Aish Cooks

Oven Cooked Chicken Kababs (kebabs) or Chicken Tikka

Chicken marinated in Punjabi-Indian spices with yogurt  gram flour and oven-cooked on skewers

I had been putting off on trying to make any kabab (kebab) or skewered / grill-cooked recipes as I do not have an outdoor or electric grill and did not want to go the whole way if it wasn’t going to turn out as it would on a real tandoori oven or grill. But recently, I stumbled upon a Punjabi version of the kababs where the chef uses cooked gram flour in the marinade for a nutty twist and it seemed too good to pass up without trying. I decided to overlook the cooking method and just trust the goodness of the flavor from the marinade, and guess what – it was completely worth its while!

So, for all those home chefs out there who’d like to try their hand at kabab-making but do not have a grill/tandoor, here’s how you can make it in your conventional oven. If you find the quantities a bit much, go ahead and cut it down to half – I have a big family to feed right now and super sizes are what works these days!

PS: This is also for those with the grills, when good-ol’-rain decides to play spoil-sport 🙂

Source: Chef Harpal Singh Sukhi’s recipe

Cooking Time: 15 minutes cleaning + 10 minutes prep + 2 hours marination + 40 minutes bake & broil

Makes: 12 regular-sized skewers

Ingredients:

1. Boneless skinless chicken – 2lbs, chopped into 2″ pieces
2. Olive oil or any other oil of choice – 3 or 4 tbsp
3. Gram flour – 2 tbsp
4. Yogurt – 1/3 cup
5. Ginger Garlic paste – 1 tbsp
6. Lemon juice – from 1 large lemon or to taste
7. Red Chili powder – 1 Tbsp
8. Coriander powder –  1 Tbsp
9. Cumin powder – 1/2 Tbsp
10. Turmeric powder – 1
11. Pepper – 1 tsp
12. Salt – to taste
13. Peppers – any color – 1 large diced into big pieces, for added flavor and garnishing
14. Cherry tomatoes – 20, for added flavor and garnishing

Method:

Prepare the marinade:

1. Drain out all the water from the cleaned and cut chicken and set aside.
2. Add all the ingredients except the oil and gram flour to the chicken and mix well.
3. Gram flour paste: Heat the oil in a pan and add the gram flour on med heat stirring immediately to prevent burning. The gram flour would cook within a minute, so you can turn off the heat as soon as you notice light browning.
4. Pour the gram flour mixture (with the oil) into the chicken and give it a good mix.
5. Refrigerate to marinate for at least 2 hours. You could let it sit in overnight or even a day or two if you have excess.

Baking the kababs:

Note: If using bamboo skewers, soak in water for 20-30 minutes to prevent burning.

1. String in the chicken pieces into the skewer (4 or 5 per skewer depending on the size of the chunks). You could come up with any pattern you like – alternating the meat with the peppers and tomatoes or any other choice of vegetable like onions, etc and prepare the skewers.
2. Place the skewers in a baking tray and place it in the lower rack of an oven pre-heated to 450 degrees F.
3. Flip it over after 15 minutes to bake the other side.
4. After another 15 minutes, set the oven on broil-mode and broil each side for 5-10 minutes to get some browning.

Bake side1 for 15 mins -> Bake side2 for 15 mins -> Broil side1 for 5 minutes ->Broil side2 for 5 minutes and you are done! Sprinkle some lemon juice on the kababs and garnish with chopped onion and tomato rings.

Note:

1. The same marinade can be used to make paneer kababs, vegetable kababs, or a mix of chicken or any other meat and vegetable kababs.
2. To get grill marks and more of the grill-cooked texture, you could finish up the cooking on a stove-top or electric griddle with grooves if you have one.