Homemade Tandoori Chicken

This is hubs-special recipe for a perfect Tandoori Chicken at home! Hubs did a lot of research for this dish and then with meticulous perfection he made it during Thanksgiving holidays last year. The result was perfectly luscious and tasty chicken drumsticks - not something even I could have ever attempted to make! 

When he decides to try a dish, hubs does not have a prejudice about how daunting the recipe or preparation will be; this is something which I cannot overlook. I would have never attempted to make this dish, 'cause frankly I know that it's not quite possible/easy to recreate a restaurant-style dish (mainly 'cause of treating the chicken in an oven). Well, good that now we have two types of cooks in our house now - one to make the regular dishes and another who likes to recreate the fancy dishes. 

Thank you dear hubs for penning down this recipe and taking pictures for my blog! You are the best! 

Source: Adapted from ‘Indian Cooking’ a book written by Madhur Jaffrey

Preparation : 30 minutes + marinating time ; Cooking Time : 25 minutes @ 550 F (MOST IMPORTANT)

Ingredients:

• Chicken – 1.5 lb / 680 gm / 5 leg piece

Marinade:

• Low fat Yogurt / Curd – 1 cup
• Onion – 1 (small around 57 gm)
• Lime – 1/2
• Garlic – 1 clove
• Ginger – 1/2 inch (size of garlic), peel the skin off
• Green Chili – 2
• Garam Masala – 1 1/2 tsp
• Salt – 1 tsp or as per taste
• Red food color + Orange Food Color (kesari powder) – few large drops

For Baking:

• Jelly roll pan or cookie tray.
• Aluminium/Aluminum Foil
• Pastry brush (optional)

Method:

• Wash the chicken legs. Let the water drain and place them on a large plate. Do not remove the skin part, it will actually protect the flesh when you bake. Create 2 slits on each side of the leg. The knife needs to touch the bone which means the slit is nice deep and big. This will help the marinade to penetrate into the chicken.
• Squeeze 1/2 lime into a bowl. To the lime juice, add 1/2 tsp salt. Mix it well so that the salt dissolves. Now take 1 leg piece at a time, take some lime juice and massage the chicken on both sides. Using a spoon or your hand add few drops of lime juice into the slits and massage it. Repeat with other chicken piece. By the time you massage the last piece you would have very less juice, but that’s ok. Place them back on a plate and refrigerate it for 20-30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in a blender/mixie, add yogurt/curd, garam masala, ginger, garlic, 1/2 tsp salt, green chili, sliced onion and grind it to a smooth paste. You might want to ensure that there are no small chunks of garlic or onion. Please feel free to adjust salt as per your taste. I have added extra salt to the paste.
• Now take the chicken from the refrigerator. Remember the bowl that you used to squeeze lime, add few drops of food color and few drops of water. Using your hand or brush, rub the food color on the chicken piece. Remember to rub in between the slits as well. Now your chicken will look all red. Don’t panic 
• Pour the marinade in a large bowl or a freezer bag. Add one chicken piece at a time and massage the paste into the slits and on both sides and leave it in the bowl/bag. Repeat. Now close the bowl or zip the freezer bag. Give a nice shake and keep them back in the refrigerator. Now you can forget about the chicken at least for 8 hrs or one whole day. I usually marinate it a day before and let it soak for one whole day. More you marinate better the taste.

• Next day: Clean up your oven (if you have any pots and pans in it) and preheat it to 550 F (that is the maximum I can set in my oven).  Take your cookie/jelly pan. Line it with aluminum foil generously. Take the marinated chicken out of your refrigerator, remove one leg piece and shake it up. Let the marinade drip completely. Place it on the cookie sheet/pan (ensure that the skin part covers the chicken). Repeat the same with other chicken pieces.
• Using your oven mitts, carefully place the tray into the center rack of the oven. Set the timer for 15 minutes. Let it cook. Then use your oven mitts again and pull the tray out. Baste it with marinade  using a brush or a spoon or something else but not your hand and put it back in the oven for 10 minutes. Let the juices run out. Don’t worry if the juices around the chicken starts burning. At this extreme temperature it has to.
• When the oven timer starts beeping, pull the tray out and let it cool slightly. Slowly take the chicken pieces. If it is stuck to the foil, no problem.  Remember I asked you to leave the skin part as is. So only the skin part might be sticking to it and the flesh part will still be safe  That's it, lip-smacking restaurant-style Tandoori Chicken is ready to serve.

Serving Suggestion: Wrap the bone part with small piece of aluminum foil to give a gourmet look. Serve it with sliced onion, green chili, lime/lemon wedges and a spicy green chutney.

Variations: You can use Chicken breast or thighs, but the cooking time will vary as the breast will cook faster than the drumsticks.

Note: You can use the remaining marinade to make curries like Tandoori chicken masala. Else you can freeze it and use it to make another batch of Tandoori Chicken.

It would be interesting to know what type of cook are you. Do you agree that a recipe can be daunting and deter you from not trying or recreating a new dish? Or are you the ones that just go with the flow? Do share your feedback in the comments below or on Facebook or Twitter!

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