Chicken tikka — boneless chicken cubes marinated twice (a salt-lemon first marinade, then a yogurt-spice second marinade) and cooked in a tandoor at extreme heat — requires the two-stage marination to achieve the characteristic char-spotted surface, tender interior, and spice penetration that single-stage marination cannot. The first marinade opens the protein; the second flavours it; the high heat of the tandoor (or its home equivalent) creates the char.
- **First marinade:** Salt + lemon juice — applied and left 30 minutes. The salt draws moisture to the surface; the lemon's citric acid begins to denature the surface proteins; together they create an open, receptive surface for the second marinade. - **The patting dry:** Before the second marinade — the first marinade's extracted liquid must be removed. Wet chicken in the second marinade dilutes and prevents the spice adhesion. - **Second marinade:** Full-fat yogurt (strained) + ginger-garlic paste + kashmiri chilli powder (mild, brilliant red — provides colour without excessive heat) + cumin, coriander, garam masala + kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves) + mustard oil or neutral oil + salt. Minimum 4 hours; overnight ideally. - **The Kashmiri chilli:** This specific variety provides the vivid red-orange colour that defines tikka without the capsaicin heat of cayenne. [VERIFY] Bharadwaj's chilli specification. - **The high heat requirement:** Tandoor temperatures reach 400–500°C. The extreme heat produces rapid surface Maillard reactions and the characteristic char spots within seconds of contact. Home equivalent: a very hot cast iron pan or broiler, maximum possible temperature. - **The char:** The spotted char on tikka is not burning — it is the Maillard reaction on the yogurt-and-spice coating at extreme temperatures. Pale, uniformly coloured tikka is produced by insufficient heat. Decisive moment: The first char spot on the chicken's surface. At a correctly high temperature, the first char marks appear within 60–90 seconds of the chicken contacting the cooking surface. If the chicken has been cooking for 3 minutes without any char: the temperature is insufficient.
Indian Cookery Course