Oven Marinated Tandoori Chicken | Traditional Indian Recipe
5 min read
Tandoori chicken is one of the most popular chicken recipes in India and Pakistan, along with butter chicken , chicken korma, chicken curry , and of course chicken tikka masala .
This recipe consists of a chicken marinated in yogurt with different spices , which is then roasted in the oven . At least in the recipe that we are going to prepare today, because the original tandoori chicken is actually prepared in a tandoor oven , which is where its name comes from. But obviously we do not have one, so we will prepare it in our oven, and you will see how the recipe, in addition to being easy, you will like it for its flavor and color.
If you can prepare the marinade for your tandoori chicken the night before, you will enhance the flavors even more, but otherwise it needs at least two hours of maceration, so keep that in mind when doing it.
And the ingredients are very easy, both to find (we tell you where you can buy them), and even to make the rarest ones at home, so don’t be scared when you see the list of ingredients, because most of them are common spices. Check out more only at Petpooja.
Are you coming to see how to make this delicious baked tandoori chicken ?
Tandoori Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- Diced chicken (can be drumsticks, chicken wings or hindquarters)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
For the tandoori marinade
- 1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
- 2 tablespoons of sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon of hot paprika
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- ½ teaspoon of turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon Garam Masala powder
- 1 tablespoon of Tandoori Masala
- 1 greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons of oil
How to make Oven Marinated Tandoori Chicken
We prepare the Tandoori marinade
- Put the chicken in a large glass bowl or container. Depending on the piece of chicken you have chosen, we remove the skin and make some deep cuts in the meat so that the marinade penetrates the chicken better. In this case, we chose chopped chicken wings, so it was not necessary to cut them.
- Squeeze the lemon juice over the chicken and season with salt.
- We put the garlic and ginger paste (above we tell you where you can buy it but if not we explain below how to make it at home); 2 tablespoons of sweet paprika and 1 teaspoon of hot paprika; 1 teaspoon coriander powder; 1 teaspoon cumin powder; ½ teaspoon of turmeric; ½ teaspoon Garam Masala; 1 tablespoon of Tandoori Masala and a Greek yogurt.
- Mix well with your hands until a paste forms with which to marinate the chicken. Once we have the pasta, add two tablespoons of oil and stir again.
- Cover and leave in the fridge overnight if you can, or at least two hours.
we bake
- Preheat the oven to 220ºC
- Line a tray with aluminum foil and place a rack on top.
- Place the chicken on the rack well soaked with the marinade.
- Put the tray on top of the oven and cook for 8-10 minutes.
- Flip the chicken over and bake for another 5-6 minutes.
- Then we lower the oven temperature to 180ºC and place the tray in the middle of the oven.
- Brush the chicken with melted butter or oil.
- We bake 15 more minutes.
How to accompany the tandoori chicken
This tandoori chicken goes perfectly with basmati rice. To present it, sprinkle with coriander or, if you don’t like it, with parsley, and accompany with a few slices of lemon and, optionally, with a few slices of onion, which we can sauté with a little oil and lemon.
Ingredients for the marinade
This tandoori chicken is really very easy to make, and although you see many spices, they are all easy to make or even substitute others. However, as there are some that are essential to add flavor to your tandoori chicken marinade, we are going to explain how to make them at home if you cannot or do not want to buy them.
Garlic and ginger paste
This paste is a common ingredient in Indian food. You can buy it already made, but it may be difficult for you to find it in Spain or you may prefer to make it yourself, because it is quite easy. You can make it the same day or prepare more and freeze it to use when you need it.
Ingredients : Garlic, ginger and oil
Preparation : The proportion to make garlic and ginger paste is usually the same, that is, 50/50, but if you prefer, you can make the flavor of ginger or garlic dominate a little more. Peel the fresh ginger root and cut it into slices. Also peel the garlic cloves and put them all together in the blender glass. Add a little oil and start beating until you have a thick paste. You now have the ginger-garlic paste to use in the tandoori chicken marinade. If you have leftovers and want to freeze it, you can do so using an ice cube mold.
How to make homemade tandoori masala mix
Tandoori masala spice mix is easy to find in specialty stores or supermarkets, but you can also make it yourself at home. We leave you the ingredients:
Ingredients : 4 tablespoons of ginger powder; 3 tablespoons of coriander powder; 3 tablespoons of cumin; 2 tablespoons of sweet paprika; 1 tablespoon of cinnamon powder; ½ tablespoon of cloves; 2 tablespoons of salt; 1 tablespoons cardamom powder (optional); 1 tablespoons pepper (optional)
In this video you can easily see how to make your tandoori chicken, so you don’t have any doubts. In this case the ingredients can vary, because depending on the region they can change becoming more or less spicy.
Origin of marinated tandoori chicken
Tandoori chicken is one of the most famous dishes in India. It is a chicken marinated in yogurt and spices, and its name comes from the tandoor, which is a cylindrical clay oven in which it is cooked.
Although there are indications of similar dishes in ancient times, tandoori chicken as we know it today seems to have been invented by Kundan Lal Gujral, in Peshawar, present-day Pakistan. He tried cooking the chicken in the cylindrical clay oven, a tandoor, and it was a complete success.
Gujral was forced to flee to India due to political unrest with the British. He settled in Delhi and tried to make a living from the culinary skills he had learned in Peshawar. And so he built the iconic Moti Mahal, which became an internationally renowned restaurant. This restaurant internationally popularized Indian chicken recipes, since in addition to tandoori chicken, he also popularized butter chicken and Dal makhani.
