Sheekh Kabab/ Minced chicken or lamb skewer

During my Delhi Stay I have become fond of two items, momo and kabob. Although there were numerous restaurants that serve mughlai/Tandur cuisines, a group of Punjabi/Shikh  persons used to sell kabobs and tandur in a mobile van.They used to bring marinated and semi cooked tandurs and sheekh kabob in a van (mostly Maruti Omni car). On my way back home from office the rich aroma of burnt meat attracted me so much that I could hardly resist myself from  buying a good portion very often. I don't remember now how they used to sell hot staff in a car. I have not noticed that time that arrangement carefully but was busy digging in the tandurs or the kabobs. 

After marriage I discovered that my hubby is also fond of Mughlai cuisine. I have been wishing  to make sheekh kabob, reshmi malai kabob and many other items for a long time. But in India I did not have tandoor machines at home. After coming to USA, we got privilege of using convectional oven in our everyday life. So the door to make grilled and convectional food opened to us and really eased our cooking life.

Sheekh means iron rod. Sheekh kabob is the kabob that is cooked on a skewer (made of iron or bamboo).  

The simple recipe to cook Sheekh Kabob is as follows:

Ingredients:

1. Minced chicken or lamb: 2lbs
2. Onions finely chopped: 1 medium
3. Minced garlic: 1 tablespoon
4. Minced ginger: 1 tablespoon
5. White pepper powder: 1 teaspoon
6. Garam Masala powder (cardamom, cloves, cinnamon grounded): 2 teaspoon
7. Cumin powder: 1 tea spoon
8. Coriander leaves: 2 teaspoon
9. Green chillies: 3/4 finely chopped
10. Nutmeg powder: 1 teaspoon (I have used freshly crushed nutmeg) 
11. Skewer: 15-20 sticks

Steps:

1. Soak all the bamboo sticks in water for an hour. If you are using an iron skewer you can easily skip this step.  


2. Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

3. Then you need to take handful of the minced meat mixture and roll it around the soaked skewer. I have used two skewers per kabab to ensure that the stick does not break .

4. When all the kababs are made, you can brush little oil or ghee on them that gives a nice color. I have placed all the kabobs in a foil wrapped baking tray.

 5. Preheat the oven at 475 deg F.

6. Place the tray inside the oven preferably on the middle rack and cook it for 20 minutes.

7. Take the tray out after 20 minutes and rotate the kababs stick so that the other side faces up.

8.Put the tray back in the oven and cook for 10 minutes more.

9. Take the tray out and with the help pf a knife or scissor take the kabobs off the stick and serve it onto the plate. The trick is to push  the meat little down at both ends of the stick and the it comes out very easily.

10.Sprinkle some chat masala and lime juice over the kabob. Serve it with coriander chutney and salad.

Enjoy