Malai chicken tikka kebabs are tender, oven-baked chicken thighs marinated in heavy cream, cream cheese, and warm spices, resulting in juicy, flavorful skewers.
What is malai tikka?
Malai tikka or tandoori malai tikka is an Indian style of chicken that is marinated in a heavy cream also known as malai. It has mild, warming spices like cumin, coriander, and cinnamon for a creamy but flavorful dish. The chicken pieces are traditionally skewered and placed in a hot tandoor oven to be cooked at high temperatures, leaving a charred, smoky, and decadent chicken. This chicken is great for those who don't want the spice of tandoori chicken but are looking for a grilled meat. The chicken tastes delicious as an appetizer served alongside an herbaceous and spicy cilantro-mint chutney or can serve as the main course paired along with rice or naan.
Why this recipe works
- Using chicken thighs along with marinating the chicken in heavy cream and cream cheese ensures that the chicken is moist during cooking.
- The heavy cream and cream cheese are warmed together to ensure that there aren't big clumps of cream cheese in certain places but not in others.
- Although optional, this recipe uses the dhungar method to trap the smoke in the marinated chicken, helping it have a smoky taste and aroma.
- Crafting aluminum foil rods at the ends of the baking sheet keeps the skewers elevated, allowing the chicken to char instead of steam, and prevents the marinade from sticking to the pan.
- Broiling the chicken at the end allows the pieces to get a nice char similar to cooking in a tandoor.
Malai Chicken Marinade
My recipe uses rich and warming spices for a malai chicken that is moist, juicy, and creamy!
- Ginger and Garlic made into a paste - adds umami to the dish
- Heavy cream - Helps keep the chicken moist
- Cream cheese - Adds tang and richness
- Black salt (Kala namak) - Adds a tangy and tart flavor
- Cinnamon powder - Adds a subtle sweetness and back of the throat spice
- Cumin powder - Adds nuttiness and warmth
- Coriander powder - Adds warmth and earthiness
- Dried methi leaves - Adds a bitterness and earthiness to the chicken
- Thai chili - Adds an herbal and subtle heat
- Cilantro - Adds fresh herby taste. Can substitute with mint instead
- Sea salt - Helps season the chicken and brings out the flavor of the other spices
- Sugar - Helps the chicken brown and adds a subtle sweetness
Buy Now → 
Buy Now → Ginger garlic paste
This recipe has you blend a big piece of fresh ginger and garlic with the other ingredients to create a paste. In my opinion, this yields the freshest and cleanest taste of ginger and garlic in a recipe and helps you control exactly how much of each ingredient you are adding to the recipe.
However, if you don't have a blender or if you are strapped on time, you can easily buy pre-processed ginger garlic paste from the Indian grocery store. You want ~1.5 tablespoons of ginger garlic paste for 1 inch (8 grams) of ginger and 3 cloves (13 grams) of garlic.
Buy Now → Dhungar method to get smoky flavor
The dhungar method is a way of adding a smoky flavor to the final dish. It involves burning a piece of charcoal directly over a flame until it is fiery red and forms a light gray exterior, placing the coal in a small bowl, and pouring a bit of ghee on top of the coal to make it smoke.
For our malai chicken tikka kebabs, the marinated chicken will be placed in a wide bowl that can be closed with a lid or foil. The hot smoking coal will be placed in the center of the bowl and closed so that the smoke can be trapped with the chicken. As a result, the chicken will have a smoky aroma and taste that is reminiscent of cooking the chicken in a charcoal tandoor.
Tips for cooking chicken tikka in the oven
- Make sure that the chicken kebabs hover in the center of the sheet tray. Either use a sheet tray that is small enough for the end of the skewers to hang off OR create aluminum foil rods on either end of the sheet tray for the skewers to rest on so that the chicken pieces can hover over the sheet tray instead of rest directly on it. This is one of the biggest tricks which helps the chicken cook evenly and helps the marinade not stick to the pan.
- Baste the chicken with ghee or oil to ensure that the exterior chars nicely.
- Place chicken on the top rack of the oven at 450F for a high heat cook. During this whole process we want to mimic the high heat of a tandoor, so placing it on the top allows the chicken to get the most heat and the best char.
- Take the chicken out at the halfway point and rotate to ensure every side gets cooked evenly.
FAQ
Yes. The main thing that thing that needs blending is the ginger and garlic into a paste. If you don't have a blender, you can either make the ginger garlic paste with a mortar and pestle or get store-bought ginger garlic paste from the Indian grocery store.
Yes, you can use wooden skewers as long as you have soaked them in water for at least 1 hour and up to overnight to ensure that they don't burn in the oven.
No, using the charcoal to get a smoky flavor is an optional step, but a step that adds a great bit of depth to the recipe.
