If you have ever eaten a real Chicken Tikka, you already know the difference. The smoke. The char on the edges. The way the meat is still juicy on the inside even after the fire has done its work.
The dish
The word "tikka" is not English. It comes from old Persian, where it simply meant "pieces" or "small chunks". The word travelled with Persian traders and Mughal rulers into the Subcontinent hundreds of years ago, and it stuck. Today you still hear it across Pakistan and India whenever someone is talking about small pieces of meat cooked over fire.
So "Chicken Tikka" really just means "chicken in pieces". The dish was built around that idea. Cut the chicken into small pieces so it cooks fast over fire, marinate it so it stays soft, and then let the fire do the rest. Three steps. The trick is in how you do each one.
Chicken Tikka — charcoal grilled, fresh to order, at Kebabish Florida Road
The history
Most food historians point to the Mughal court for where Chicken Tikka really took shape. The story that gets told is that the first Mughal Emperor Babur was scared of choking on chicken bones. He told his cooks to take all the bones out before grilling the chicken for him. So they did. They cut the chicken into small boneless pieces, marinated them in yoghurt and spices, and put them over fire.
The dish was called something close to "joleh" back then, the Persian word for pieces. Over time it picked up the name "tikka" and it spread across the Mughal Empire. The Mughals brought the yoghurt marinade from Central Asia and Persia. The clay tandoor came next. When those Persian habits met the spice traditions of the Punjab and the wider Subcontinent, you got something new. That something new is what we still eat today.
Our roots
Our family is Arain, a Muslim community with deep roots in the Punjab going back many centuries through Persia and the wider region. Before 1947 the family lived in Amritsar, and after Partition we moved to Faisalabad, also in the Punjab. So when we talk about Chicken Tikka being a Punjabi dish, we are not just talking about geography. We are talking about the food we grew up eating at home.
The Punjab is the land of five rivers. It is one of the most fertile parts of the Subcontinent and it has been a food capital for centuries. The grilling tradition is strong there because the Punjab sits on the old trade routes that connected Persia to the rest of Asia, and grilling meat over open fire is what Persian and Central Asian travellers brought with them.
Amritsar before 1947 was one of the great food cities of the whole region. It had a thriving Muslim and Punjabi food culture, and grilled meat was at the heart of it. When you eat our Chicken Tikka, you are eating a dish that comes directly out of that history.
"When you eat our Chicken Tikka, you are eating a dish that comes directly out of that history. Hundreds of years of fire, spice, and tradition on one plate."
How we cook it
A lot of restaurants will tell you they cook Chicken Tikka in a tandoor. That is one way to do it, and it is a good way. The tandoor is a clay oven shaped like a barrel, and the meat hangs on skewers down inside it where the heat is fierce. We do it differently. At Kebabish we cook our Chicken Tikka over an open charcoal fire. This is the older way — the way you would have seen it cooked on the streets of Lahore or Amritsar a hundred years ago.
Why this matters
Something familiar
If you are reading this in Durban, you already understand fire cooking better than most people in the world. The braai is one of the strongest food traditions in this country, and it lines up almost exactly with what we do.
Both traditions believe the same thing. Fire changes meat in a way that nothing else can. Coals matter. Smoke matters. Standing around the fire while it cooks, that matters too.
When South African customers come into Kebabish for the first time and try our Chicken Tikka, a lot of them say it tastes familiar even though they have never eaten Pakistani food before. That is because the fire does the same work in both kitchens. We are not so different from each other when it comes to how we feed people. The spices are different. The fire is the same.
The secret
The marinade is where the dish lives or dies. We make ours in-house, every batch, from scratch. No premade pastes. No shortcuts.
The base is yoghurt, the same way the Mughals did it. Yoghurt does two jobs. It tenderises the meat so it stays juicy after the fire dries it out. And it carries the spices into the chicken so the flavour goes all the way through, not just on the surface.
The chicken sits in this marinade for hours before it ever sees the fire. That is not negotiable. If the marinade does not have time, the dish will not have flavour.
Fresh every order
Every order of Chicken Tikka at Kebabish is cooked fresh. We do not pre-grill batches of chicken and warm them up later. When you order, the chicken goes onto the skewer and then onto the charcoal grill. You wait for it. We promise it is worth waiting for.
The cook turns the skewers at the right moments. The outside of the chicken should pick up a deep colour, a real char, but the inside has to stay soft and full of juice. Get the fire too hot and you dry the meat. Get the fire too low and you lose the char. There is a window, and a good cook hits that window every single time.
We serve our Chicken Tikka with fresh lemon, raw onion rings, and our own mint chutney. That is the traditional way. The lemon and onion cut through the richness of the chicken. The chutney brings the cool note that balances the smoke.
Every order goes on the grill when you place it. We do not pre-cook batches. Around fifteen to twenty minutes from order to plate - and worth every minute.
Did you know?
Most people in South Africa have heard of Chicken Tikka Masala. It is one of the most ordered dishes in restaurants around the world. What a lot of people do not know is that Chicken Tikka Masala is not the same dish as Chicken Tikka, and it probably did not start in the Subcontinent.
The widely told story is that Chicken Tikka Masala was invented in Glasgow in the 1970s by a Pakistani chef named Ali Ahmed Aslam. A customer complained that the Chicken Tikka was too dry. The chef put it into a creamy tomato sauce. The customer loved it. The dish spread from there until it became the most popular curry in Britain.
We make both at Kebabish. The pure Chicken Tikka straight off the grill, and the Masala version with the rich tomato sauce. They are different dishes. Order them both and you will see what we mean.
Come in
We have three branches across Durban: Florida Road, North Beach, and Overport. You can dine in with us, take it away to eat at home, or have it delivered. The Chicken Tikka travels well so a takeaway will still be hot and full of flavour by the time you eat it.
All our locations are easy to find with convenient parking. We are open for lunch and dinner, and our kitchens run the charcoal grill all the way through.
If you have never tried real Punjabi Chicken Tikka before, this is the place to start. And if you grew up eating it, you will know within the first bite that we are doing it right.
Good to know
Yes. Kebabish is Halaal Certified by The Halaal Foundation of South Africa (THFSA).
It is medium spicy by Pakistani standards, which means it has heat but it is not painful. Most South African customers find it a comfortable level. If you want it milder we can adjust on request when you order.
Yes, both. We do dine in, takeaway, and delivery in the Durban area. The Chicken Tikka holds its flavour well in a takeaway box.
Open charcoal grill. We do not use a tandoor for our Chicken Tikka. Charcoal gives a deeper smoke and a stronger char on the outside.
No, they are different dishes. Chicken Tikka is the grilled chicken on its own. Chicken Tikka Masala is the same chicken simmered in a creamy tomato sauce. We serve both.
Around fifteen to twenty minutes from order to plate. The chicken goes on the grill once you order, so it is fresh every time.
Naan bread, plain rice, or one of our Biryanis. A side of mint chutney, a fresh salad, and lemon. That is the traditional way to eat it.
Yes. We do dine in for larger groups and we can prepare bigger orders for takeaway with a bit of notice. Give us a call on 031 303 7806.
49 Florida Road, Berea, Durban, 4001. We are right in the middle of the Florida Road restaurant strip.
Yes. We do not pre-cook batches. Every order goes onto the grill when you place it.
Dine in at any of our branches, order online for delivery, or give us a call. The charcoal grill is on all day.
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