Tandoori Chicken

Chicken has never tasted so good before!

Posted by Aditi

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A spicy, delicious Indian Tandoori Chicken marinaded in a yogurt sauce with a home-made tandoori spice mix.

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You Will Need (22 things)

  • 8 pieces Chicken legs

  • For the Brine

  • 8 cups Water
  • 4 Garlic Cloves
  • 2 tsp Salt
  • 4-6 Whole Black Pepper
  • 2-3 All Spice berries
  • 1 tsp Coriander Seeds , coarsely ground

  • For the Marinade

  • ½ in piece Beetroot , grated (this is only for color and will add no flavor)
  • ½ cup Sour Cream (or greek yogurt)
  • 3 Garlic cloves, minced
  • 1 tsp minced Ginger
  • 8 tbsp Tandoori Masala
  • 1 tsp Red Chili powder
  • 1 tsp Garam Masala
  • 1 tbsp Olive Oil (or any other oil of your preference)
  • juice of half a Lemon
  • Salt to taste (start with a teaspoon and add more as required)

  • For the Basting Liquid

  • 1 tbsp Sour Cream
  • 2 tbsp Tandoori Masala

Steps (4 steps, 60 minutes)

  1. 1

    For brining the chicken

    (a) Boil the water together with the salt, garlic, peppercorns, allspice and coriander. This is your brine- ready!

    (b) Allow the brine to cool down completely and in a separate large bowl add the chicken and pour the cooled brine over it. Seal the bowl properly with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours (or even overnight). We did this for 24 hours.

    (c) To prepare the chicken for marination, take out the chicken from the brine and wash it under cold water to get rid of the excess salt.

  2. 2

    For the Marination

    (a) After washing the chicken from the brine, pat it dry and gently make 2-3 slits on each side of the chicken leg. And set this aside.

    (b) Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a large bowl.

    (c) Add the chicken pieces to the marinade and marinate for at least 4 hours but ideally overnight in the refrigerator. Again, we marinated this for 24 hours.

  3. 3

    To make the Tandoori Chicken

    (a) Mix all the basting liquid ingredients together and set this aside.

    (b) When you are ready to make the tandoori chicken, take out the chicken from the refrigerator and bring it to room temperature, at least 20 minutes prior to popping it in the oven.

    (c) In the meanwhile, preheat the oven to 450 F.

    (d) Lay aluminum foil over a large sheet pan/ baking tray and brush the foil with oil.

    (e) Once the marinated chicken is at room temperature, arrange the chicken in a single layer and bake for about 20 minutes.

    (f) Then turn the chicken and cook on the other side for another 14-16 minutes or until fully cooked.

    (g) Then take out the sheet pan from the oven and set your broiler on high.

    (h) Baste the chicken with the basting liquid and put your sheet pan under the broiler for 2 minutes on each side. Keep an eye on this as you don’t want your chicken to burn.

    (i) Once it’s done your tandoori chicken is ready to serve! Who said we needed a tandoor to make tandoori chicken?

    (j) Serve with mint-cilantro chutney and some sliced up onions!

  4. 4

    Notes:

    (a) You can skip the brining step and directly marinade the chicken.

    (b) Cooking time should be altered (i.e. reduced) if you are using any other cut of chicken such as a breast or a thigh piece.

    (c) For the marinade, you could use regular yoghurt too but we would suggest you hang the yoghurt in a muslin cloth to get rid of the excess water. It’s better to marinade the chicken in a thick yoghurt with lower water content and sour cream or Greek yoghurt work best.