Chicken Tikka

Chicken Tikka

Ingredients:

• 450 gr boneless, skinned chicken breast
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp tandoori colour a few drops of red food colouring mixed with 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 3 cm cube of root ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 2 tsps ground coriander
• ½ tsp ground all spice or garam masala
• ¼ of a whole nutmeg, finely grated
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• 125 gr thick set natural yogurt
• 4 tbsps corn or vegetables oil
• ½ tsp chilli powder
• Juice of ½ lemon

1. Cut the chicken into 2.5cm in cubes. Sprinkle with ½ tsp salt from the specified amount, and the lemon juice-mix thoroughly, cover and keep aside for 30 minutes.

2. Put the rest of the ingredients into an electric food processor or liquidizer and blend until smooth.

3. Put this marinade into a sieve and hold the sieve over the chicken pieces. Press the marinade through the sieve with the back of a metal spoon until only a very coarse mixture is let.

4. Coat the chicken thoroughly with the sieved marinade, cover the container and leave to marinate for ±8 hours or overnight in the refrigerator.

5. Pre heat the oven to 230ºC

6. Line a roasting tin with aluminium foil ( this will help to maintain the high level of temperature required to cook the chicken quickly without drying it out ).

7. Thread the chicken onto skewers, leaving1cm gap between each piece ( this is necessary for the heat to reach all sides of chicken ).

8. Place the skewers in the prepared roasting tin and brush with some of the remaining marinade.

9. cook in the centre of the oven for ±8 minutes.

10. Take the tin out of the oven, turn the skewers over and brush the pieces of chicken with the remaining marinade.

11. Return the tin to the oven and cook for a further ±8 minutes.

12. Shake off any excess liquid from the chicken.

13. Place the skewers on a serving dish. You may take the tikka off he skewers if you wish, but allow the meat to cool slightly before removing from the skewers.

Chicken Tikka is one of the most popular chicken dishes cooked in the Tandoor, the Indian clay oven.