As peak of grilling season is around the corner we decided to bring our readers a simple recipe of chicken kababs spiced with fennel and mustard seeds. We had the pleasure of eating some succulent and subtly spiced chicken achari kababs at deccan rendezvous restaurant in Pune last year. Chef Brijesh shared his recipe and we decided to democratize it a bit for a simple grilling endeavor.
What are chicken kababs?
Kababs are historically ground meat on stick cooked on a charcoal oven. Kababs came to india possibly from Persia and in india these have come to mean pieces of meat marinated and then skewered to be grilled ideally on charcoal grills. These are interchangeably also called tikkas. The boneless ones are typically called boti kababs. We use boneless chunks of chicken meat for this recipe of chicken kababs so technically this is a chicken boti kabab recipe.
Which skewers to use?
We whole heartedly recommend skewers with a flat profile instead of wirey or cylindrical profiles as they can stop the skwered meat from rotating as you turn the skewers for even cooking. If you can’t find these you can still get the grilling done even on bamboo skewers, its just that the flat and sturdy ones will make your job a little bit more easier.
Which cut of chicken to use?
We believe the best cut for chicken kababs are the chicken thighs. Kababs are meant to be juicy and succulent and we have found through cooking these numerous times that thighs retain the moisture better while cooking and result in much more juicier meat than when using chicken breasts.
Where to buy the chicken and what size of chunks to use?
You should try and buy them from your friendly neighborhood butcher or supermarket. Try to buy boneless skinless chicken thighs for this recipe. Many butchers will accommodate your requests and would do some cutting for you reducing your efforts further. We have had this useful service from whole foods and when they have always processed our chicken cuts for us the way we wanted for that nights cooking. For this recipe get your chicken thighs cut vertically in half.
Always buy chicken of best quality that you can get. Avoid chicken that is frozen. Avoid chicken that is brined or packaged for many days. Talking to butcher many time yields good clues.
The key for this recipe is to not make too small chunks of the chicken thighs. Making small pieces not only increases your effort of skewering them but they also will generally result in drier sometimes over cooked kababs. Since we are using bigger chunks though we have to make sure to cook our kababs evenly and will have to pay attention and not cook them very very quickly on a super hot grill.
Is there a minimum time to marinate?
Essentially in our opinion the answer is no. Surely we have ourselves read in recipes and menus that the meat is marinated twice or thrice and for over more than a day. While we are sure this makes a difference, for this recipe by choosing the right cut, the right size and with the right grilling techniques we do believe you will end up with good results even with half hours marination. The marination can be between half hour to a day depending on how much time you have on your hand.
Since our marinade uses spices and chicken thighs are juicy and flavorful on their own we don’t feel long marination is absolutely necessary unless you are grilling really big bone-in pieces.
The spice mixture
The chicken achari recipe we base our chicken kababs spiced with fennel cumin and mustard seeds recipe on uses coarse ground pickling spices. These are a mixture of fennel, cumin, mustard, fenugreek and onion seeds. These are coarse ground and form the base of indian pickling masala. These are all readily available at Indian grocery stores however fennel, cumin and mustard seeds are definitely available in most supermarkets. The key is to grind these coarsely either in a mortar and pestle or by pulsing in a coffee grinder (the one with flat rotating blade attachment).
The kabas are marinated using the above ground spices with yogurt, a paste of ginger and garlic, white pepper powder for seasoning and mustard oil. If mustard oil is not available you can add half a teaspoon of dijon mustard and some vegetable oil.
When threading the vertically sliced pieces of chicken we start by threading one end then folding piece of chicken to thread the next possible portion and folding piece again to finish with the tip. In a piece we typically end up with three piercings and a zig zag threaded piece on the skewer. This also creates nooks for the marinade to be slathered on. With this technique we find the pieces also retain some more moisture but you need to make sure to cook them thoroughly.
Grilling Temperature
Since grilling is an art and the grills differ from each other in type of fuel as well as amount of heat they generate a simple tip we can offer is we dont want these to cook too quickly. We are using fairly large chunks of chicken thighs so if we cook them on intense high heat they will get charred on the outside but be really dried out till you have managed to cook them all the way. We recommend cooking them on medium heat zone, not letting the surface char and harden as you turn them occasionally and baste them. In the very end if you like a crispy bit you could finish them off on high heat for a char. When using electric grill make sure to oil the grill plates and start on even lower heat else these will char and stick for sure.
