Day 34: Chicken malai tikka

This is definitely the first thing people think of when Indian cuisine comes to mind.

Marination is the key for this dish, and patience.

I took a bit of a shortcut yesterday to save time and effort. I marinated the chicken at the same time as for the Chicken Barley Kichdi.

There are two stages to marinating for this dish. Please refer to yesterday’s marinade for the first step (use 250-300g chicken)

Now for the next step in marination.

Ingredients

1. 1 tbsp cream

2. 1 tbsp kasuri methi

3. 2 tbsp poppy seeds

4. 1 tsp cream cheese

Method – the next morning after stage 1 marination

1. Soak the poppy seeds in a bit of warm water and leave it for 2 hours then blend it till it becomes a smooth paste.

2. Mix all the ingredients including the poppy seeds paste, in a bowl and add to the already marinated chicken.

3. Mix well and put the marinated chicken (done twice now) back in the fridge for at least 6-8 hours. I did it overnight.

4. Take it out at least 30 min before grilling it.

5. Put on the grill and turn it over over 2-3 min till it chars around the edges. Put a dot of butter on each piece. Flip it twice over the total duration – should take about 7-8 minutes total.

6. Remove from the grill, and sprinkle a pinch of chat masala powder on top with a squeeze of lemon , and enjoy it piping hot!

Malai Tikka goes very well with some hari chutney. Recipe for hari chutney given on day 5