A velvety textured, delicious Indian style grilled chicken recipe with a mint chutney
This utterly delicious grilled chicken is my malai or creamy chicken tandoori recipe. This recipe is mild on spices, unlike the regular tandoori chicken, but absolutely flavoursome. The malai chicken recipes – whether grilled or curried – are a gift from the Mughals to us. The use of rich ingredients like cream, is very common in the Mughlai cuisine. Likewise, there is cream, yoghurt and poppy seeds paste in my recipe too. Malai is the Hindi for cream. All these ingredients lend a super velvety texture to the chicken. As a result, this malai (creamy) chicken tandoori is a melt-in-the-mouth goodness of grilled chicken.
While I have made this with chicken on the bone, you can use boneless pieces too. In that case, what you would get is chicken malai tikka. The tikkas are made with the same marination, only that, they are made with bite sized pieces of chicken. Also, I have grilled the meat in an oven. You could either pan grill or even barbecue it. So, this recipe is great for your outdoor summer barbecues. Grilled, creamy chicken, beer and the shinning sun – isn’t this what summers are made of?
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Easy recipe
Like most grilled chicken recipes, even this is a pretty easy one, too. And there are only three main steps to it. You will need to marinate the chicken, let it rest and then cook it. That is all. Also, like I mentioned earlier, this is not a spice heavy preparation. The yoghurt and cram help in taming the heat of the ginger, pepper, chilis and garam masala added. And, that is the essence of this malai (creamy) chicken tandoori after all. It has got a hint of spice and loads of texture. You could also add cheese to your marinade, although I haven’t. Adding cheese, will also give you a more charred texture on the chicken when cooked.
If you are using boneless pieces, the marination time would range between two and four hours. But since I have used chicken with bones, I kept it to marinate overnight. So, if you plan to make it the same way, you could massage the marinade on the meat a night earlier to grilling it.
Serving the malai (creamy) chicken tandoori
You could serve the malai (creamy) chicken tandoori, as is, with salad and a spicy mint chutney, like I have. And for me this works perfectly as my lunch. Moreover, you can could serve this as a delicious appetizer, called chicken malai tikkas, using boneless chicken pieces and the same marinade. This chicken recipe, is so easy to make and good to taste, that you should definitely include it in your next house party menu. Additionally, you could also serve this chicken tandoori or tikkas, with some Indian flatbreads too. This is a combination, that I know, a lot of people enjoy. The malai (creamy) chicken tandoori, some onion rings and the mint chutney, is an amazing trio!
So, here goes the step by step recipe. Do let me know how you enjoyed it when you make it.
Eat hearty!
Malai (creamy) chicken tandoori
Equipment
- Oven/grill/barbecue/griddle pan
Ingredients
- 2 chicken legs (with the thighs)* roughly 200g
- 1 tbsp white pepper powder
- 2 tbsp lime juice
- 1 tsp ginger paste
- 1 tsp garlic paste
- 2 tsp chaat masala
- salt to taste
For the marination
- 1 tbsp poppy seeds
- 2-3 green chilis optional
- 4 tbsp Greek yoghurt hung curd
- 2 tsp garam masala powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp kasuri methi dried fenugreek leaves
- 1 tbsp fresh coriander leaves chopped
- 4 tbsp fresh cream
- 1 tsp corn starch
For the mint chutney
- 1 cup fresh mint leaves
- ½ cup fresh coriander leaves
- ½ inch ginger chopped
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 4-5 tbsp yoghurt whisked
- 1 tsp chaat masala
- 2-3 green chilis
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Clean and pat dry the chicken legs and make a few gashes on it. Rub the salt, pepper, lime juice, ginger and garlic pastes on them well. Keep aside for 15-20 minutes
- Soak the poppy seeds with the chilis (if using), in 2 tablespoons of water, for 30 minutes
- Grind it to to smooth paste with the same water in a blender/mixer
- Add all the marination ingredients in a bowl, with the poppy seeds paste and mix well**
- Apply this on the chicken pieces well and massage. Keep this to marinate, in the fridge, overnight or at least for 2 hours
- Pre-heat your oven to 180°C. Place the chicken legs on a baking tray, spray some cooking oil on them and grill it n the oven for 10-12 minutes on each side
To make the mint chutney
- Add all the ingredients for the chutney in a blender/mixer jar and make a smooth paste of it using 3-4 tablespoons of water
- Add this to the whisked yoghurt and mix well
- Keep it in the refrigerator until serving
- Serve the malai (creamy) chicken tandoori, sprinkled with chaat masala along with the mint chutney and salad. Enjoy!
Notes
- *You can use any cut of the chicken or even boneless pieces
- **If using cheese, add it in this step along with the other ingredients
- tbsp - tablespoon
- tsp - teaspoon
- g - grams
