Tandoori Chicken (Indian Style Roasted Chicken)

Who doesn’t love tandoori chicken?? I love dry dishes more than the gravy. Let it be chicken 65 or grill chicken. The recipe for tandoori chicken is very simple. It requires double marination and gives an awesome restaurant-style taste. To get that dark red color, you can add edible food color to the marination. But I always try to avoid it. You could also add Kashmiri red chili powder.

Notes :

• If you do not have much time to soak it overnight, then keep the marinated chicken in the refrigerator for 3-4 hrs. Though soaking it overnight gives good results.
• Don’t throw off the leftover marination. Use it for the next batch of chicken pieces or use it to prepare non-veg curries.
• If you do not have OTG / grill/tandoor,  you can also try it in Convection Oven.
• You can roast cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf, mace, black cumin, red chilies, peppercorn, and cumin seeds for few seconds and grind it to a fine powder. Use this homemade masala to marinate chicken pieces and proceed with the remaining ingredients.

• Clean chicken and wash under running tap water. Wipe the pieces using a clean kitchen towel. Make incisions on the chicken skin which helps to absorb masala.
• Combine turmeric powder, red chili powder, salt, and lemon juice in a bowl. Make the paste and rub this over the chicken pieces. Keep it aside for 1 hour or just 30 mins.

 

• Prepare the second marination by combining all the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Pour this over marinated chicken pieces and make sure chicken is well coated with the masala. Keep it in the refrigerator for 4-5 hours or overnight. I let it overnight for better results.
• Take chicken from the refrigerator and keep it at room temp for 30 mins. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C for 10 mins in Broil/grill mode.
• Either skewer the marinated chicken pieces or keep it over a wire rack. Keep it on the top rack of the oven and keep a baking tray below the rack to collect the drippings.

• Grill the chicken legs for the first 10 mins and remove from the oven. turn over the pieces and baste with little oil/butter and grill again for 10-15 mins.
• Repeat it for another 20 mins till the masala gets cooked properly and the chicken gets a charred look. Remove it from the oven and allow it to cool. Serve hot/cold with mint-coriander chutney.