Guest Chefling: Chicken Barbeque-Tips and Tricks

October 26, 2012

Being a Punjabi, I and my family share the passion for desi food. No family gathering or function is complete without good desi food and what is desi food without delicious barbecue!. Starting at the age of ten I helped my dad while he would prepare for a barbecue on almost every weekend and since then I have loved making tikkas. It is surely a time consuming, laborious meal to make but is completely worth it. With Eid and Winter season coming up, I hope you will learn from the tips i have given here and make perfect Barbecue

The preparation of the perfect, well cooked and delicious chicken barbecue tikka is divided into two stages.

Firstly, the chicken pieces have to be marinated which isn’t that hard, you will need the following

½ cup Yogurt
1 tbsp Ginger Garlic paste
Chicken tikka masala (as per packet instructions)
2 Fresh lemons
8 pieces of Chicken

Many tend to use too many lemons, which is wrong! As lemons do add flavor but also shrink the chicken pieces and cause their skin to burn easily.

Most importantly do not forget to place small cuts on the chicken pieces specially the breast and leg pieces, the cuts should be deep not long this will help the pieces absorb the mixture and help cook them to the bone! After you’re done adding the chicken pieces to the marinade the mixture should look something like this:

The longer the mixture stays the richer the flavor will be and this is a fact! But the minimum time should be no less than 4 hours.

The second stage is the barbecue!

First prepare the skewers. Pierce the marinated chicken pieces onto a skewer, all the breast pieces should preferably be not on a single skewer.

Now it’s time to prepare the coals, make sure to reduce the size of the coals using a hammer but don not make them too small. After you placed the coals in a grill similar to the one in the picture below, spread out the coals evenly and sprinkle kerosene on them, not too much because then the chicken pieces will smell like petrol and you don’t want that! Light the coal by a match.

Use a hand fan till the coals are on fire and then leave them for 15 minutes, if the fire doesn’t go out and this does happen often in hilly areas due to the wind, do not panic because after you’ve placed the skewers on the grill it will go out.

Tip: Turn all the skewers simultaneously so that the whole batch is ready at the same time.

The average time taken will be around 25 to 30 minutes. Remember the heat should be mild as the slower you cook the juicier and better the Tikas will be.

Keep a cup filled with two to three tablespoons of cooking oil and apply it on the chicken pieces right before taking them off the grill and cook them for a further 3 to 4 minutes.

Keep a hotpot nearby because you’d want to serve the barbecue hot and fresh!

Enjoy this lovely Barbeque on a cold winter night!