it. I am definitely sharing this recipe and this website with my friend. Hope they also love it. Thank you again for sharing such a great recipe.
Takeout quality flavors! We did these on the grill and they were amazing! i can’t wait to make the full tikka masala recipe, too!
Such an easy and great recipe to make! Highly recommend, even if you aren’t good at cooking!
These chicken skewers are perfect for any summer BBQ!
Wow, these tasted like they were made on a proper outside grill! Lovely spices and incredibly succulent skewers! Loved them! 🙂
So much flavor!! Thank you for this amazing recipe!!
Just looking at the list of ingredients I’m already nodding my head with approval, looks so delicious!
I will be making this recipe over and over! Every flavor is perfectly complimentary of each other. Thank you!
Chicken tikka is one of my favourites in the summer and this reciped tastes perfect. Thanks!
Everything tastes better on a kebab. These are great for summer!
I am glad I found this recipe today. I am doing my grocery shopping tomorrow and I am getting all the ingredients I need to make this chicken tikka. My family will have a really good dinner tomorrow.
This recipe looks delish. I would have to remove all the red chili flakes for my family. They are not into spice. I try..Can’t wait to make this one.
Yum! This is one of my family’s favorites. I tried it with the Greek yogurt this time and wow! This recipe is a fun way to break up the monotony of meat and potatoes.
This looks so delicious. I’m sure my family will love it. Can’t wait to give it a try!
Nnniiiccceeeeee….this must make a lovely appetiser! It’s lovely knowing the difference between chicken tikka and chicken tikka masala! Thank you for sharing about it.
This look so yummy and just looking at the pictures. I want to eat it for dinner haha. This is first time to see this recipe.
I’ve not made this in so long. These skewers look lovely. I might make them over the weekend if I have time to go shopping for ingredients x
I love a kabob. This looks absolutely delicious. I am gonna have to make this for dinner one night. YUM!
I’ve been looking for a tasty and easy-to-make recipe just like this! We’ll be making it this weekend, thanks for sharing!
These look so good. We are chicken tikka fans but I’ve not made it in ages. I need to give this a go!!!
This has amazing flavor. The chicken was super juicy too. Will make again!
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.