Topic: acrabats tikka

[acrabat]

Hello everyone, this is my first post as a long time lurker. Like most of you I have tried out a lot of the recipes here and tweaked to my own regional taste. Coming from lanarkshire (origin of the deep fried mars bar) this is as close as I have come to my local takeaway tikka. It's very similar to many recipes up here because I have used them as a starting point. It is especially close to Abdul's whom I owe a great debt for putting me on the path to tikka greatness.

For up to 6 chicken breasts

5-8 tbspn oil (any kind, it is a medium for the spices and helps brown the meat while cooking)
1 tbspn garlic puree
2 tbspn pataks tikka
1 tbspn pataks tandoori
1 tbspn mix powder (i like Abduls 8 spice made up using Rajah garam masala and kashmiri mirch. Spices must be fresh)
1.5 tbspn lemon juice (fresh stuff, dressing or squeezed, not the stuff that has been in the fridge for the last 4 months)
1 tbspn dried methi leaf
2 tbspn fresh coriander finely chopped
1 tbspn colemans mint
1.5 tspn salt
1.5 tspn cumin seed
Orange or red food colouring if you wish, after much experimenting on friends and relatives many of them like the way food colouring seeps deeply into the chicked thinking it is carrying flavour with it. If making it for myself I don't bother.

The resulting marinade should be quite thin and should not form a thick paste. If it is too thick add a bit more oil. I would cut an average chicken breast into 4-6 pieces, if you cut them too small they dry out during cooking. I usually cut mine up smaller after cooking if adding to a curry.

Method:
I follow Blade's method for cooking e.g.
get oven as hot as it goes (230+ if possible)
skewer meat and suspend over roasting tin
cook for 15 to 20 minutes max turning once
shut kitchen door and open window so smoke alarm does not go off
best served as quickly as possible since juices will escape from meat the longer it sits

Feedback from any central Scotland curryholics welcome

[976bar]

There is always a lack of pictures when people post recipes on here. A picture paints a thousand words...

I'd like to see the end result please

[ELW]

The resulting marinade should be quite thin and should not form a thick paste. If it is too thick add a bit more oil. I would cut an average chicken breast into 4-6 pieces, if you cut them too small they dry out during cooking. I usually cut mine up smaller after cooking if adding to a curry.

Hi acrabat, Glasgow here, that statement is very important, although it took me long enough to suss the thick yoghurt marinades were causing a grainy texture. One of the ta's near me has an almost watery like marinade, which leaves almost nothing clinging to it when cooked, it turns out great. Agreed, tikka & tandoori recipe'smore than anything benefit from a picture  The texture & look is I think what everyone is after

I currently use the shish mahal recipe, which your thread has just knocked onto page 2  ;D

Regards
ELW

[curryhell]

It's nice when someone steps out of the shadows .  Even better when they contribute .  Welcome Acrabat.  I, like many others swear by Blades tikka.  I have tried Dipuraja's and  Ifindforu's.  They both produce good results but i still find myself using Blades recipe.  Purely by coincidence i am almost out of tikka, which tends to be my meat of preference nowadays so i will be giving this a try over the weekend  .  If Abdul has had an influence in this i don't doubt the result will be good.  He has made a huge contribution to the site and in my opinion moved it forward.  He certainly has focused my efforts and i believe my cooking to be better for the knowledge he has shared, particularly with regard to my favourite vegetable dish .  As 976 says, we do like a pic or several here so if you have any of the end result please post them.  Good to have you on board and out in the open mate.
OOPS, just realised, i'm not from central Scotland and not sure whether i was eligible to contribute ;D.  But i did anyway : :

[976bar]

Sorry Acrabat,

I forgot to welcome you to the forum, been a long day...

I hope you find everything you want here, I don't think you'll need to look anywhere else

Enjoy......

[acrabat]

I should be able to post some pics tomorrow. I made it up tonight with some lamb for the first time and will be cooking it tomorrow so will try to remember to update with pics. Thanks for the welcome.

[jb]

Welcome aboard Acrabat.Don't worry I actually lurked on here for a couple of years before posting!!

I'm always intrigued in any tikka marinades that doesn't actually use yoghurt as an ingredient.Abdul certainly used it on my home lessons,I saw a chef make a marinade using yoghurt on my T/A lesson and one of my local T/A's leave their empty catering tubs of the stuff around their back.I'm sure Heston actually did an experiment and found that yoghurt does improve the texture of meat for certain.However I've always found that my marinade was a bit too thick and cake like around the meat.The tikka I buy round here seems to have a very thin marinade but it's always penetrated deep into the chicken.

A few people have mentioned that milk should be added to the yoghurt to thin it down.Funny enough my wife used to go out with guy who was a delivery driver in a restaurant.She would spend hours in the kitchen talking to the chefs,she still remembers that the chef used to get through loads of cartons of milk in a week.Could he have been using this in his marinade??  Hopefully Az can give us his take on tikka marinade and whether he has ever used milk.

[ELW]

A few people have mentioned that milk should be added to the yoghurt to thin it down.Funny enough my wife used to go out with guy who was a delivery driver in a restaurant.She would spend hours in the kitchen talking to the chefs,she still remembers that the chef used to get through loads of cartons of milk in a week.Could he have been using this in his marinade??  Hopefully Az can give us his take on tikka marinade and whether he has ever used milk.

I reckon the ta's use milk to think the pakora/bhaji dips aa well, they always seem to be much thinner than yoghurt ever is straight from the tub

ELW

Edit- infact its right here http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php?topic=3920.0

[bamble1976]

Hi

Hestons experiment showed that the marinade impregnated the chicken more with yoghurt than without.

Regards

Barry

[Whandsy]

When I make tikka I normally add milk to the thin the yoghurt down as I don't like the mixture baked on either. Its a bit too bitter for me left on 

W