Chicken Malai Kebabs

A popular Indian classic, commonly known as Murg Malai Kebabs. These chicken malai kebabs are creamy chicken skewers. A simple, easy and effortless recipe using a yogurt-based marinade with cheese and spices. It takes five minutes to marinate and six minutes on the grill. Serve with naan, chapati, roti or flavored rice.

Table of Content

• Ingredients and substitutes
• Step by step instructions
• Tips to perfect grilled skewers
• You may also like
• Printable Recipe

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Have you been to an Indian restaurant and eaten these Murg Malai Kebabs? Well, if you ordered kebabs at an Indian restaurant you most probably have tried these. Murg Malai kebabs mean Creamy Chicken Skewers. Murg is chicken, malai is cream and kebabs refers to the skewers. Honestly, ain't nothing like these, they just melt in the mouth.

Unlike most other Indian dishes, this can be made absolutely without any red chilly, cayenne, paprika, or green chilly peppers. Which is why this one is very popular with my non-Indian friends.

The recipe, as you can see in the video, is pretty simple, easy and straightforward. You can make this in summer over a BBQ or in winter using a skillet. They take about 5 minutes to marinate and about 6 minutes to cook. If you choose to skip the marinade time, you can have dinner in 15 minutes or less. Most importantly, the flavor. That's a whole new world with these kebabs. While the lemon juice tenderizes the chicken, the yogurt, sour cream and cheddar cheese, when grilled over it, just melt into the chicken. That gives you this soft, juicy, creamy chicken that is nothing like you have tasted before.

Ingredients and substitutes

• Chicken - For me, chicken thighs are always the best for grilling. They do not dry when cooking, and they absorb a lot more favor, unlike breast. Having said that, you can most certainly use chicken breast. The cooking time will be less if you use chicken breast, about 3 to 4 minutes on the high grill.
• Ginger and garlic - A must have in Indian meat dishes. I always use fresh ginger and garlic in my recipes. You can grate them or mince them finely, so they cook and blend into the meat. Also, no one likes to bite into a big piece of ginger or garlic.
• Lemon juice - This tenderizes the chicken, but also blends all the ingredients together beautifully.
• Yogurt, sour cream - Use plain yogurt, which adds a nice tartness and the sour cream makes it creamy. So, do use a combination of the two as they do really well in this dish.
• Cheddar - Not much, and yet goes a lot way in making this kebab so much more creamy.
• Spices - Not much and not too many, so you should not have a problem finding them. Having said that, if you still don't have these spices, try adding 1 tbsp curry powder instead. It will be a little different than this recipe because curry powder has more spices in the blend, but it will still be delish!

Step by step instructions

• Soak 10 to 12 skewers - always soak skewers in water for at least 30 mins.
• Prepare Chicken - clean, cut into bite-size pieces - pat dry any excess moisture.

Marinate chicken

• Place chicken in a marinate safe bowl.
• Season with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.
• Add spices, ginger, garlic and combine well.
• Then, add in the yogurt, sour cream and grated cheddar - combine well.
• Lastly, add the cilantro and chilly if using.
• Cover the bowl and let the chicken marinade for an hour to 3 hours or overnight in the fridge.

Skewer and grill

• When ready to grill - thread the chicken pieces on the skewers.
• Add about 3 to 4 pieces on each skewer.
• Brush or drizzle some cooking oil over the skewers.
• Heat the grill on high.
• Grill the skewers for 3 minutes on each sides turning as needed to ensure it cooks evenly on all sides.
• Enjoy!

Tips to perfect grilled skewers

1. Always grill meat when it's room temperature not cold. Cold meat will seize the meat making it tough on the hot grill.
2. Cut meat into bite-size pieces - large pieces tend to either burn on the outside while the meat towards the skewer cooks.
3. Always soak the skewers in water for 30 minutes to prevent skewers burning
4. Make sure grill to HOT when grilling - you must hear that sizzling sound or you start to stew the meat.
5. Never overcrowd the grill pan, this will reduce the temperature of the pan and stew not grill the meat.
6. Turn the meat to make sure you cook evenly
7. If the meat is stuck to the grill do not force the meat off. let it cook until the meat is released. This will give you a nice grilled meat and not waste the best part stuck to the grill. Plus you won't ruin your grill pan.

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Printable Recipe