3.5/5 rating (98 votes)

Chicken Shashlik

Marinated Chicken on Skewers

  • Heat Medium
  • Serves 4
  • Dietary Info WHEAT-FREE GLUTEN-FREE
  • Prep 10 mins
  • Marinade 1 hr
  • Cook 25 mins
Chicken Shashlik

Hari says

Shashlik is basically like a shish kebab, which translates to skewered meat and is a dish that was popular in central and South Asia. Shish were generally made using chunks of lamb, but chicken kebabs have become just as popular. This has a slight Chinese-style twist to the marinade with the use of soy. For this dish, it's all about balancing the sweet, sour, salt and chilli flavours.

I love finding out about the history of dishes, and like most food that travels across the world, this picked up little adaptations along the way. Once it touched the shores of India, it was transformed into a curry dish as well as a skewered BBQ-style dish.

For me, I like the kebab style more and love to cook the kebabs on the BBQ, just as it was intended to be cooked to get the delicious smoky flavour. However, if you want to turn this into a curry too, I will also go through in the method for how you can make the masala sauce.

  • Ingredients
  • Method
  • 5-6 chicken thighs
  • 1 green pepper, cut into chunks
  • 2 red onions, cut into chunks

Marinade

  • 4 cloves garlic, pureed
  • 2 tbsp ginger, pureed
  • 1 fresh chilli, finely chopped (or 2 for more heat)
  • 4 tbsp white vinegar
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
  • 1 tsp of garam masala
  • 3 tbsp soy sauce
  • 1 tbsp mustard paste
  • 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
  • ½ tsp salt, black pepper
  • Oil
  • Handful of fresh coriander, chopped
  • 6 skewers

As a curry

  • 2 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 2 tomatoes, pureed

Method

  1. Cut your chicken and vegetables into large chunks so they can be easily skewered.
  2. Blitz the ginger, garlic and fresh chilli to make a paste and place into a large bowl.
  3. Add the vinegar, chilli powder, garam masala, soy sauce, mustard paste and tomato ketchup.
  4. Mix to create a lovely tangy marinade before adding the chicken and vegetables. Stir the whole lot together and leave to marinade for 30 minutes to an hour.
  5. Once you are ready to cook, skewer alternate pieces of the vegetables and meat onto the skewers.
  6. To cook, you can either place the skewers onto a BBQ or onto an oven tray to bake in the oven. Cook until the chicken is cooked through (15-20 minutes) and the vegetables are slightly charred.

To make it as a curry

  1. Heat oil and gently fry 2 cloves of sliced garlic for a minute. Do be careful not to burn them.
  2. Blitz 2 tomatoes in a blender and add to the garlic. Cook for 5-10 minutes until the tomatoes lose their acidity. 
  3. Add the marinated chicken and cook for 10 minutes before adding the marinated vegetables.
  4. Cook for a further 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has thickened and becomes sticky, but the vegetables maintain a little crunch.
  5. Serve with some steamed rice.

Nutritional information

Typical values* per Serving
Calories82
Fat (g)3.3
of which saturates (g)1.7
Carbohydrates (g)3.6
of which sugars (g)2.7
Fibre (g)0.5
Protein (g)9.8
Salt (mg)0.64
*Based upon calculated values, supplied by myfitnesspal.com. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated.

Useful equipment

  • The Easy Indian Slow Cooker Cookery Book

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Comments

Comments (6)

  • Lynn

    Lynn

    08 December 2020 at 09:58 |
    Heard Nikki on Radio Jackie mention you. Great website with lots of lovely recipes. I have forwarded to some of my relatives who live in different parts of the country & love a good curry.

    reply

    • Hari Ghotra

      Hari Ghotra

      08 December 2020 at 10:10 |
      Hi Lynn Thanks so much for listening to BBC radio Surrey and Sussex and then looking me up. Good to know you like the recipes I hope you get to try some of the dishes. Thanks so much for your comments. Hari

      reply

  • Philip

    Philip

    09 December 2019 at 21:07 |
    I would like to try this chicken shashlik recipe, but could you tell me what you mean by mustard paste.
    Thanks.

    reply

    • Hari Ghotra

      Hari Ghotra

      10 January 2020 at 21:17 |
      Hi Philip you can just use mustard from a jar! Does that help? thanks Hari

      reply

  • Dave P

    Dave P

    03 February 2019 at 09:19 |
    This is really easy and totally delicious. Just chop onions, peppers and chicken, whack everything else in the blender, pour over and wait. A great alternative to chicken tikka, we make this all the time, and is super healthy too (nice with a salad). As a curry it wasn’t great, but as skewers is’s Fantastic!

    reply

    • Hari Ghotra

      Hari Ghotra

      15 February 2019 at 12:30 |
      Hi Dave Great to hear that you have cooked this a few times and love it. Please do take pictures and post them in the app as I would love to see your dishes. Thanks Hari

      reply

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Hari Ghotra