- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Serving: For Family
Tandoori Chicken Recipe
The world famous dish, Tandoori Chicken came into existence in 1920’s in India when India was under the British rule. During that time, a person named Kundan Lal Gujral from Peshawar opened a restaurant, called Mohit Mahal, meaning a Palace of Pearls. He experimented with a chicken dish and cooked it in the conventional oven (Tandoor) made of clay. Usually, charcoal is put inside the oven that gives fuel to the fire and raises the heat to about 900 degrees. The chicken is marinated with yogurt and spices and then put inside the oven. Once it is done, it gets a crispy red colored coating with specks of black color from the heat along with the charcoal flavor. Since then, tandoori chicken has been found on the menu of almost every restaurant in India and countries like Middle East, South Asia, and other western countries that serve Indian cuisine.
Famous people like John. F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, King of Nepal, Soviet leaders like Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin, and Shah of Iran enjoyed Tandoori Chicken.
You can have tandoori chicken in almost every Indian restaurant; however, if you are already salivating and want to try it at home, here is the recipe to get the restaurant like tandoori chicken without worrying about the clay oven. That’s right, you can make it in the oven at your home!
Ingredients
- chicken pieces (drumsticks, bone-in thighs, breast halves) - 12 - 14 pieces
- thick yogurt - 1 cup
- grounded ginger - 1 teaspoon
- minced garlic - 1 teaspoon
- grounded cinnamon - 1 teaspoon
- grounded roasted cumin - 1 teaspoon
- coriander powder - 1 teaspoon
- coarsely ground black pepper - 1 teaspoon
- smoked paprika - 1 teaspoon
- lemon juice - 1 teaspoon
- salt - to taste
- red food color - optional
Instructions
- For marinade, take a bowl and mix yogurt, ginger, garlic, cinnamon, cumin, black pepper, coriander powder. smoked paprika, salt, red food color, and lemon juice.
- Put chicken pieces in the above marinade and coat them well. Take a zip-lock bag and put the marinated chicken in them. Zip them and refrigerate for about 8 to 12 hours.
- After 12 hours, take the zip-lock out of the refrigerator and keep it aside for half an hour at room temperature
- Pre-heat the oven and spray some cooking oil on the grill
- Place the marinated chicken legs and pieces on the grill and close the oven lid.
- Grill the pieces for 5 minutes and keep flipping the chicken after every 5 to 7 minutes so that the pieces are cooked from all sides.
- It takes about 18 to 20 minutes for the chicken to cook completely
- Once, it is done, take the chicken pieces out on a tray and serve with corianderor mint chutney (sauce) with onion rings. Add lemon wedges to add sourness to it.
