Chicken Tikka Skewers

Current status: Too much wine. Too little exercise. Craving takeaway. I’ve stared morning workouts - no solution for the wine yet but for takeaway, I think I might have cracked it. Oh. My. Lord. These skewers are what have been missing from my life.

My friends gifted me a magic box of spices when they moved away and this turned out to be the perfect recipe to take them for a test run.

First for some myth-busting.

Spices are expensive. If you spend £1.60 on 37 grams of Schwartz cumin then yeah, they’re expensive. If Tesco Local is your nearest shop I get it but if you can wonder further afield, International Supermarkets are your friend. Bangla Town in Brick Lane, and my local Elif Food Centre are some of my favourites.

You can add spices at any time. Nooooo. Oil and butter are a spices best friend. Heat your pan, add your cooking fat then add spices to the pan. The longer you cook spice the more flavour it releases (If you’re using whole spice, toast them in a dry pan until you smell the aroma then remove them and grind them).

Whole spice vs Ground: The flavour of a spice is in its oils. When it’s ground it’s oils evaporate more quickly meaning whole spices are theoretically better. Do I only use whole spice? No. If you store your spices in a cool dark environment then they should keep just fine, however that pot of curry powder that lives at the back of your cupboard? Yeah hun, you should throw that out.

Now we know the dos and don’ts, let’s get cooking up these delicious tandoori skewers. It’s a riff on this recipe from Hari Ghotra mainly due to what I had and what I could find in the shops. Honestly, it’s a game changer.

Ingredients:

• 6 chicken thighs

• 1 tsp ground mustard seeds

• Juice of 1 large lemon

• 4 garlic gloves

• 4 cm piece of ginger, grated

• 1/2 medium white onion

• 1 tsp garam masala

• 1 tsp cumin

• 1tsp ground cardamom

• 1 tbsp fenugreek

• 1 tsp chilli powder

• 200ml Greek yoghurt

• Salt and pepper

To serve

• Coriander

• Raita

• Mango chutney

• Naan

Method:

1. Crush your garlic, onion and fresh ginger in a pestle and mortar until they become a paste. If you don’t have one, crush and slice them as thinly as you can.

2. Pour the yoghurt into a large mixing bowl. Add the freshly crushed ingredients as well as all of the dry spices, salt and pepper and mix

3. Dice the chicken into one inch cubes and to the bowl. Mix everything well and leave to marinate for at least 30 minutes. For best results, leave it covered overnight in the fridge.

4. Add the chicken to pre-soaked wooden BBQ skewers or metal skewers if you have them.

5. Put a large griddle pan on a medium high heat. Add the skewers to the pan. Don’t worry about how much yoghurt is on them, it’ll cook down and caramelise.

6. Allow the chicken to cook on each side for around 6 minutes before rotating or until the yoghurt is charred. Rotate on all four sides.

7. After cooking on all sides, cut a piece of chicken open to check if it’s cooked. If not keep cooking and rotating until the meat is fully white inside.

8. When the chicken is cooked scatter chopped coriander on top and drizzle with raita. I then served mine in homemade naan wraps, spread with a little mango chutney.

9. (You can also cook these under a grill. Place them on baking paper lined tray and put them under the grill at 190 degrees with the sticks facing towards the opening of your grill. Leave the door open. Cook the chicken for 10 minutes on one side then turn and cook the the side for 10 minutes.)