Pakistani Chicken Tikka Recipe - Hinz Cooking - A Food Blog with Simple and Easy Dinner Recipes (2024)

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Traditional Pakistani chicken tikka recipe in pan (without bbq, tandoor, or oven). Tender, moist, juicy, roasted, and crusted like oven-baked roasted chicken. Marinate the chicken with homemade tikka masala and cooked it on the stovetop. Quick and easy recipe of chicken tikka that anybody can make for dinner and lunch.

Chicken Tikka Recipe Without Oven, bbq, and Tandoor: You know, It's easy to apply tikka marination on chicken pieces and store them in the freezer to cook just before serving dinner or lunch. Believe me, it makes my life easy! take out frozen chicken pieces microwave to defrost and cook on the stovetop or in oven and serve. It hardly takes 30 to 40 minutes to get ready. I prefer to make it for party meals, kid's lunch box or just to make quick lunch or dinner.

What is Tikka?

Tikka is a famous food of south Asian cuisine especially popular in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Tikka is basically known as a piece of meat marinated with special tikka masala. Succulent, moist, and juicy tikka is definitely a crowd-puller with its delectable heady aroma. I am a true chicken tikka foodie and can't resist if it cooks around.

If you love Indian or Pakistani cuisine then you must be familiar with the divine taste of desi-style bbq tikka that is simply lip-smacking for foodies. You can serve it as an appetizer, a side dish, and as a starter with the main course.

Cuts For Tikka

Yes, chicken tikka has signature cuts and marks that give it tikka recognition. From the grocery stores, you can easily take the breast and leg pieces of chicken with a tikka cut.

Note: Pakistani chicken tikka = Indian Tandoori Tikka (Indian chicken tikka prepared with boneless chicken)

If you are living outside then take chicken with tikka cut or take the whole chicken without skin and cut it into tikka pieces and deeply mark with a slopped knife. Marking will help to penetrate all the spices in chicken to make it more tasty and delicious to eat.

Chicken Tikka in Pan

Making chicken tikka without an oven is simple, quick, easy, and time-saving and gives you the same taste and aroma that you get in the oven. Overall the process of marination is the same. Only need to cook the chicken pieces in the pan and then shallow fry it to give a grilled touch. Here in this recipe, I marinate the chicken whole pieces of breast and leg for 30 minutes (overnight marination is good). Cook in a pan to make it tender and juicy. Later, fry the chicken from both sides. End result was superb!

Ingredients

Chicken Tikka (3 Pieces): Used chicken with tikka cut and deeply mark the chicken with knife.

Yogurt - 1 Cup: Used thick yogurt as a base to marinate all the spices. Not only will add a savoury flavor in chicken but also work as a meat tenderizer.

Ginger garlic Paste - 2 Tsp: Used freshly made ginger and garlic paste in marination.

Spices: Salt - ½ teaspoon + Red Chili Powder - 1 teaspoon + Turmeric Powder - 1 teaspoon + Coriander Powder - 1 teaspoon + Garam Masala Powder - 1 teaspoon + Black Pepper Powder - ½ Tsp

Yellow Food Color - 1 Pinch: Will add a significant tikka color to chicken.

Water - 10 ml (to make a thick paste): Only required to cook moist and juicy tikka in pan.

Oil - 1 Tbsp: Used for cooking.

How to Make Chicken Tikka

Step 1: Deeply Mark The Chicken

After cutting and washing the tikka pieces. Make sure to deeply mark it with a sharp knife.

Brine The Chicken (optional) for Stovetop Cooking

Soak the chicken in salt water for 30 minutes. If you are making on the stovetop or pan frying then skip this step and directly move to marination. Here is the complete guide to brine the chicken.

Step 2: Marinate The Chicken

In a bowl, gather all the marination spices (Salt + Red Chili Powder + Turmeric Powder + Coriander Powder + Garam Masala Powder + Black Pepper Powder) with yogurt, freshly made ginger garlic paste, and a pinch of yellow/orange food color. Mix it well. and apply on chicken pieces with hands. Make sure to coat the chicken with marination inside deep marks.

Marination time: 30 minutes (minimum) - Maximum (overnight)
30 minutes of marination is enough for pan-fried chicken tikka. Overnight marination is good to bake and bbq the chicken.

Step 3: Cooking (4 Ways)

You can adapt the method as per your convenience to cook the chicken tikka.

