Chicken Malai Tikka & Paneer (Cottage Cheese) Malai Tikka

Ingredients:

• 500 gm chicken OR Paneer
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• 2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
• 1/2 cup curd
• 1/3 cup cream / malai
• 1/2 to 1/3 cup grated cheese
• 1 tsp freshly crushed black pepper powder
• 1 tsp freshly crushed fennel (saunf) powder
• 1 inch thin blade mace (javitri) crushed and powdered
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp cornflour
• 1 tsp crushed green chillies
• 2 tbsp finely chopped coriander for garnish
• salt as per taste

Steps:

• Wash and dry the chicken and once dry score it nicely so that the masala goes all the way inside the chicken and makes it juicy.
• Add all the marination ingredients to the chicken and mix it well. Keep it in the fridge and let it marinate for atleast an hour or 2. It is best to keep it for marination for around 8 hours so that the marination is absorbed well by the chicken and it becomes tender, juicy and full of flavor.

• Once marinated heat up an oven to around 180 degrees or fire up a charcoal grill and let this chicken cook on the grill / oven.
• It should take about 10 to 12 mins on each side if you are using a bone-in chicken (like I have) or around 15 mins in totality if you are using boneless.
• Once the chicken is cooked all the way through and it gets a nice brownish char on the outside, the malai kebabs are ready to be served.

Paneer (Cottage Cheese) Malai Tikka

• This exact same recipe / ingredients can be used to make the PANEER MALAI TIKKA also. Just replace the chicken with the paneer. Also, if egg is an issue then you can simply remove it as it won't affect the taste as such. It just acts as a binding agent.