Grilled Tandoori Chicken Kebabs

Grilled Tandoori Chicken Kebabs/Kabobs/Skewers bring everyones favorite tandoori Indian dish into our own kitchen. So quick and easy made on the grill, the recipe also comes with an oven baked option. Serve with a side of rice and curry if you like.

Made with all natural ingredients with no food coloring.

If you love tandoori chicken from your favorite Indian restaurant you will love this recipe. The best and only way to get the authentic flavor of Indian tandoori is to cook in a tandoor oven and if you’re like me, you don’t have easy access to one.

Chicken breast pieces are marinated in yogurt and delicious Indian spices then grilled or oven baked to achieve the closest flavor you can get without a tandoor oven.

Used in Indian cuisine to get that unique cooked flavor into naan bread, chicken and seafood that is operated at a very high temperature of 900 degrees F. Not your traditional type of cooking that we know, meat and seafood are cooked on skewers, where the naan bread is stuck to the side of the oven to cook, that’s how you get that unmistakable char and flavor.

There’s no perfect way to re-create the flavors of the tandoor, but us home cooks can certainly try and the next best thing to getting the tandoori flavor is making tandoori sauce.Starting with greek yogurt, all the great Indian spices are mixed to make a marinade.

How do you get that recognizable tandoori color? To recreate the very recognizable red hue of the meat an Indian red chili powder (kashmiri) is used. This chili powder can be found on the internet, which is where I bought it. Or, if you’re lucky to live close to an Indian market, they should have it. Sometimes red food coloring is used, but I’m not a fan and I don’t think this recipe needs it.

The key to getting the most flavor into the chicken is the marinating.  This recipe has a 2-stage marination process. The chicken is first coated in the red chili powder. Then coated in yogurt and spices for the final marinating.

Serving suggestion: I always serve this chicken with Curry Vegetable Basmati Rice (pic below) and a side of Easy Homemade Naan Bread.

Chefs tip: Traditionally, tandoori chicken is cooked using larger pieces of chicken. The get the marinade into the chicken for more flavor, the chicken is scored and rubbed into the scores. You can do this if you like, but since these are smaller pieces you can skip this step.

Oven roasting method: This recipe can be made indoors using a stovetop grill pan or roasted in the oven. those cold winter months by roasting the skewers in the oven (I would not recommend using wooden skewers). Roast at 425°F/218°C for 8 minutes per side then broil to get a nice char. If you don’t want to use skewers, use boneless, skinless chicken breasts using the marinade and roast them whole for 20 – 30 minutes then broil.

Grilled Tandoori Chicken Kebabs – Step by Step

In a small bowl, mix the Indian red chili powder, salt and oil to make a paste.

Coat the chicken breast pieces with the paste mix.

In a separate bowl, Greek yogurt, mix more Indian red chili powder, garam masala, coriander, cumin, turmeric, cardamom.

Add the Greek yogurt mix to the chicken pieces and marinate for 30 minutes.

Thread the chicken pieces onto metal skewers.

Grill 5-8 minutes per side until cooked through to a an internal temperature of 165°F.

If you’ve tried these Grilled Tandoori Chicken Kebabs or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how it turned out in the comments below. I love to hear from my readers!

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