Chicken Tikka

Chicken Tikka is one which I wanted to make for years and now the time arrived. I always use to mention TH as a chicken addict.  He is the one who helped me to do this tikka out so perfectly… oops!!! Sorry, I should say in the other way. I was the one who helped him a little in doing this!!! Yes this recipe is completely from his side.

 The one, who never ever used to come inside the kitchen, took this as a new venture in cleaning, marinating and broiling the chicken. And, I silently watched what he does and kept clicking the photos for uploading. Hmmm!!!  How nice is it, if somebody cooks and u needs to just click the pics alone... ahmm 

Tikkas are generally made in tandoor. But here we used the grill oven that we use for baking. We used the skewers to cook the chicken. This method doesn’t need much oil as we use for the normal chicken fries.

Preparation time: 2 hours

Cooking time: 20-30 mins

Ingredients

500gm Boneless chicken

¾ tsp ginger-garlic paste

1 tsp turmeric powder

1tsp chilli powder

1 ½ tsp coriander powder

¼ tsp garam masala

½ tsp tandoor masala

1 cup curd/yogurt

1tbsp lemon juice

1tsp kasoori methi

Salt

Oil

How to make it

• Wash and rinse the chicken in clean running water with a pinch of turmeric powder. Cut into equal cubes. Gently touch the chicken cubes with a piece of tissue paper, just to remove the excess moisture from it.
• In a mixing bowl add chicken cubes along with chilli powder, coriander powder, garam masala, ginger garlic paste, tandoor masala. Combine it well.
• In muslin cloth place 1 cup of curd and gently squeeze the excess water it has. Now add the separated curd with the chicken pieces.
• Finally add lemon juice and salt to it.
• Crush the kasoori methi leaves in between the palms and add to it.
• Pour some oil to make the masala viscous.
• Set this mixture for 1-2 hours in a refrigerator.
• Preheat the oven to 450 deg F. Arrange the chicken cubes in skewers by giving an equal space in between.

• Keep inside the oven in broil mode for 10 minutes. Then take out and brush with little of oil on top and keep for another 10 minutes on other side. Keep till the masalas cooks well.

• Serve hot with mint chutney.

Notes:

1. Try to remove the moisture from the raw chicken by using tissue paper.
2. Don’t allow the chicken pieces to get dried while broiling. Brush some oil to avoid dryness.
3. I used nonstick skewers. If using bamboo skewers, soak the skewers in water for 10-15 mins before use. This protects the skewers from breaking. 
4. For vegetarians, use the same recipe; add paneer instead of chicken.