Chicken Tikka Kabab

Ho ho ho...

Christmas is over, but we all know it is not really over until we get silly drunk in the midnight and count down the last minute of 31st December and welcome the new year with a resolution that is (almost religiously) never kept, go for a picnic at Maidan where we invariably forget to carry the badminton set and blame it on our mother, have a BBQ party where we set the temperature of the grill so high that half the meat is charred and we end up ordering biryani from Arsalan or Aminia...phew... there are so many crazy ways to make the last few days of the year memorable!

I guess, preparing chicken tikka kabab at home for a quiet evening with a special someone cannot be too lame either.

So here we go...

Ingredients:

200 gm boneless chicken from leg portion (cut into bite-size pieces)

50 gm plain yoghurt 

1 teaspoon fresh lime juice

1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste

1/2 teaspoon dried red chilli powder

1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chilli powder

3/4 teaspoon cumin powder

1/2 teaspoon garam masala (can be substituted by allspice powder, but try to stick to garam masala)

2 cubes of cheese (nothing expensive, simple processed cheese)

Mustard oil/melted butter (for basting)

Salt to taste

Preparation:

Marinade the chicken piece with yoghurt, lime juice, ginger-garlic paste, two types of chilli powder, cumin powder, salt, garam masala, grated cubes of cheese and 2 tablespoon of mustard oil for six to eight hours. Brush some oil on the skewers and string the chicken pieces on the skewers. Grill in OTG at 200 degree Centigrade for 20 to 25 minutes. If the desired colour is not achieved, baste the chicken pieces with oil and cook them for another five to ten minutes. The cooking time will depend on the size of the kababs. It is better to err on the side of caution and take them out underdone and then put them back again for a few more minutes rather than overcooking them. It can also be prepared in microwave (grill mode), but it takes more time and it is difficult to achieve the beautiful charring effects at the edges in a microwave. 

Serve the chicken tikka hot with salad and green chutney.

Green Chutney:

For the green chutney, blend 1 sprig of coriander leaves with a couple of green chillies, 1/2 teaspoon of rock salt, a pinch of sugar, one teaspoon lime juice and 1/4 teaspoon chaat masala until smooth and mix with thoroughly beaten 3/4 cup yoghurt and whisk with a fork. Check the seasoning and add salt/sugar/chaat masala, if needed.