Tandoori chicken recipe- learn how to make the restaurant-style delicious tandoori chicken recipe at home on the gas stove and in the microwave oven described with step by step pictures. Tandoori chicken is one of the most popular indian style grilled chicken starters famous in the entire world as indian barbecue. This dish is always high in demand for its unique cooking style and smoky flavored juicy, tender chicken with special grill effects.
In indian subcontinents, this tandoori chicken recipe is also known as tandoori murgh, or murgh tandoor as the chicken or murgh is prepared in a special cylindrical-shaped covered clay oven called tandoor. That is the reason it is mostly available in roadside food joints like punjabi style dhabas and all non-vegetarian restaurants own that traditional tandoor oven.
For making the same restaurant-style soft, juicy, flavourful tandoori chicken recipe must use two steps marination process. First marinate the chicken pieces in lemon juice, chilli powder, salt and vegetable oil and secondly marinade it with hung curd, ginger-garlic paste, a special homemade tandoor masala and other ingredients(described below) for few hours. Though for the best result charcoal oven grilling is a must, but I prepared it in a butter greased grilled pan.
Though you may use store-bought or ready-made tandoori chicken masala which is easily available in the market. However, I don’t prefer to buy the packet masala rather I use my own homemade masala made from scratch. Here I described the masala recipe too so you may try it out as I did. Through that recipe, you can easily prepare that ready-made packet style masala at home with the common ingredients available in every indian kitchen.
But tandoor can not be available at home and in our indian kitchen people mostly use gas stoves for cooking food not even a microwave oven. So I decided to share the easy process of how to make tandoori chicken recipe at home on the stovetop, though I discussed the microwave oven method too. Use any one of these two methods as per your convenience.
The red, rich texture of tandoori chicken seems to be hot and spicy. Actually use of red food color and kashmiri chilli powder makes it more colorful, however, it is not hot at all. But you may avoid the food colour if you feel it is not healthy to eat.
kids to elders all love this recipe so let them enjoy it by serving it before dinner as an appetizer or as a side dish with dinner. Must serve it with few lemon wedges, onion or vegetable salads, and a Green Coriander-Mint Chutney(check from my website). Even the sprinkle of chaat masala and lemon juice must enhance the taste of this hot smoky tandoori chicken.
Try some other chicken starters from my site
Tandoori chicken recipe
Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 25 mins
Total time: 35 mins
Servings: 4 people
Course: Starters
Cuisine: Indian
Author: Moumita Paul
Ingredients
- 4 full chicken legs(weighs 700gm)
- 1/2 cup hung curd or thick yogurt
- 1 tsp ginger paste
- 2 tsp garlic paste
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
- 1 1/4 tsp spicy red chilli powder
- 1/4 tsp red food colour(optional)
- 1 1/2 tsp mustard oil
- 1.5 tsp vegetable oil
- 3/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1/2 tsp chaat masala
- 1 tsp tandoori masala
- 1/2 tsp black salt
- 1 1/4 tsp garam masala
- 3 tbsp roasted gram flour or sattu
- 1 tsp ghee
- 4-5 tbsp butter
- salt(as per taste)
Homemade chicken tandoori masala
- 1 tbsp Kasuri methi
- 1 black cardamom
- 5-6 green cardamom
- 1-inch cinnamon
- 8 cloves
- 1/2 mace
- 1/4 nutmeg
- a pinch of hing
How to make tandoori chicken recipe with step by step pictures
Instructions
Making of homemade chicken tandoori masala
- Take Kasuri methi, black cardamom, green cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, mace, nutmeg, hing in a grinder jar.
- Then grind it together to make a fine powdered homemade tandoori masala. Keep it aside for later.
Marinade the chicken
First step of marination
- Take 4 full chicken leg pieces that weigh 700 gm, even you may take breast pieces too. Clean it in lukewarm water, and squeeze to remove water and make it dry. Keep it in a mixing bowl.
- Then take a knife and make 4 to 5 slits on the each chicken pieces.
- Marinade the chicken with 1 lemon juice, 3/4 tsp red chilli powder, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1 1/2 tsp vegetable oil.
- Mix it well, cover the bowl with a plate and leave it for 30 mins.
Second step Marination
- After 30 mins, marinade the chicken with ginger- garlic paste, 1/2 tsp red chilli powder, Kashmiri chilli powder, turmeric powder, pepper powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, black salt, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp homemade tandoor masala, or 1 &1/2 tsp store-bought masala, chaat masala, hung curd or thick yogurt, 1 &1/2 tsp mustard oil. Mix it well.
- Lastly, add 3 tbsp dry roasted gram flour or besan or even sattu and 1/4 tsp red food colour. Again mix it well and cover the bowl and leave it to marinade for 2 hrs.
smoking method for tandoori chicken
- After 2 hrs, place a small metal bowl in the marinated chicken, burn a piece of charcoal and place it on the same bowl with a teaspoon of ghee.
- That will start releasing smoke, so immediately cover the bowl with a plate and leave it for 10 mins. Within 10 mins, the chicken will absorb the smoke.
- Just after 10 mins, take out the bowl contains burning charcoal.
How to make tandoori chicken
On Gas/ Without oven method
- Heat a pan or tawa on low to medium flame, add 3 cubes of butter, let it completely meltdown.
- Add the chicken pieces to the pan, cover the pan, and cook it on a slow flame for 10 mins.
- After 10 mins, turn the chicken pieces and again cover the pan to cook the other side of chicken for another 10 mins.
- After this 20 mins of cooking, the chicken will be juicy and tender. Must check it with a knife or fork, if it easily inserts into the chicken, indicates the chicken is perfectly cooked.
- Then remove the chicken pieces on a plate. And put the rest of the uncooked chicken into the same pan and cook it in the same way described above.
- When all the chicken pieces are nicely cooked. Heat a grill pan (or even a tawa) on medium to high heat, add 4 small butter cubes, grease the pan with it.
- Once the butter melts down, then add the chicken pieces to it and fry it from both sides by brushing some butter till the restaurant-style tandoor texture comes.
- The restaurant-style delicious tandoori chicken is ready just on a gas oven, serve it with wedges of lemon, salads, and Green chutney.
Grilling method on direct flame
- Even you may grill the chicken directly into the flame by using a roti grill jali. Similarly, grease butter from both sides as I did.
- But don’t put it in the fire for a long time, that can make the chicken dry. As sometimes the same thing happens with the restaurant’s tandoori items.
- Even after applying the first part of my pan-fried method, you may lastly place the chicken on the direct flame to get the charred texture and smoky flavor.
In Oven/ In Otg method
- Microwave or otg users must preheat the oven for 20 mins at 180-degree temperature.
- Then place the chicken on the grill rack and must put a microwave-proof plate under the rack, to prevent the oven from getting messy.
- Thereafter, set its grill mode to cook the chicken for 10 mins for each side. (same as done in my recipe)
- Lastly grease each side with butter and grill the chicken from both sides for two and a half minutes to get that charred effect.
Tips
- You may use the same masala for making the other tandoori items with fish, prawns, or even with any meat.
- Here I used milky mist’s probiotic curd or unflavoured yogurt which is thick enough and healthy too. Though you may prepare your own hung curd by keeping the runny curd in a strainer or hang it in a cotton cloth for 30 mins. This procedure will help to remove the excess water from the curd to make it thick as required.
- If the chicken weighs 1 kg to 1.5 kg then cut it into four pieces for making this recipe. If the chicken weighs 1.5 to 3 kg, then cut it into 6 pieces.
- A small size chicken that weighs less than 1 kg is perfect for making a whole chicken tandoor.
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