Chicken Tikka

Everyone loves chicken tikka. Haven't met a chicken eating person who doesn't like chicken tikka. The best chicken tikka should have an explosion of flavors including the charred flavor from the charcoal. In INdia chicken tikka is mainly prepared in a tandoor oven. which is basically an open oven with burning coal. Chicken tikka tastes great as an appetizer, with a naan or even as a sandwich.
Chicken tikka is found in indian restaurants all over the world and my guess is it would be the most commonly ordered nonveg dish in any restaurant. My son loves chicken tikka and so does S. He loves to eat chicken tikka with naan and raw onions. That is a complete meal for him. While my little duckie loves to eat chicken tikka as it is. If it is too spicy then he doesnt eat the masala exterior but just the white meat inside.

In India there are many small places which sell just tandoori chicken and assorted tikkas. There was one near my place which me and my sister would often visit. Even now, whenever I go back, it is definetly on my to-do list.

For the above chicken tikka recipe, I have used couple of shortcuts. LIke use packaged masala instead of making my own masala. I really like shaan masalas. These masalas come with a direction on how to use it and if you follow the directions then the dish turns out excellent. These masalas are found only in U.S. and not in India. Till now I have sent my mom many masala packages. I have used hung yogurt for this recipe because the normal yogurt gets runny for marinating and its too much of wastage. If you dont have any time for hung yogurt then greek yogurt will do and if not then plain yogurt will do. Once I made the same dish with ricotta cheese instead of yogurt and the tikkas turned out melt-in your mouth creamy and delicious.

Recipe:

1 pound boneless chicken breast washed and cut into medium pieces.

1 tsp ginger-garlic paste

half packet of shaan tandoori chicken masala..more for spicy

2 tsp oil for marinating

1/2 cup of low fat hung yogurt

Preparation and Cooking

Take a mixing bowl and mix all the above ingredients together. Salt is not necessary as the masala packet already contains salt. Marinate the chicken for 1 day. If cooking the chicken on a grill, skewer the chicken and ask hubby for help with a cute smile. If cooking in a oven pre-heat the oven at 350F for 10 mins. Either use a skewer or oil a baking dish for the chicken. Cook the chicken till the chicken is just done around 20-25 mins. Then put the chicken in the broiler for the charred effect. Do this for just 5 mins as the chicken browns very quickly. If the chicken is kept for longer then it gets tough to chew and loses its moistness.

Enjoy the chicken with naan, onions, mint chutney.