Panko Crusted Paneer Tikki

I have always loved watching food shows and still continue to watch a lot of them. I did notice that a lot of chefs use panko bread crumbs. Since I first heard about panko bread crumbs a few years ago, I have been wanting to try those. It was some time in last December that I bought panko for the first time. I love the foods that are coated with bread crumbs and fried in some way. I had only heard that panko bread crumbs are crispier than the regular bread crumbs and they sure are.

I had a few paneer cubes leftover from earlier batch that were sitting in my freezer for about two weeks (yes I have made paneer quite a few times in the last month since I posted the recipe). I wanted to use paneer in something other than a curry. So I thought let's make some paneer tikkis for snacking. I already had panko on hand so I decided to use them as well. I used a simple yogurt based marinade for paneer and then rolled paneer cubes in panko.

Paneer Tikki

(serves 2)

Ingredients:
8-10 paneer cubes
Oil for shallow frying

For Marinade:
1/4 cup yogurt
1/2 tsp ginger paste
1/2 tsp garlic paste
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp finely chopped cilantro
Salt to taste

1. In a bowl, mix together all ingredients for marinade.

2. Prick paneer cubes with a fork and coat all sides with marinade. Cover and let them sit in the fridge for 4-6 hours. Make sure to use firm paneer; this will prevent paneer from crumbling when you prick it.

3. Heat a pan and coat the bottom with oil. Coat paneer with panko bread crumbs from all sides.

4. Shallow fry all sides. Frying takes a little bit of patience as tikkis must be fried on a low to medium heat. Bread crumbs quickly turn brown if you use high heat and tikki will not cook all the way through.

5. Serve hot. Since tikki is marinated in the spice mix, it is tasty by itself. Of course you can serve it with tomato ketchup or any condiment of your choice.


I am sending this recipe to Nivedita of Nivedita's Kitchen for "Only Original Recipes" event. The "Only" event was originally started by Pari of Foodelicious. To find out more about the event, click here.