Tandoori Chicken (Indian BBQ Chicken)

Hello Everyone! Its been a really long time sine I posted any dish on my blog. I was busy holidaying and lazying around for the past 3 weeks. I have umpteen number of dishes to post on the blog but was not getting time to put any of it. I was pre-occupied with the household chores, had been to my friend's place for a few days, then witnessed a Live Cricket Match in a stadium. My schedule was hectic but truly fun filled. I was in no mood to touch the Laptop after that. And now starts the Festive season of Indians . So am busy cooking up sweet dishes, every alternate day. I have a whole lot of pending recipes to show you all & I don't know where to start from. But for now, let me post my first pending dish which was in the queue for quite some time now. TANDOORI CHICKEN!! Any Indian Blog is missing something, if the blogger hasn't posted a recipe of India's most popular & Internationally renowned dish.... "Tandoori Chicken". ;)

"Tandoor", in Hindi is a name given to the deep, round clay oven, where pieces of charcoal or wood is burnt to cook the food. In short, it is the Indian Bar-Be-Que. But it needs a special skill to cook food in a Tandoor. And the Punjabis know it very well. Any North Indian, Non Vegetarian feast is incomplete without a dish of Tandoori Chicken. The meat or other veggies or even bread cooked in a Tandoor has its unique smoky taste unlike other grilled oven cooking. The high temperature, slow cooking of food enhances the flavour of it & this taste can only be described by a person who has truly relished it in the most traditional way.

Now one cannot have a Tandoor at home, hence in this recipe, the chicken is marinated in yoghurt and other herbed spices just like the traditional way, but cooked in the oven grill.

Ingredients:

• 4 thigh cum legs of chicken (skin removed)
• 1/2 cup yoghurt
• 3 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp garam masala powder
• 2 tsp cumin powder
• 2 tsp of coriander powder
• 2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
• juice of 1 lemon
• 25 gm butter (room temperature)
• 1/4 tsp of red food colour (compulsory, if you need to make the perfect Tandoori Chicken)
• salt to taste (use a bit more than your usual measure)

Garnish:

• 1 large onion (finely sliced lengthwise or round)
• 1 lemon (cut in 4 parts)

Method:

1. Clean the chicken pieces & make 3-4 slits on both the sides of the chicken with the help of a knife. Keep aside.
2. Take a medium sized bowl & mix in all the other ingredients (except the chicken & butter) mentioned above. This will be your marinade for the mixture.
3. Marinate the chicken pieces with this mixture. Make sure the marinade gets well inside the slit made in the chicken. Cover the chicken and keep it in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or a maximum of 6 hours.
4. Preheat the oven to 250 Degree Celsius and turn the oven into grill mode.Meanwhile take out the chicken from the refrigerator & coat the butter over the chicken pieces.
5. Place the chicken pieces on the racks of the oven & grill them for a minimum of 30 minutes to a maximum of 40 minutes.
6. Turn the chicken pieces to the other side after the 20th minute.
7. I keep it for 40 minutes, and the Chicken is perfectly cooked by then. Take out the chicken pieces and allow it to cool.
8. You can serve the chicken immediately with finely sliced onions topped over it & lemon squeezed on top.
9. But if your chicken is cooked a bit early before your supper, you can always heat the chicken again on a flat griddle for 5 minutes on each side. Place the sliced onions along with the chicken on the griddle. This will help you get that smoky effect of a Tandoor.

- Serve it hot as an Appetizer or as an Accompaniment. Mouthwatering indeed!!

Have sent this recipe to yummyfood-khushi@blogspot.com for the event "What's on your Kebab Platter"