Related Recipes
Looking for other grilling recipes like this? Try these:
Malai Chicken Tikka Kebabs
Product Reccs
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken thigh boneless skinless
Marinade Ingredients
- 1 inch (8 g) piece of ginger
- 3 (13 g) garlic cloves
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ¼ cup plain cream cheese
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder
- ½ teaspoon cumin powder
- ½ teaspoon kasoori methi leaves (Optional)
- ¾ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon black salt
- 2 tablespoons cilantro finely chopped
- 1-2 Thai chilis finely chopped
Other Ingredients
- ~2 tablespoons ghee melted butter or vegetable oil for basting and smoking chicken
- Optional charcoal (for adding an extra smoky finish at the end)
- lemon slices to serve
- cilantro-mint chutney as a dipping sauce as a dipping sauce (Optional)
- lemon rice for serving (Optional)
Instructions
Prep work
- If using wooden skewers, let them soak in a shallow tray of water. This step is to ensure that they don't burn in the oven.
- Use paper towels to pat the chicken dry. This step is important because it helps the marinade stick onto the chicken.
- Cut 1 lb chicken thigh into 1.5 inch cubes. You want the chicken pieces to be large enough so that it is easy to add them to the skewers without them falling off. The chicken pieces will shrink a bit as they cook.
Make the ginger garlic paste (Note 1)
- Roughly chop 1 inch (8 g) piece of ginger so it can be easily processed by the food processor or small blender.
- Add 3 (13 g) garlic cloves and chopped ginger to the food processor with a tablespoon of water and grind until it becomes a fine paste. If the food processor is struggling, add a tablespoon of water at a time until the paste is smooth and there are no chunks of ginger or garlic remaining.
Make marinade
- In a microwave-safe bowl, add ½ cup heavy cream and ¼ cup plain cream cheese and heat for 45 seconds. Remove from heat and use a whisk to combine the two ingredients together into a smooth mixture. If the cream cheese is still hard to mix or if there are lumps, microwave the mixture in intervals of 15 seconds until the mixture can be whisked into a smooth consistency.
- To the heavy cream mixture add ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder, ½ teaspoon cumin powder, ½ teaspoon kasoori methi leaves, ¾ teaspoon sea salt, ¼ teaspoon black salt, finely chopped 2 tablespoons cilantro, and finely chopped 1-2 Thai chilis and mix to combine.
Dhungar Method to add smoky flavor (Optional)
- Pour marinade into a large bowl, add chicken into the marinade, and massage to coat.
- Tear a piece of aluminum foil large enough to tent the bowl to trap the charcoal flavor into the marinade.
- Take 1 piece of charcoal and place it directly on the stovetop using tongs. Allow the charcoal to light, burn a bright orange, and have its exterior turn gray.
- Using tongs, transfer the charcoal to a small heat-safe bowl.
- Pour ~1 tablespoon of ghee or vegetable oil directly over the charcoal so that the charcoal starts smoking.
- Quickly and carefully place the smoking charcoal bowl in the bowl of chicken and loosely wrap the lid with aluminum foil or a lid. Allow it to sit for 5-10 minutes to allow the marinade to absorb the charcoal smell and flavor.
- Remove the foil and remove the small charcoal bowl.
- Let chicken sit at least 1 hour but preferably overnight in the fridge.
Cook malai chicken tikka kebabs in the oven
- Preheat the oven to the convection bake setting at 425F or a regular bake setting at 450F.
- Thread marinated chicken onto the kebab skewers, making sure to leave at least 1 inch both at the bottom and top of the skewer.
- Line the bottom of the sheet tray with aluminum foil to make cleanup of the meat juices easier.
- Use aluminum foil and form it into the shape of two rods and place each rod along the width of the sheet pan. The rods are where the skewer tops and bottoms will rest, ensuring the chicken can hover in the middle. This technique is really important as it allows the chicken to get air circulation and ensures that the marinade doesn't stick to the bottom of the sheet tray.
- Melt ~2 tablespoons ghee. Brush the top of the chicken liberally with the melted ghee.
- Place the chicken in the top rack of the oven for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes, rotate the chicken, baste with some more ghee, and place back in the oven for another 8 minutes.
- Take the chicken out of the oven and check that the internal temperature of the chicken reads 165F. If not, continue to cook until it reaches that temperature.
- Give the chicken one more basting of ghee and turn on the broil setting of the oven to high. Keep an eye on the chicken and allow the chicken to char and form black spots, which should take ~1-3 minutes but can really vary depending on the strength of the broiler, so keep an eye out.
- Remove chicken from the oven and serve with lemon slices for additional acidity. This dish also pairs great with cilantro mint chutney on the side and lemon rice or naan.
Notes and Tips
- (Note 1) If using storebought ginger/garlic paste, use 1.5 tablespoons to replace the 8 grams of ginger and 13g of garlic in the recipe.
- The dhungar method steps are optional for this recipe.
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