Chicken tikka is the boneless cousin of tandoori chicken — tikka simply means a piece or chunk in Punjabi — and where the tandoori bird goes in whole and bone-in, the tikka is cut into cubes, marinated in spiced yoghurt and skewered for a faster, char-edged bite. It was born in the tandoors of Punjab and carried into Delhi’s grills, but its global fame is a restaurant story: the dish that travelled to Britain, spawned the curry house and, with a gravy added, became chicken tikka masala. The marinade leans on yoghurt, ginger, garlic, Kashmiri chilli and a little roasted gram flour, and the cooks’ open secret is that restaurants char it over fierce coals rather than in the tandoor itself. This version follows Dan Toombs, The Curry Guy, who reverse-engineered the British restaurant tikka for the home kitchen — boneless, smoky and properly charred.
Chicken tikka, small charred red-orange boneless chicken cubes on a steel plate with green chutney, onion and lemon
INGREDIENTS
- 700 g boneless chicken thigh or breast (cut into 4cm cubes)
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp salt
- 200 g thick Greek-style yogurt
- 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
- 1½ tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tbsp gram flour (besan, dry-roasted)
- 1 tbsp mustard oil (or neutral oil)
- ½ tsp chaat masala (to finish)
- melted butter (for basting)
- sliced onion (lemon wedges and green chutney, to serve)
METHOD
- Toss the chicken with the lemon juice and salt and rest 15 minutes.
- Whisk the yogurt with the ginger-garlic paste, Kashmiri chilli, garam masala, cumin, coriander, roasted gram flour and mustard oil to a thick marinade.
- Coat the chicken well, cover, and refrigerate 2–8 hours (no longer, or the meat softens too much).
- Thread the chicken onto skewers, leaving a little space between the pieces.
- Cook over hot charcoal, under a fierce grill, or in a very hot oven finished under the broiler, turning and basting with butter, until charred at the edges and just cooked through.
- Rest a couple of minutes, dust with chaat masala, and serve with sliced onion, lemon and green chutney.
