Chicken Tikka

The pieces are boneless and brushed with ghee at intervals while they cook.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains chicken.

Ingredients

• 800 g boneless chicken thigh, in 3 cm pieces
• 300 g thick yoghurt
• 2 tablespoons ginger-garlic paste
• 2 teaspoons ground red chilli
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 4 tablespoons ghee, for brushing
• 1 teaspoon chaat masala, to finish
• onion rings and lemon, to serve

Method

1. THE PIECES ARE BONELESS AND BRUSHED WITH GHEE AT INTERVALS WHILE THEY COOK. Its article gives both and the second is unusually specific: chicken tikka is SMALL PIECES OF BONELESS CHICKEN baked after marinating in spices and dahi, and THE PIECES ARE BRUSHED WITH GHEE AT INTERVALS, WHILE BEING CONTINUOUSLY FANNED, TO INCREASE FLAVOUR. Boneless pieces dry out in minutes at tandoor heat, so the ghee is not a flourish -- it is the only thing keeping them edible. Its article also settles the comparison for me: this is ESSENTIALLY A BONELESS VERSION OF TANDOORI CHICKEN, as on its own page, which goes in skinned and on the bone.
2. THIGH, NOT BREAST. Three centimetres. Breast at this heat is dry before it has coloured.
3. THE PIECES ARE SMALL AND THAT CHANGES THE TIMING. Its article says small pieces. Twelve to fifteen minutes in all, against thirty-five for the bone-in dish.
4. THE MARINADE IS THICK AND SHORT. Strained yoghurt, two to four hours. Longer and the lemon and yoghurt start to break the surface down into something woolly.
5. THEY GO ON SKEWERS WITH A GAP BETWEEN EACH. Touching, they steam one another and nothing chars.
6. THE GHEE GOES ON AT LEAST TWICE DURING COOKING, NOT AT THE END. Which is what its article's "at intervals" means. Brushed only at the end it sits on the outside.
7. THE FANNING IS ABOUT AIR, AND AN OVEN CANNOT DO IT. Over charcoal, fanning lifts the heat and carries the smoke. Under a grill, the nearest equivalent is the top shelf with the door ajar.
8. THE CHAAT MASALA GOES ON OFF THE HEAT. Cooked it is just salt.
9. ITS ARTICLE NAMES WHAT GOES WITH IT AND WHAT IT BECOMES. Green coriander and tamarind chutney, onion rings and lemon -- or a sauce, which makes the British dish that is not a page here, being British.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under India · All recipes