Indian Cooking 101: Street Food (Tandoori Chicken Pops)
In my quest to dismiss the myth that Indian cooking is not for the faint-hearted and to help spread my knowledge on some simple and traditional Indian food recipes, like these Tandoori Chicken Pops, I have started this series called Indian Cooking 101. To make it more interactive and as helpful as I can for my readers, I welcome you to email me any questions that you may have in the process. I will try and respond to the questions personally through email, or in the next part if it’s connected to what I have already planned to discuss.
Growing up, I seldom remember a weekend where we had the house to ourselves. While few weekends were spent hosting visiting family and friends from far off places, most of our Saturday nights were spent amidst mighty morsels of succulent bites of food – like Tandoori Chicken. My parents, like most true-blood Indians, love to shower people with their hospitality and feed them till they’re almost ready to burst. We Indians are known for our need to treat our guests with the utmost care and generosity, and one common way we all seem to achieve in doing so is through our food – like these Tandoori Chicken Pops.
Food holds a very special place in any Indian household. No festivity is complete without a table laden with colourful dishes end to end, enough to please a king. It’s no wonder that out of all the rooms in a home, many Indians take the most pride in showing you their kitchens. Truly, we love food, and our life surrounds it. Our conversations, no matter how they begin always seem to divert to something food-related with the topic in question. A simple wedding announcement would automatically lead to the designing of the menu. Even meeting up with a long lost friend would be done over lunch or dinner, over the food they could reminisce about.
While our meals may be laced with rich aromatic flavours, what I look forward to the most at any Indian-inspired party is the platter of appetizers. Indian hors d’oeuvres range from savoury street food, like the most loved samosas (deep-fried pastry filled with potatoes) and pakodas (spiced fritters), to the ever famous tandoori chicken and tikkas (marinated meat grilled in a clay oven). They are steamed, grilled and fried. They come in various sizes and shapes, some that can be daintily picked by two fingers, and others that require a spoon and lots of napkins. No matter in what form, they each have something special to offer, and no cocktail party would regret having them.
Ask anyone who has ever walked the streets of any major Indian city, be it Delhi, Mumbai or Bangalore; and they will attest to the fact that no evening stroll is complete without making a stop at one of the many hawker stalls that surround every busy area in these cities. Street after street, stall after stall, you will be greeted by smiling faces and tempting plates that urge you to come and give it a try. Smothered with spicy and tangy chutneys, yogurt and tons of other fixings, each plate creates a whole new tale in your mouth. My fondest memories of my days spent in India involve sneaking out of the house on the pretext of an evening walk while I actually skipped to hawker next door and enjoyed deep fried savoury chips drowned in tangy yogurt and sweet tamarind chutney, running through the rain to buy a big batch of jalapeno fritters, and waiting in long lines to savour a bite of the best kebabs I had ever tasted on the face of this planet.
A friend recently asked me to make a list of some of my favourite food joints that I strongly feel she should try on her visit to Delhi. My response was simple: if she could stomach it, nothing beats the spicy street food.
TANDOORI CHICKEN POPS
Ingredients
- 2 large chicken breasts cut into thin strips
- 2 tbsp plain yogurt
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp ginger-garlic paste
- 1/2 tsp red chili powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 2 tbsp coriander powder
- salt to taste
- light cooking oil enough for deep frying
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- bamboo skewers
Instructions
- Marinate chicken strips yogurt, lemon juice, ginger-garlic paste, spices and salt. Allow it to sit in the fridge for at least an hour or so. For best results, marinate over night.
- Heat oil in a deep pan, large enough to fry 3-4 strips at a time. Dip each strip into plain flour, coating well on all sides, before adding them to hot oil.
- Deep fry the chicken strips till crisp and golden on all sides. Drain on paper towels, poke through with skewers and serve with Coriander-Mint Chutney.
- Alternatively, you can avoid deep frying by simply grilling the marinated chicken on a hot grill till tender and done.
If you enjoyed this recipe, then you will surely love my Crispy Spicy Fried Chicken recipe as well.
