Tandoori Chicken is a popular Indian dish but many versions are bland and dry. Our grilled Tandoori chicken recipe comes out juicy and exploding with flavour!
ingredients:
For the marinade:
3 ounces plain Greek yogurt (85g)
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons garlic (minced)
2 tablespoons fresh ginger (grated)
2 teaspoons oil
2½ teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons ground Indian red pepper (you can use cayenne or even Korean red chili powder in a pinch)
6 chicken leg quarters (cut into drumsticks and thighs)
1 cucumber (sliced)
1 medium red onion (sliced)
Cilantro for garnish (you can also use parsley)
For the Indian-style rice, or "jeera" rice:
3 cups dry basmati rice (585g)
3 tablespoons oil (or butter or ghee)
3 teaspoons cumin seeds
6 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
2 teaspoons salt (or to taste)
1 cup frozen peas
method:
1. Mix all of the marinade ingredients together in a bowl until well combined.
2. Use a sharp knife to cut slits into the chicken pieces; this will allow the marinade to really get into the chicken. 3 slits per drumstick and 4 to 5 per thigh should do the trick.
3. Usually, Tandoori Chicken calls for the skin to be removed, but you can leave it on if you want that crispy chicken skin. You can decide for yourself, but be aware that skin-on chicken is more prone to flare-ups when grilling. You’ll have to watch the chicken more closely while it’s on the grill and flip the pieces more often to avoid hot spots--all reasonable trade-offs for some extra flavour!
4. Place the chicken in a large dish. Spread the marinade all over the chicken and let marinate at least 12 hours, but not more than 2 days.
5. Be sure to take the chicken out of the refrigerator 1 hour prior to grilling, so the chicken can come to room temperature--kind of like how you never want to grill a cold steak. This is an important step since there will be marinade on the chicken, and it will burn if the chicken is left too long on the grill because its internal temperature is too low.
6. Now it's time to cook the chicken. Start your grill, and keep it covered until it reaches 500 degrees.
7. Shake off the excess marinade before placing the chicken on the hot grill. Cook with the grill covered, but stay close to watch for excess smoke, a sure indicator that your chicken is charring!
8. Turn the chicken as often as needed to prevent burning and keep the grill cover on so the chicken cooks through quickly. Our chicken took about 45 minutes, and we did have to turn and move the chicken pieces often.
9. The chicken is done when the juices run clear when poked or, better yet, use an instant-read thermometer to check the temperature near the bone. The optimal temperature for chicken is 165 degrees F.
10. Serve the chicken with the rice, sliced fresh cucumbers, sliced red onion, and coriander.
