Appetizer

Chicken Afghani Tikka

Name: Chicken Afghani Tikka
Total time: 6 h 30 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 1000 g boneless chicken, cut into chunks; 200 g hung curd (thick yogurt); 80 g cashew paste; 100 g fresh cream; 1 egg; 2.5 tsp ginger-garlic paste; 4 tbsp lemon juice; 1 small onion, finely chopped; 1 green chilli, finely chopped; 1 tsp white pepper powder; 0.5 tsp garam masala; 1 tsp kasoori methi (dried fenugreek); 15 g fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped; 1 tsp cornflour; 1 tsp butter; 10 g fine sea salt (about 1% of the chicken)

Pale, rich, and fragrant — Afghani tikka skips the red chilli in favour of white pepper, cashew paste and hung curd for a marinade that chars golden and melts in the mouth. It is the quieter, more luxurious cousin of the tandoori.

6 hr 30 minServes 4 mild–medium

Method

Combine lemon juice, ginger-garlic paste, white pepper, hung curd and a pinch of salt in a bowl. Add the chicken, toss to coat and set aside.
Melt the butter in a pan and sauté the chopped onion and green chilli until the onion turns translucent. Stir in the cornflour, cook for 1 minute , then add the cashew paste. Stir well, remove from heat and leave to cool.
Add the cooled onion-cashew mixture to the chicken along with the fresh cream, egg, garam masala, kasoori methi and coriander leaves. Mix thoroughly, cover and refrigerate for at least 5–6 hours (overnight is better).
Preheat your oven to 220 °C in grill-and-convection mode. Thread the chicken onto skewers and grill for 10–15 minutes per side until lightly charred at the edges and cooked through to an internal 74 °C / 165 °F — cut into a chunk to confirm it's white throughout with no pink.
Serve hot with coriander-mint chutney and thin-sliced onion rings.

Cook's note. If the chicken releases a lot of liquid during marinating, drain it before loading the skewers — excess moisture steams rather than chars the meat.

The story

Afghani tikka takes its name from the Mughal trade routes that brought Central Asian cooking techniques — particularly the use of yogurt, cream, and nuts as tenderisers — into the kitchens of the Punjab. Unlike its fiery tandoori relatives it was designed to showcase the richness of the marinade rather than the heat of the spice.