For The Best Chicken Tikka at Home, Use an Air Fryer

Epicurious

In this edition of Epicurious 101, professional chef Shilpa Uskokovic demonstrates how to make restaurant-quality chicken tikka at home using an air fryer. Discover how to replicate the smoky, charred flavors of a traditional tandoor–no clay oven required. This recipe is perfect for quick dinners, meal prep, or anyone interested in exploring Indian recipes.

Transcript

00:00Tikka is a type of kebab and what makes a tikka?

00:03Tikka is it's cooked in a tandoor,

00:05which is a traditional clay oven,

00:07which goes up to thousands of degrees.

00:10I think the air fryer is a great substitute for a tandoor.

00:13It replicates the similar cooking style

00:17because it's fast, hot, dry heat.

00:20And it sort of gives you the same result

00:22that a tandoor does.

00:23I developed this recipe because I think with the air fryer

00:26you can make restaurant quality chicken tikka at home.

00:30To start, we're gonna make the marinade for the chicken tikka.

00:34I'm going to add a little bit of ginger

00:37and this is finely grated on a microplane.

00:39And then garlic, quite a bit of garlic,

00:42followed by yogurt.

00:44The yogurt is an essential part of this marinade.

00:47It acts as a tenderizer.

00:48It's thick enough so it clings to the chicken

00:50and it will hold on to all of the spices

00:53and coat the chicken well as it cooks.

00:55Some lemon juice.

00:57The lemon juice also in some ways

00:59acts as a tenderizer because it's an acidic ingredient.

01:02Then a little bit of neutral oil.

01:04And I like adding oil to the marinade

01:06because it helps everything brown a little bit

01:08and it prevents the marinade from drying out

01:10as it cooks in the air fryer.

01:12And now for all of the dry ingredients

01:14and the spice mixture.

01:15The first one is gonna be very controversial,

01:17but I use curry powder.

01:19I admit it's very unconventional.

01:21There is nothing like curry powder in India,

01:23but for accessibility reasons,

01:25I think it's a great shortcut to getting a lot of different flavors

01:28into this marinade.

01:29And the brand that I actually like is a Japanese curry powder

01:32called S&B.

01:33I'm going to add paprika.

01:34A lot of recipes for chicken seca

01:36you will see had red food coloring,

01:38but I like to use sweet paprika

01:41because I think it gives you that same sort of deep red hue

01:43in a natural way.

01:44And also it adds a nice fruitiness from the pepper.

01:47I also have some ground cayenne,

01:49which adds a little bit of spice.

01:51Cardamom.

01:52This wakes everything up,

01:53sort of like a punctuation in the marinade.

01:56And then my final dry ingredient is going to be salt.

01:59And I'm going to just stir the marinade together

02:00to make sure all of the spices are dissolved

02:03and well combined.

02:05Like all grilled meats,

02:06I think the chicken take up benefits from being marinated.

02:09I like to say a minimum of 15 minutes,

02:10but ideally it would be marinated overnight.

02:13And the longer rest gives the yogurt and the spices

02:16a chance to act on the meat.

02:18The yogurt tenderizes the meat.

02:19The spices absorb and flavor the meat.

02:21I'm using boneless, skinless chicken thighs.

02:24I think this is a superior cut when being grilled

02:27or in like a high heat application,

02:29such as the air fryer.

02:31Chicken thighs are naturally fatty

02:33and they can hold up to being cooked for a while

02:36without turning dry.

02:37I know it might be tempting to use

02:38a boneless, skinless chicken breast,

02:41but if you want the ideal amount of char on the outside

02:44while retaining juicy meat on the inside,

02:46I highly recommend chicken thighs.

02:47I am just stirring everything around,

02:49making sure the thighs are well coated in the marinade.

02:53My chicken is ready.

02:54I'm going to rest it for about 15 minutes

02:57and then we'll be ready for the air fryer.

03:02So I have my air fryer preheating.

03:04It's at 400 degrees

03:05and my chicken has been marinating for 30 minutes

03:08and I'm ready to cook.

03:09The first cook is about 10 minutes,

03:10so I set the timer for 15,

03:12just to give it five minutes of preheating time.

03:14I think it helps cook the food a bit more evenly

03:17and cooks it faster.

03:19I'm going to lightly grease the bottom of the air fryer.

03:23Most air fryers do have a nonstick coating.

03:25They don't tend to stick,

03:26but yogurt is sometimes susceptible

03:29to being a little stubborn,

03:30so a little bit of oil on the bottom is an extra entrance.