Importance of Basting
Basting these kababs as they cook is a sure fire trick to get juicy and moist end result. We have a tip here to use equal parts milk and ghee or melted butter to make your basting liquid. Every time we turn the kababs over we baste them with this mixture. When they are done cooking we baste them on both sides with dabs of this mixture and garnish with cilantro. We often serve these with Naans and also baste the naans with this when the naans come off the grill. In this case the naans also get a sprinkling of sesame seeds which bring wonderful nutty flavor.
Accompaniments
We recommend to serve these with a piece of grilled buttered naan sprinkled with sesame seeds and a side of shaved vegetable salad dressed with some lemon juice, salt and oil. The shaved vegetables on a mandolin can be onions, cabbages, carrots, bell peppers, fennel and radishes. You could also add pomegranate seeds and sesame seeds to this salad.
You can also serve these with all sorts of grilled vegetables like eggplants, onions, sweet corn, bell peppers on the side as well.
It is customary to serve chicken kababs with a wedge of lime which you can squeeze on top of your chicken kababs just before eating.
Is it worth making your own chicken kababs?
If you like chicken kababs chances are like us you are not always happy when only options available at your neighbourhood indian restaurant are brightly red colored tandoori chicken kababs. Most of the times they use food coloring, are made from tough possibly frozen chicken breasts and are most of the times overcooked. These chicken kababs are fairly easy to make, are not exacting and are definitely worth the effort to make them yourself atleast to try what difference good quality chicken and some self grilling can make.
We wish you happy 4th of July and a day of delicious grilling.
Chicken kababs spiced with fennel and mustard
- Total Time: 2 hours 20 mins
- Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients
- 4 boneless skinless chicken thighs cut into two pieces vertically
- 0.5 cup yogurt
- 1Tbsp equal parts ginger and garlic paste
- 0.5 tsp turmeric powder
- 0.25 tsp white pepper powder
- 2 tsp mustard oil (substitute with 0.5 tsp disjon mustard and 1.5 tsp vegetable oil)
- 1.5 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1.5 tsp cumin seeds
- 0.25 cup milk
- 0.25 ghee or melted butter
- 1 tsp chopped cilantro
Instructions
- coarsely grind fennel seeds, mustard seeds and cumin seeds in a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle
- in a big mixing bowl add above to yogurt alongwith turmeric powder and white pepper powder and mustard oil
- mix above to create a paste
- Add chicken thigh pieces and mix with paste to coat evenly
- cover bowl with plastic cling film and marinate in the refrigerator for 30 mins to upto 1 day
- if in a hurry instead of marinating directly skewer the chicken pieces on a skewer and keep skewered meet in a pan covered in a refrigerator for 30 minutes. If marinating as in previous step, do the same
- Get the grill going on medium heat
- Mix the milk and melted ghee or butter
- Brush grill grates with oil and place skewers and cook on medium heat
- Baste the chicken with the milk and butter mixture cooking the skewers without burning them and turning them over every now and then till the meat is cooked through. You can check the temperature with a meat thermometer to read 165 F at the centre of the skewered chicken pieces
- Finish cooking and baste the chicken skewers with the milk and butter mixture and sprinkle some cilantro
- Serve with naan, a lime wedge and salad of thinly sliced vegetables like onions, radishes, fennel, carrots.
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Cook Time: 20 mins
Great tips for kababs! I haven’t made kababs before so this is really helpful. These kababs sound fantastic and I love the flavors here.
Thanks Jordan, am absolutely thrilled that you found these helpful 🙂 Let me know how they work if you try them 🙂
Looks delicious. What a good reminder to do more kabobs!
Thanks Inger 🙂 …yes we have recently been obsessed with doing different ones once a week – we do a skewer-salad-naan and its always fun, hope to post a few more soon
Looks amazing as always. It sounds yummy too, but I love all the specific details, a total pro! 🙂
Thanks Sujhey, have been on the road non stop since we last met …was glad to get this one out on time, plan to update it with some more details 🙂