Tandoori Chicken

How to Cook Tandoori Chicken

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1. Rub the chicken all over and deep into the slashes with the lemon juice, salt and chilli powder. Cover and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes.

   Mark done Start 30 min timer

2. Whisk the second marinade ingredients together into a thick paste and coat the chicken completely, working it into every cut.

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3. Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours, ideally 24. The yogurt must be thick or the marinade will slide off.

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4. Take the chicken out 45 minutes before cooking. Heat the oven to its absolute maximum, at least 250°C / 480°F, with a rack set over a foil-lined tray on the top shelf.

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5. Arrange the pieces on the rack with space between them, so hot air circulates and moisture escapes rather than pooling.

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6. Roast for 25 to 30 minutes, turning once, until charred in patches and the thickest part reaches 75°C / 167°F.

   Mark done Start 25 min timer

7. Switch to the grill for the final 3 to 4 minutes to blister the surface.

   Mark done Start 3 min timer

8. Brush with melted butter, rest 5 minutes, then dust with chaat masala and serve with onion rings and lime.

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Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.

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Keep an Eye on These

1. Strain the yogurt in a sieve for an hour first. Watery yogurt steams the chicken instead of charring it.
2. Skin off, always — the marinade cannot penetrate skin and it prevents the char.
3. On a barbecue, cook over indirect heat for 20 minutes then finish directly over the coals.

Common Substitutions & Variations

• Lemon is the everyday swap for limes in this kind of dish — the acidity plays the same role even though the flavour is not identical.
• If you only have ground ginger, a quarter-teaspoon for each tablespoon of fresh is the ratio usually given; it tastes warmer and less bright than the fresh root.
• An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.

A Little Background

The first marinade of lemon and salt acts as a dry brine, opening the meat so the second yogurt marinade can penetrate rather than sitting on the surface. Slashing to the bone gives heat direct access to the thickest parts, so the chicken cooks through before the outside burns.

To Go With It

A cold lager or an off-dry Riesling · Serve with naan, mint chutney and sliced onion · Follow with kulfi

Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Idiyappam, Kerala Appam, Lachha Paratha.

Keeping Tandoori Chicken

Refrigerate 3 days. Reheat at 200°C / 390°F for 10 minutes. The meat is excellent cold in wraps.

Quick Answers

Tandoori Chicken Nutrition Facts

No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (most of the energy comes from foods with no recorded source). Why some recipes have none.

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