Ingredients

• 1 kg. or 4 boneless chicken breasts, skin removed

• For Marinade:

• 3-4 cloves of garlic, skin removed

• 10 gm. ginger, peeled

• 1 small onion, peeled

• 150 ml. yoghurt

• 1 tsp. chilli powder (more or less can be used, as per taste)

• 1 tbsp. sweet paprika for colour

• 2 tsp. coriander powder

• 1 tsp. Garam Masala

• Juice of half a lemon

• 2-3 tbsp. cooking oil

• Salt to taste

• For garnish

• 1 onion peeled and thinly sliced

• 1 lemon or lime, halved length wise and sliced thickly

• A handful of coriander leaves, washed and chopped

Instructions

1. For the marinade, grind onion, ginger and garlic into a paste in a food processor (or grate finely). Add all other ingredients, except chicken and garnish ingredients.

2. Pierce chicken breasts in several places and then cut into bite size pieces

3. Add chicken to marinade and mix well.

4. Marinade overnight in a fridge. Keep in an airtight container, otherwise everything else in the fridge will smell of garlic and spices! Allow it to return to room temperature before cooking.

5. Preheat oven to maximum, mine heats to 300C.

6. Skewer the chicken pieces on bamboo skewers, not too tightly, or they will not cook well on all sides. Chicken is dangerous eaten half cooked. It may cause salmonella food poisoning. Chicken can also be cooked directly on a tray, without using skewers.

7. Cook in an oven for 10 minutes or so, turning over once.

8. Remove chicken from skewers and serve immediately on a warmed plate, garnished with thinly sliced onions, coriander leaves and slices of lemon or lime.

Notes

• Skewered chicken/fish can also be cooked in a grill or on a barbecue.

• If you do not have skewers, spread the pieces out on a baking tray and cook in a hot oven.

• If you do not have an oven, heat 1 tbsp. of oil in a karahi or wok and stir fry marinated chicken until cooked.

• What to do with leftover Chicken Tikka? Make a chicken curry!

• The leftover skewered meat feels very dry if you simply reheat it. It makes good curry though: heat a little oil, add some tomatoes and a little turmeric to it. Once this is cooked and the oil begins to come off the edges of the tomatoes, add the chicken to it. Stir fry for a few seconds, add some water, bring it to boil and simmer for a few minutes. You have a perfect chicken curry! See last picture.

• General tips for cooking with yoghurt:

• Always use full fat yoghurt, if possible. Skimmed milk yoghurt sometimes curdles during cooking. If you wish to use low fat yoghurt, add 1 heaped teaspoon of plain or corn flour per cup of yoghurt.

• Make sure that the dish you are cooking is at room temperature. If yoghurt is cooked straight from the fridge, it may curdle.

• When adding yoghurt during cooking, take out a few tablespoons of the hot food in a bowl, mix yoghurt, warming it a bit and then stir it back into the hot dish.

• Substitute sour cream for yoghurt, using only half the amount.