Paneer Tikka is an appetizer made with Indian Cottage cheese marinated with spices & herbs, roasted on a grill and served with mint yoghurt chutney.
Table of Contents
Paneer Tikka
Paneer Tikka is an Indian appetizer made using paneer that is coated with various herbs and spices and grilled in an oven called a ‘Tandoor’. At home, we grill paneer tikka on a grill pan, oven or an air fryer.
Usually served with mint-yogurt chutney, paneer tikka has a lovely, charcoaly-spicy taste with a soft and moist paneer at the center.
A Tikka is any dish marinated and grilled on an open flame or a tandoor. The most popular of vegetarian tikkas is Panner Tikka. Paneer Tikka is the most ordered dish by vegetarians at restaurants.
I’ve eaten some amazing Paneer Tikka, and it surprised me to learn that paneer tikka was an invention of the 1960s!! I thought it was much earlier than that. Read here to know more about it.
Ingredients to make Paneer Tikka
There are three main ingredients needed to make Paneer Tikka
- Paneer
- Hung Curd or thick curd
- Besan or chickpea flour
- Your choice of spices
How to make paneer at home?
If you plan to make paneer at home, you will need 1l of milk. Bring the milk to a boil and switch off the flame.
Add two tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar. Give this a good stir, and you will observe the milk curdling. To this mixture, add a teaspoon of salt and mix it well. After 2-3 minutes, collect all the paneer pieces into a muslin cloth and shape it into a large cube that you can cut into equal pieces later.
Pack the paneer tightly and place a heavy object on top, such as a stone mortar and pestle, so the paneer sets well. Give this process about 30 minutes to an hour; your fresh paneer will be ready.
How to make hung curd at home?
To make hung curd at home, you will need either 500g of homemade curd or store-bought packet curd. Please put a muslin cloth in a large bowl to cover the base. Pour the curd over the muslin cloth, lift it from the bowl, and let it hang for a few hours. Once the whey has dripped into the bowl below, the hung curd is ready.
You can also buy hung curd, or any curd packaged in a plastic tub sufficiently thick enough for the marinate.
Besan and the spices to be gathered
I have noticed that roasting the besan or chickpea flour on low heat for two minutes works wonders to get the best flavour of Paneer tikka.
Add the hung curd, roasted besan, ginger-garlic paste, red chilli powder, coriander powder, onion powder (optional), mustard oil and kasuri methi in a large bowl. Please give it a mix before adding in the cubes of paneer. Add squares of diced onion and capsicum to the marinate to alternate between the paneer cubes.
Mix it gently so the marinate coats each paneer and vegetable evenly. Let this rest for at least 30 minutes. Resting the marination bowl in the fridge overnight will yield wonderful flavours for the next meal.
How to make a restaurant like Paneer Tikka at home?
In restaurants, chefs usually grill paneer Tikka in a tandoor, yielding that delicious charcoal-y flavour.
If you want to recreate that taste, you can get a piece of charcoal from your local dobhiwala. Heat the piece of coal with the help of a tong until you can see it is red. Place the charcoal piece in a cup, and place the cup inside the bowl in which you’ve been marinating the paneer pieces.
Now, pour some ghee on top of the hot coal. You’ll see that it will start smoking. Place a lid on the marinate bowl and let the paneer pieces absorb the charcoal flavour from the smoke. Keep the lid on until the smoke from the coal stops, and I assure you that you will taste the smokiness in your paneer.
Serving Suggestions
If you have kids in the house who cannot handle the heat from spices, you can marinate the paneer with salt and pepper. Grill it on the pan and squeeze some lemon juice before serving it to the kids. They will love it.
Serve the paneer tikka with a side salad of finely sliced cabbage, onions and slices of limes and mint-yoghurt dip. The paneer’s heat and the mint chutney’s cooling effect will work wonders on your palette and experience.
Storage and Shelf Life
Paneer Tikka, once grilled, is best eaten immediately. The paneer tends to get a rubbery texture as it cools down to room temperature.
You may prepare the marinate and coat the paneer pieces in it and keep them in the fridge overnight. This will aid in the paneer absorbing the flavours from the spices very well.
It’ll be great if you tag me on Instagram @ Makepotato, when you make this recipe.
Please do leave a rating and a comment if you can, on the recipe below – it will help me grow and reach more food lovers like you.
Recipe
Paneer Tikka
Ingredients
- 200 g Paneer homemade is best
- 1 Capsicum cubed into big pieces
- 1 Onion cubed into big pieces
- 1 Tomato cubed into big pieces (optional)
For the marinate
- 2 tbsp Besan roasted
- 100 g Hung Curd you can use curd that is thick
- 1 tsp Red Chilli Powder increase according to taste
- 1 tbsp Ginger Garlic paste
- 1 tsp Coriander Powder
- 1 tsp Onion Powder if you have it
- 1 tbsp Kasuri Methi
- Salt as per taste
- 3 tbsp Oil mustard oil, preferred
Instructions
Prep Work
- Cut the paneer pieces into equal size cubes. Cut the onions, tomatoes and capsicum in similar size as the paneer so that all pieces can be skewered and grilled evenly.
- Roast the besan on a slow flame for 2 minutes. The roasting will yeild a lovelt flavour to the mariante.
- Add the hung curd, roasted besan and rest of the ingredients under the "For the marinate" to a large bowl.
- Mix well and add the cubed paneer pieces and vegetables. Give it a good mix until all the pieces get coated evenly with the masala. Keep aside at room temperature for at least 30 minutes. You could even make it overnight, but make sure to leave the bowl out of the fridge at least 30 minutes before you grill them.
How to make Paneer Tikka on the grill pan
- Take pieces of marinated paneer and pierce them on to a skewer. You can alternate it with cubed pieces of capsicum, tomato and onion.Prepare all the skewers of paneer and vegetables and keep aside. If you do not wish to skewer them, you can even place the individual pieces to grill them.
- Place a grill pan on medium flame and let it warm up. Brush the pan with some oil.
- Place the skewers on the grill and let the grill do its job. It will take about 45-60 seconds on each side for a nice charred/grilled finish. Flip the skewered on to the other 3 sides until all sides get a nice grill finish. (Please cut the paneer cubes equally so that each of the paneer piece gets grilled evenly.)
- Once done, repeat it for all the skewers. Place them on a plate and drizzle some lime juice over it. Serve with mint & yogurt chutney.
- If you have leftover masala from the paneer sticking to the sides of the bowl, just toss a few of those cubed vegetables in it, skewer the vegetables and grill them too.
How to grill Paneer Tikka in the air fryer?
- Pre heat the air fryer for 5-6 minutes on 170C.
- Place the pieces of marinated paneer and vegetables in the air fryer with sufficient space next to them.
- Close the fryer and begin the grilling at 170C for a total of 15 minutes. Around the 8 minutes mark, turn the pieces of paneer and vegetables around and brush a little oil over them.
- Once the machine beeps, remove and place the pieces in a serving tray with some mint yogurt chutney.
If you are looking for more Indian Snack recipes, please click here.
Do follow me on Instagram at Make Potato – I post daily lunch box ideas and quick snack recipes.
