Tandoori Paneer Recipe: 3 Ways to Serve Tandoori Paneer

Tandoori paneer, also known as paneer tikka, is a popular Indian dish consisting of marinated paneer cheese baked in a traditional tandoor oven. Tandoori paneer is a popular vegetarian variation on chicken tikka, featuring store-bought or homemade paneer, also known as Indian cottage cheese. Tandoori paneer tikka masala, another variation of the dish, features creamy spiced tomato sauce.

Restaurant-style paneer tikka involves using the broiling function of an oven to mimic the effects of a true tandoor. Home cooks can use a cast-iron skillet or griddle, like an Indian tava, for grilling or pan-frying the cheese as they see fit.

Tandoori cooking is an Indian cooking method that centers around the tandoor, a large, cylindrical clay oven. These traditional ovens can be charcoal or wood-fired, with the heat source concentrated within the oven, resulting in a hybrid between live-fire and traditional oven cooking.

The most common Indian foods cooked in a tandoor oven are naan, the fluffy, leavened flatbread, and various tikka dishes featuring ingredients marinated in a spice-infused yogurt, which chefs then lower into the oven on skewers to cook and caramelize.

Enjoy tandoori paneer on its own, or incorporate it into your next meal:

1. 1. As a wrap: Tuck tandoori paneer inside a fresh chapati (roti), dosa (rice and lentil pancakes), besan chilla (chickpea or gram flour pancakes), or warmed flour tortilla, with a few slivers of pickled red onion and cucumber raita, then garnish it with chopped fresh cilantro. For additional protein, add scrambled eggs, or make it more filling with a spoonful of roasted potatoes.
   
2. 2. As part of a meal: Serve tandoori paneer as an appetizer, main course, or side dish alongside other Indian recipes like saag (curried greens), jeera rice (rice with cumin seeds), and an assortment of condiments like mint chutney and achar (pickles).
3. 3. In paneer tikka masala: Paneer tikka masala is a vegetarian take on chicken tikka masala, featuring paneer and an optional assortment of veggies in a rich tomato-and-onion-based sauce. The dish marries the spiced yogurt marinade from tandoori cuisine with a velvety, North Indian-style tomato gravy as seen in butter chicken (murgh makhani) or paneer butter masala.