03:33I'm placing the chicken,

03:35trying to get them all in a single layer.

03:37If the chicken overlaps,

03:39instead of lying in a single layer,

03:41it'll steam rather than char.

03:46The chicken is in and the air fryer is at 400

03:49and I've set the timer for 10 minutes for the first cook.

03:52What's happening inside is all of the elements

03:55have heated up and they're emitting heat,

03:57but there's a fan on top of the air fryer,

04:00which is circulating.

04:02And in doing so, it's pushing this hot air

04:04across the air fryer basket

04:07and it's ensuring that more hot air

04:10reaches this chicken more evenly,

04:12which translates into a deeper color and a faster cook.

04:16While it does work much like a convection oven,

04:19because of its size and shape,

04:21it is just so much more effective at cooking

04:24and doing the things a convection oven could do.

04:26There are a few different kinds of air fryer styles out there.

04:30The basket style, which is the one I'm using here,

04:32and toaster oven style air fryers,

04:35which are very much like a toaster oven.

04:37Basket style air fryers are typically much smaller

04:41and the cooking chamber is able to retain heat

04:45much more effectively than in a toaster style air fryer.

04:49Even though the temperature might be the same

04:51and they still have a fan,

04:53the air doesn't quite hit the food at the same rate

04:57as a basket style air fryer.

04:59Because of its size and shape,

05:01I find that the basket style air fryer

05:04chars and cooks food much more effectively

05:07than a toaster oven.

05:08This cooking technique of employing the air fryer

05:10isn't just relevant to chicken tikka,

05:13it's also great for other smaller cuts of meat

05:15that are great on the grill.

05:17And thinking of sausages, for instance,

05:18or Korean style short ribs, any kind of kebabs,

05:23these are all great in the air fryer.

05:25These are about ready to flip.

05:29Oh, very nice.

05:31So I'm really happy with the color that I have.

05:33You can see like bits of char.

05:35The yogurt marinade has sort of crusted over

05:37in the nicest way.

05:38The dry air sort of removed most of the moisture

05:41from that yogurt marinade,

05:42and it's formed like a nice film on top.

05:45But mostly I'm very excited about all of those little bits

05:47of char because that's flavor.

05:49Now I'm going to flip these,

05:50and the cook on the second side is very brief,

05:53mostly just to cook the chicken through

05:55and not really for color.

05:57I'm going to put this back in again at 400

06:00for maybe five to seven minutes.

06:03Okay, the chicken is done cooking.

06:04See how well charred that is?

06:07That's flavor and that is as close

06:09as you're ever going to get

06:10to making tandoor style food at home in your air fryer.

06:15Yeah, crispy, charry bits.

06:20I think the chicken tikka looks really good.

06:24Lots of pockets of char.

06:26The marinade is dried out in the most pleasing manner,

06:29but the chicken is still extremely juicy.

06:32And that's thanks to using chicken thighs

06:34instead of chicken breast.

06:35To serve this chicken tikka,

06:36I do a very simple side salad,

06:39just cucumber, thinly sliced red onion,

06:41thinly sliced red onion and wedges of lemon.

06:44I actually like to go ahead and squeeze the lemon on top

06:47because I think it really sort of freshens everything up

06:50and wakes up all of those flavors.

06:52Okay, I cut these cucumbers in a very specific way.

06:54I think cucumbers are best enjoyed

06:56when they cut in very elongated spears.

06:59Okay, perfect.

07:00A little wedge of lemon and we're done.

07:04I like to serve it with either naan or pita bread.

07:07And today I have pita bread.

07:09Looks great, really nice amount of char.

07:11The chicken looks very juicy.

07:13I like the cucumber and onion on the side.

07:15I'm going to cut in and have a bite.

07:19The chicken is still very juicy, not at all overcooked.

07:22You can see that it's juicy.

07:24You can see how the marinade is clinging to the meat

07:27and all of those little pockets

07:30where it's charred a bit more.

07:31So I'm excited to try this.

07:34I love that the spices feel really balanced.

07:38It looks like it would be very spicy.

07:40And there is a hint of spice,

07:41but it's not overwhelming in any way.

07:43And there's a nice bit of tartness

07:44from the combination of yogurt and lemon.

07:47And the chicken is still quite juicy.

07:49This is proof that an air fryer

07:50is for more than just reheating frozen snacks.

07:53The fact that you can make restaurant quality

07:55chicken tikka at home in the air fryer

07:58never ceases to amaze me.

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