Made this recipe? Rate it by clicking the number of stars on the recipe card. Want to share your version with me? Tag me on Instagram @hookedonheat
MORE POSTS ON INDIAN COOKING 101
- Kitchen Essentials
- Part 1: Know your Spice
- Part 2: A Lesson in Lentils
- Part 3: Pickles and Chutneys
- Part 4: Indian Street Food
- Part 5: Cooking Curry for Beginners
- Part 6: Quick Cooking Tips for Indian Food
- BONUS 1: How NOT to Cook Indian Food
- BONUS 2: How to Cook Indian Meals in 20 Minutes
I followed this recipe and it was very delicious. Thanks for sharing – they were nice and crispy and I served in wraps with loads of fresh salad.
I saw a starter dish on the TV, it was a cup like a egg shell and a small jug of sauce, you pour the sauce into the holder and eat it in one go, all the dinner party guests raved about it, I want to make it but can`t find out what it`s called?
Would love to try to make love indian food and indian rice. Thanks for sharing.
I LOVE Indian food. I was just introduced to it last year and it made me wonder where it’s been all my life. I’ve cooked it a couple times myself and it’s just one of my favorite things to make. These look so good!
I am always looking for new Indian recipes. Thanks for sharing this! Carol
is there a version you could do where it’s baked? if so, any idea on timings?
hey nice blog you have here!!
did you coat the chicken with bread crumbs or something crisp because the pics of yours look like the chicken has been coated with something.
Hi Meena,
I love love love to cook and I am even going into baking an pastry arts. I tried this recipe for my family and they I was a genius!!! I know I couldn’t take the credit, so I told them of you and they were really proud that you came up the recipe. Absolutely genius!! What I did with mine is that I used my tandoori chicken recipe and used marinated chicken tenderloins and fried them like you expained.
It was genius, KEEP THE RECIPES FLOWING!!!
Hi Meena
Thank you for the yummy ideas especially the tandoori chicken pops. Can’t wait to try them out on my family.
Hey, I cooked these and your dahiwali chicken to prove how domesticated I’ve got at uni when I visited my parents. They came out great, my mum even asked me for the recipes!
Also would like to thank you for putting pictures up, lots of blogs and even cookbooks don’t which i think is a shame.
Hello Meena, the chicken looks soooooo yummy. Reading thru ur post i recollected and missed India a lot, and miss my parents, the Indian food, everything of India just too much. Will definitely try out your recipe soon.
Hi Meena, The tandoori chicken pops look awesome. Perfect Pic! You have an awesome amount of basic information about Indian cooking. I am passing you the “Rockin’ Girl Blogger”. Have a great time.
This is looking YUM! ….Perfect pictures….
wow! those look amazing!! slurp*
That looks yummy. It’s been years since I’ve been able to eat anything off the street! Since my belly went all western timed with my move to England. Now I just satisfy myself by eating street food in posh places!!
This is definitely a must-have the next time I entertain.
Hi Meena,
Wow! simply mouth watering….congrats on your new home…….have a question about the recipe? can we broil or roast them in oven?…
Rashmi
Congrats on your new home! Don’t you feel a wonderful sense of frreeeeedom?!
🙂
Jaden
Oh my goodness, I’ve never been to your blog before, and this was the first entry of yours I have read, and I am sold! These tandoori chicken pops could NOT LOOK BETTER. I want them now!!! 🙂
you keep changing your design. i like it 🙂
will try this recipe as soon as i get back home!
What a great photo of the chicken on the skewers. They look just delicious!
Those look amazing and I’m sure my kids would love them. You have a wonderful site and I look forward to trying your recipes!
These look really good! When you dip the chicken in the flour, does it make more of a batter? By the way, I think this should be Part 4 instead of 3. 🙂
Great blog! Loved some of the recipes (such as Dahiwala Chicken and the Methiwala Anda Curry). However, I need my curries to be fiery/hot/spicy, and so I probably need to see if you have more of your mom’s recipes here 🙂
These look like definite crowd pleasers! I’ll be making this for my next party.
They look absolutely wonderful! I’ll be trying these soon, thanks for the recipe.
These look gorgeous, Meena!
Fried chicken’s…It looks soooo good!
These are lovely Meena. Want to pop one right now