What are Indian festivals without food? You may or may not be as kicked about the lighting, décor or your outfit, but the aroma of halwa in the kitchen is enough to tempt you to keep your work aside and take a quick peek. Nowadays, my trips to the kitchen have increased considerably, considering we are right in the middle of the festive season. After an eventful Dhanteras, we are all celebrating Choti Diwali today, and then, of course, we have Diwali, the festival of lights, also the festival of ‘let’s see how we can make our menu more elaborate?’.
And it doesn’t end here. Diwali is followed by two more festivals, Govardhan Puja and Bhai Dooj, which means the feasting is set until 6th November, or 7th since it is a Sunday. In other words, there are too many special days lined up ahead in the week, and your boring old menu needs a solid upgrade. How about recreating a recipe from Taj Mahal, New Delhi’s famous contemporary restaurant Varq? You heard us, we fetched Varq, Taj’s delicious ‘Murgh Kabab’ Recipe, and it has decadence written all over it.
Now when you think about chicken kebabs, you mostly have the boneless variety in mind. But kebabs exist with bones too. The famous Burrah Kebabs have been giving stiff competition to many boneless kebabs and tikkas for a very long time.
This Murgh Kebab is unique because of the balance it strikes between cheese creaminess and chillies' hotness. The chicken pieces here are marinated with rich amounts of saffron, butter and cream. Cooked in tandoor, this delicious dish is best served with tomato chutney and raw mango relish. Think you can mimic this delightful recipe? Here’s a step-by-step guide.
Murgh Kebab Recipe:
Ingredients:
- Saffron – 0.1g
- Chicken Tikka – 150g
- Hung Curd – 30g
- Cheese – 10g
- Cardamom Powder – 3g
- Kasuri Methi – 10g
- Cream – 15ml
- Salt – 10g
- Ginger Paste – 10g
- Garlic Paste – 10g
- Silver Varq – 1 leaf
Method:
1. Take the chicken and marinate it with ginger, garlic paste and salt for close to 6 hours. The key to the best kebabs and tikkas is marination, so don’t be impatient.
2. Now grate the cheese and mash it with salt, curd, cardamom powder, saffron and cream to make the second marination and refrigerate for 2 hours more.
3. Skewer the marinated chicken through a seekh, carefully place it in tandoor and bake it for 8-10 minutes until tender.4. You are done. You can enjoy it as is, or you can garnish it with silver varq and plate it with mango relish.
We hope your festivals are filled with delicious food and merry-making.
