Chicken Tikka is a popular North Indian starter, where marinated chicken is grilled until perfection. This authentic snack recipe is great to make for parties or get togethers. Here is how to make it.
Add the ingredients for the first marinade in a bowl and mix well.
Cover the bowl and refrigerate for 3-4 hours or overnight.
Add the ingredients for the second marinade in the bowl and mix well.
Keep the marinated chicken aside for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Thread the marinated chicken in the skewers along with onion and capsicum.
Line the skewers on a foil lined baking tray.
Grill for 10-12 minutes and then rotate the skewers.
Grill for another 10-12 minutes.
Increase the oven temperature to 420 Degrees F and broil the skewers for 3-4 minutes until they are slightly charred.
Remove the tikka from the oven.
If you want the smoky flavour, heat the coal over direct heat until red hot.
Keep the tikka in a shallow bowl.
Keep a piece of aluminium foil over the tikka and keep the hot coal over the foil.
Drizzle ghee over the coal and cover the lid of the bowl immediately.
Let the tikka absorb the smoke for 10-15 minutes.
Remove the lid and discard the coal piece and foil. Serve the tikka hot.
Notes
Cut the chicken into even pieces and pat the chicken pieces dry using a kitchen towel before marinating them.If using chicken thighs, reduce the grilling time a bit. Thighs cook faster than the breast.Use only greek yogurt or hung yogurt to marinate the Chicken. If you use normal curd or yogurt, it will leave the water and ruin the Tikkas. The marinade with not stick to the pieces if the yogurt is runny.Usually, restaurants add red food color to give it a nice bright red color, but I won't recommend it. You can use Kashmiri red chili powder, for natural red color.The more you marinate, the juicy your Chicken Tikka will turn out to be. Therefore, I like to keep the second marinade overnight.Keep brushing the chicken with butter while grilling for a juicy, succulent tikka.I have added onion and capsicum along with the marinated chicken but you can other veggies too like a mushroom, zucchini, baby corn, etc.For an added smoky flavor, smoke the Tikkas using the Dungar method.Do not add too much of Garam Masala, as it might leave a bitter taste in the Tikkas.Make it dairy-free, by simply substituting hung yogurt with Vegan Greek Yogurt and you are all set.This recipe can be easily doubled or tripled.