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Chicken Tikka Kebabs
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Mar 31, 2025
Tikka is the Hindi word for pieces, as in bite-size chunks of meat, distinguishing these kebabs, cooked like shish kebab, from the larger chunks of meat cooked on a vertical spit in a tandoor. These kebabs are perfumed with saffron, mace, and cardamom.
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400 years ago, Persian princes settled in what is now northern India, bringing with them great artists, great architects, and yes, great grill masters
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From this period dates the magnificent Taj Mahal and our next dish, saffron chicken tikka kebabs, shish kebab as rich as a Persian mogul
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And it starts with chicken breasts. Now, on the back of a chicken breast is what's called the tender
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You'll want to remove it so the chicken breast lies flat. Then cut each breast into one-and-a-half-inch squares
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This chicken also uses a two-step marinating process. The first step is to make an aromatic wash
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It starts with finely chopped garlic, chopped fresh ginger, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and water
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And pour the mixture over the chicken. Now stir the chicken to mix it with the wash
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Part of what makes Indian barbecue so incredibly intricate are these multiple layers of flavor
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So you've got the garlic ginger wash to begin with, and then the saffron yogurt marinade
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Now saffron are the stigmas of a crocus that grows in Iran and in India It takes 75 flowers to make one pound of saffron making it one of the world most expensive spices
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What you do is pour about a tablespoon of warm water on the saffron and let it infuse in the water
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Meanwhile, we'll add our salt, pepper, cardamom, a sweet spice from India, and mace, a membrane that covers the nutmeg. So mace has a very similar
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flavor to nutmeg, but it's a little bit more spicy and pungent. Next, add drained yogurt. That is a
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thick yogurt that you drain either in a cheesecloth, or you can buy Greek-style yogurt, which has the
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same consistency. And next, heavy cream. That's where the richness comes in. And your infused
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saffron. Whisk these ingredients together until smooth. What you do next is drain the ginger
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garlic wash using a pot lid or a tondor lid to keep the chicken in the bowl
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Then pour the saffron cream marinade over the chicken. There is nothing like the aroma
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of saffron. It's exotic, spicy, sort of summons up images of caravans of spices traveling from
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India to the west And marinate the chicken in the refrigerator for three to six hours Okay let me show you the tandoor Check this out This is a tabletop tandoor small enough for home use We actually had it
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air freighted into the set of Primal Grill from India. But like the full-size model
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it consists of an urn-shaped clay pot in a stainless steel casing, a vent at the bottom
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which you open and close to control the heat. Open, more air, more heat
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Okay, let me show you how to put the chicken on the skewers. I'm going to skewer some chicken pieces on flat skewers
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I'll show you why in a minute. And now my favorite part
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Lower the skewers into the tandoor, making sure they don't touch. And if you don't own a tandoor
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well, we have another solution. You can grill the chicken tikka on a hibachi
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I filled the hibachi with natural lump charcoal. Range the chicken you put on the flat skewers
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directly on the hibachi. Cooking time is quick, 2 to 3 minutes per side
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8 to 12 minutes in all. Let me go check the chicken in the tandoor And the chicken tikka is cooking beautifully And don be afraid to rotate the skewers so the meat browns evenly
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To increase the heat, you can just open the vent at the bottom
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Okay, so turn your chicken tikka. They're browning beautifully on the bottom
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If you want to cool the hibachi down, just close this vent a little
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That'll choke off the air, bring the heat down. One final preparation, melt a couple of tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan
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And be sure to turn the tikka to grill them on the side
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And to check the chicken tikka for doneness, just give them the squeeze test
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Should be firm to the touch. We've got it. So remove your chicken tikka from the tandoor
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and last of all take your melted butter and baste the chicken tikka
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and this butter gives the kebabs a great flavor and a nice sheen
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take a look how tender the chicken is You can actually cut it with the side of the fork
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That's thanks to the yogurt, which has a tenderizing effect on the chicken
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Mmm. Man, you get such interesting spice flavors. The fragrance of the saffron
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the sweetness of the mace and cardamom, it's really different
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