Chicken Tikka | Grilled Chicken Skewers | Tandoori Chicken Kebab
Chicken Tikka is one of the most popular North Indian dishes, in which chunks of chicken are first marinated in an aromatic spice mixture and grilled on skewers to perfection. The end result is the most delicious and juicy chicken tikka kebabs at home.
Servings: 8
Calories: 238kcal
Ingredients
- 4 Chicken Thighs, Boneless cut into at least 32 cubes or more.
- 2 Red onions large cubes, optional
- 4 Tomatoes large cubes, optional
- 2 Green bell pepper or Capsicum, cut into large cubes, optional
- 4 tablespoon Oil for basting/brushing, optional
For the Marinade
- 2 tablespoon Coriander seeds or 2 teaspoon Coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds or 1 teaspoon Cumin powder
- 6 to 8 cloves Garlic cloves
- 1 inch Ginger
- 2 to 3 Green chillies small, check tips
- ½ cup Yogurt or Sour cream, check tips
- 1 to 2 teaspoon Kashmiri red chilli powder check tips
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric powder
- 1 to 2 teaspoon Tandoori chicken masala garam masala or kitchen king masala
- 1 tablespoon Lemon juice optional only if yougurt is not sour
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 1 tablespoon Kasuri methi dried fenugreek leaves, optional
Instructions
Chicken Marination
- In a mixer jar or blender, add coriander seeds, cumin seeds, ginger, garlic, green chilies, and yogurt, and blend to a smooth paste. To this, add red chile powder, turmeric powder, tandoori chicken masala, lemon juice, salt, kasuri methi, and mix well. Taste check and adjust the spices at this time.2 tbsp Coriander seeds, 1 tsp Cumin seeds, 6 to 8 cloves Garlic cloves, 1 inch Ginger, 2 to 3 Green chillies, ½ cup Yogurt, 1 to 2 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder, ½ tsp Turmeric powder, 1 to 2 tsp Tandoori chicken masala, 1 tbsp Lemon juice, 1 tsp Salt, 1 tbsp Kasuri methi
- Alternate option: instead of grinding or blending, you can simply add spice powders and ginger garlic paste, and skip the green chilies as well.
- Add the chicken thighs to the marinade and mix well.4 Chicken Thighs, Boneless
- Also, add onion, tomato, and capsicum to this marinade and mix well. (optional)2 Red onions, 2 Green bell pepper, 4 Tomatoes
- Cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight.
Making of chicken tikka
- 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 an onion, followed by a green bell pepper, tomato, onion, and chicken. I repeat this four times on each skewer.
- Place the prepared skewers in a 9-by-13-inch pan, lining them up along 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 chicken with oil and transfer it to the oven. Broil on the highest setting available in your oven (approx 4 to 6 inches from the heating element.4 tbsp Oil
- The total broil time is about 14 to 16 minutes till the chicken is cooked through. Flip the skewers halfway through cooking, and brush with more oil if needed. This ensures the tikkas develop uniform dark spots that are the signature of the yummiest tikkas.
- Serve tikkas with mint chutney, over a bed of rice, on naan, or as a side with drinks, and enjoy!
Notes
- If using fresh ginger, garlic, green chilies, and whole spices, grind them with yogurt to form the marinade; otherwise, simply use the ginger-garlic paste and spice powders to avoid grinding.
- If you do not have an oven, you can prepare chicken tikka on a stove top. For this, heat a non-stick pan over 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 stove top method, you can skip adding vegetables, or if you prefer, you can saute in a similar fashion as described above.
- You can also make the tikka on a gas flame at home, just like we did our paneer tikka.
- Adjust the amount of red chile powder to taste.
- Vary all the spices as per your taste.
- Yogurt, sour cream, 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
Calories: 238kcal | Carbohydrates: 10g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 17g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Cholesterol: 57mg | Sodium: 386mg | Potassium: 421mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 809IU | Vitamin C: 38mg | Calcium: 55mg | Iron: 1mg