1) Cook in a pan/skillet on Stovetop

1. In a pan place marinated chicken tikka pieces and pour the excess marination mixture by adding a little amount of water. Cover and cook for 20 minutes on low-medium heat.
2. After 20 minutes, when the chicken is cooked and tender. Take it out and shallow fry in a pan by adding 1 tablespoon oil. Fry the chicken from all sides to get roasted brown color.

Smoke The Chicken

1. Place an ignited coal in aluminum foil and place over tikka pieces.
2. Drizzle oil to make it smoky and cover the pan for 10 minutes. It will give you the same restaurant style bbq chicken tikka flavor.

2) Bake in the Oven

In an oven tray, place the foil and chicken tikka pieces. Drizzle oil over the chicken. Bake in preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes at 200C. Broil the chicken for 10 minutes to get the roasted crust.

3) BBQ Tikka

Thread the chicken tikka pieces into skewers or just keep it on a bbq grill and cook over charcoal for 30 minutes. Drizzle oil while cooking to make it moist and juicy. Cook from both sides until it shows a roasted brown crust.

4) Air Fryer Chicken Tikka

Place the chicken tikka pieces in air fryer basket drizzle little oil and air fry at 220C for 30 minutes. Flip the chicken after 15 minutes to get roasted brown color from both sides.

Chicken tikka is ready to serve. It's the best recipe for tikka lovers to quickly prepare at home. Serve with naan, roti, chutney, and salad.

Pakistani Chicken Tikka [Video]

The recipe is simple and easy that anyone can make it in their home kitchen. End result will be similar to tandoori chicken tikka, in fact, the taste and aroma will give you the taste of oven-baked chicken tikka. Must try this recipe as you will love it. It's time-saving, easy and best for working moms to prepare lunch and dinner for the family. Kids will love this recipe.

Quick Tips

1. Take the best cut of Tikka. Normally people take boneless meat and a big piece of breast and leg with bone.
2. Deeply cut the chicken. This step will make it more juicy and tasty as the marination will penetrate inside chicken pores.
3. Use proper ingredients to prepare marination.
4. Marination consistency is important to make perfect chicken tikka.
5. Marination needs to stick to chicken pieces to give it the perfect flavor.
6. Temperature management is more important to make the best chicken tikka.
7. During cooking, if chicken loses the water then tikka will be dry. So initially cook at high temperature to close the pores. In this way, the chicken will be more tender and juicy.
8. Don't overcook the chicken otherwise, it will taste like rubber.

SEE ALSO: Chicken Broast Recipe | Chicken White Korma Recipe

How to Store and Freeze

Chicken tikka can be stored in 2 ways.

1. Freeze Marinated Chicken Tikka Pieces: As I mentioned earlier in this post, I love to freeze marinated tikka and make it ready just before serving. It's easy and saves lot of time and also helps to give a quick option to prepare lunch or dinner. Freeze for 01 month. Don't extend the storage time as it doesn't carry any food preservatives.
2. Refrigerate Cook Chicken Tikka: Yes, you can refrigerate the cooked tikka for 01 week in the refrigerator. Make sure to pack it in an airtight glass container. Avoid plastic containers to store food.

Serving Ideas

Chicken tikka platter can be covered with lots of side ideas. I personally love to make a combo of chicken pieces with veg salad, green chutney, mashed potatoes, roasted veggies, and tawa naan. Give a try with homemade garlic naan and you will love the taste. Oven fries also pair well with tikka pieces.

Recipe Ideas With Chicken Tikka

Chicken tikka is a versatile recipe that you can use in multiple ways. With this simple recipe, you can easily make a variety of dishes that will ease your job in the kitchen.

1. Tikka Biryani: make biryani and enjoy it with family. Don't forget to smoke the chicken over rice. I did it in my recipe, watch it.
2. Chicken Tikka Masala: Tender and juicy tikka cooked with creamy masala.
3. Indian Tandoori Chicken: oven baked chicken with tandoori tikka masala.
4. Desi Pizza: Use chicken tikka chunks to make tandoori pizza.
5. Chicken tikka Salad: use leftover chicken tikka pieces to make salad bowls.
6. Use in Stuffing: leftover tikka can be used to make stuffing for snacks.
7. Pasta: I love to make pasta with leftover chicken tikka.

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