Creamy Chicken Malai Kebab (Murgh Malai Tikka)

Chicken Malai Kebab also colloquially called Murgh Malai Tikka is a subtle, less spicy, creamy Chicken tikka recipe. Made easy by pan grilling and with simple ingredients

Jump to:

• Why You'll Love this Kebab Recipe
• Ingredients
• Optional Ingredients, Variations
• Instructions
• Tips For Best Malai Tikka Kebab
• Equipment
• Storage
• What to Serve Murgh Malai kabab
• 📖 Recipe
• Tips For best Malai Kebabs

Why You'll Love this Kebab Recipe

This Chicken Malai Kebab Tikka Recipe is an amazing appetizer recipe just like my other kebab recipes, this kebab is also marinated, can be baked or grilled, and served with excellent salads like lachha salad, this Cucumber kimchi salad or Indian kachumber salad.

Murgh Malai Kabab, literally translating to Creamy Chicken Kebab is a subtle tasting kebab, Very gentle on the palate. The Kebab tastes of cream, the nuttiness and creaminess of the cashew, with a slight hint of garlic and ginger with some cumin,

So Murgh Malai Kebab is

• Easy to make
• Uses simple ingredients
• Perfect appetizer.
• Can be made as a meal when paired with sides like pulao, bread, and salads.
• Perfect freezer meal
• Once marinated can be made in about 15 minutes.

Like my other kebab recipes on this site, murgh malai tikka pairs well with this Hari chutney

Ingredients

Chicken Malai Kebab uses very simple ingredients, They are very subtle on the palate and are very kid-friendly, just like My Chicken Afghani Kebab. And uses very similar ingredients. Here's what I used to make these creamy Kebabs

• Chicken Thigh Boneless - Fresh Chicken Thigh boneless and skinless. Frozen chicken should be thawed completely before marinating. Cut into 2 inch pieces.
• Cream - Use heavy cream or double cream. To be precise any cream with 25% fat.
• Yogurt - Greek yogurt or hung curd.
• Cashews - Raw cashews.
• Ginger-Garlic paste - ginger garlic paste, is an important ingredient in an indian recipe. you can find it in an Indian grocery section or can be homemade.
• Ground Cumin - ground cumin or the common jeera powder
• Garam Masala - Garam masala powder.
• Gram Flour - We use besan or corn starch, to bind the marinade and give a lovely texture and body to the kebab
• Salt - to taste
• Ghee for greasing the pan. Alternatively, you may use, olive oil or butter.

Optional Ingredients, Variations

For a Creamier version - use softened cream cheese in combination with cream and yogurt.

To add a little spice and heat - add some green chilies and make the marinade for the malai kebab

Or Just add some crushed black pepper for mild heat and flavor.

See the recipe card for quantities.

Instructions

Here's a simple step-by-step process for making this Murgh Malai Kebab

Alternatively, you can also use bamboo or wooden skewers, to make this kebab. But sometimes, when you are in a hurry to make a meal, then just pan grilling will do wonders without all those mess

Tips For Best Malai Tikka Kebab

1. Chicken Thigh boneless are the best for any kind of kebabs. Because of it fat content, it will stay juicy, moist and flavourful
2. Always make sure the chicken pieces are around 2-inch pieces. It's always good to have chunky kebabs, rather than tiny bite-sized ones.
3. This recipe is very subtle in flavor, feel free to add any variations as mentioned above in the post.
4. You may bake in the oven, air fryer, or grill on an outdoor grill
5. The batter will be a little runny, add in the gram flour, it will thicken the batter and give a restaurant-like texture to the kebab
6. Burn Charcoal, place in a bowl and add some ghee. place this bowl on the grill pan covered. This will give a smoky tandoori-like flavour to the kebab
7. Heat the grill pan to medium heat and then grill the kebabs

Equipment

All you need is a

• Mixing bowl
• Basting brush
• Grill pan
• Cooking tongs

Storage

You can store the marinated chicken in the freezer for about 10 to 15 days.

In the refrigerator, the marinated Malai Chicken Kebab can be stored for up to a maximum of 3 days.

Cooked/baked Chicken Kebab can be stored in an air-tight container for up to 3 to 5 days in the refrigerator and up to 10 days frozen.

TO Serve, thaw and heat it up on a pan or in an oven. Serve Fresh

What to Serve Murgh Malai kabab

Since the taste of this malai kabab is very subtle, you need to serve this with some flavourful dips or chutneys.

Drizzle some lemon juice and serve them with Green Chutney

For kids - They would love this with some Mayo or even just some ketchup and fries.

But otherwise, you can pair this with some nice fresh salad, like this Simple Garden Salad or Delicious Kachumber - Indian Salad, Or this Citrus Flavoured Mandarin Berry Salad

To make a quick healthy meal with Chicken malai serve them with some fragrant pulao or Rice - Try this Fragrant Turmeric Rice, Or make a healthy meal by pairing malai kebab with this Instant Pot brown Rice

This Garlic Coriander Naan is brilliant with malai kebabs. Or may be this Peshawri Naan

You can even make this part of a kebab platter with many other kebabs Like Afghan Kebab, Tangdi Kebab and Hariyali Kebab and loads of sides and accompaniments

📖 Recipe