Tandoori Style Oven Roasted Chicken

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Tandoori Style Roasted Chicken with Roasted Butternut Squash

Being stubborn, sometimes to the point of foolishness, is a core characteristic of this cook. Over the years I've looked at many tandoori chicken recipes and always thought it’s too much work: grating ginger and mincing garlic, I don't own a barbeque griller, I’m not going to search for metal skewers and red food colouring powder just for this, etc., etc. And anyway, who the hell cooks with yoghurt by roasting it?! Procrastination ...

Middle years sometimes bring a smidgeon of insight, kitchen experience tempers insecurity and curiosity eventually kills the cat. The photos in the magazines, on websites and in books on this mainstay of Punjabi cooking were just too hard to ignore forever. How hard could tandoori chicken be? Particularly if you start by devouring the elephant bite by patient bite – preferably from the front end first.

It turns out tandoori style chicken is not hard at all. You don't need a big, fat clay tandoor, barbeque grilling equipment or a bbq pit. With a wee bit of insight a convection oven probably comes quite close to the original. Close enough to at least provide this curious diner with a culinary glimpse of what all the fuss is about when it comes to this stalwart of India’s culinary scene. However, common sense dictates that if you grill this chicken on a wood or charcoal fired barbeque grill, the smoke infused end result will be pretty amazing.

Tandoori style cooking implies marinating your chicken before hand with a mixture of yoghurt, citrus juice and a medley of spices – a masala mixture. The usual masala suspects are chilli powder (cayenne or Kashmiri red chilli) turmeric, garam masala, garlic, ginger and onion powder. It’s important to note that considerable latitude exists in the variety of spices that can be included in the masala. I included fenugreek and cumin in my recipe as I enjoy the warmth provided by cumin and the depth of flavour that ground fenugreek brings when used in moderation.

The traditionally red colouring of the grilled Tandoori chicken is due to the inclusion of Kashmiri red chilli powder in the masala mix. However, this item is fairly hard to find locally and even internationally, judging by the number of online recipes that I've seen that substitute ground paprika for the chilli powder. Using paprika will of course skew the flavour profile of the cooked tandoori chicken as paprika has its own unique flavour and somewhat earthy taste. For this recipe I combined cayenne pepper and red food colouring powder to obtain the reddish hue in the final, cooked dish. And while we’re on the subject: for goodness sake, be careful with the red food colouring powder! A small quantity goes a very, very long way. My initial attempts were quite garishly red in an unpleasant and viciously angry Klingon style of manner. If you can’t find food colouring powder, food colouring gel can be used as a substitute. The same caveat holds for the gel colouring: strict moderation!

The recipe presented here uses fresh lemon juice as the acid component of the marinade. Lime juice will provide a deeper citrusy note and more tanginess. And do try to marinate the chicken for a minimum of six hours? It makes a world of difference as opposed to letting the chicken sit on the kitchen counter for an hour at room temperature. Roasting the chicken pieces elevated on a wire rack in a Swiss roll pan at high heat directly in front of the oven’s fan yields a good char-grilled effect without having to resort to using the oven’s rotisserie equipment and the schlep associated with that. Remember too to brush the roasting chicken pieces with molten butter before reducing the oven temperature for the second part of the cooking process. The butter treatment serves to retain moistness in the roasted chicken pieces.

I found that roasted butternut wedges dusted with BBQ spice beforehand and Asian inspired creamy potato salad goes particularly well with the aromatic tanginess of the roasted Tandoori style chicken.

Et viola! Now go cook your heart out.

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Tandoori Style Roasted Chicken Ingredients

TANDOORI STYLE OVEN ROASTED CHICKEN

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Recipe yields:

2 Servings

Prep. time:

± 15 Minutes

Marinating time:

6 – 12 Hours

Cooking time:

± 35 Minutes

Special Equipment Required:

1 x Microplane grater

1 x Suitably sized Ziploc style bag

Ingredients:

For the chicken:
Chicken drum sticks or thighs, medium sized, rinsed & dried	6

For the tandoori marinade:
Full fat plain yoghurt	60ml
Fresh lemon or lime juice	45ml
Garlic, minced	5ml
Fresh ginger, finely grated	5ml
Ground coriander	5ml
Ground cumin	2.5ml
Garam masala	2.5ml
Ground turmeric	2.5ml
Ground fenugreek	± 1.5ml
Cayenne pepper	1.2ml
Red food coloring powder	± ½ ml

Method:

Score each chicken piece with three longitudinal cuts; slicing through the skin well into the muscle tissue to allow for maximum penetration of the marinade.
Combine all the ingredients of the marinade in a bowl. Mix thoroughly to remove all lumps.
Place the scored chicken pieces in the Ziploc style bag and transfer all the marinade onto the chicken. Massage the marinade over and into the chicken pieces through the outside of the bag. Ensure that the marinade is rubbed thoroughly into the cuts in the chicken pieces.
Remove as much as possible air from the bag, seal and place in the refrigerator to marinate a minimum of 6 hours, preferably overnight.
Remove from the refrigerator, shake off any excess marinade and arrange on a wire rack in a roasting pan or in a sheet pan.
Roast 15 minutes at 200°C in a preheated convection oven. Reduce the temperature to 165°C and bake for a further 15 – 20 minutes until the juices run clear or the chicken is cooked.
Brush all the baking chicken pieces with the molten butter halfway through the cooking process.
Allow the cooked chicken to rest covered for 8 – 10 minutes to allow the juices to redistribute. Serve with lime wedges and plenty of soft, lime infused Basmati rice or roasted butternut squash wedges.

Comments:

Lime juice provides a more pronounced citric and acidic taste to the flavour profile than lemon juice does.
Use a microplane grater for the ginger root under these conditions:

Very fresh & firm ginger root: wash and scrub the unpeeled root thoroughly with a nailbrush, dry thoroughly and grate as much as needed with the root perpendicular to the axis of the grater to avoid fibers from forming.
Older, softening ginger root: wash and scrub the unpeeled root thoroughly with a nailbrush, dry thoroughly and freeze at -18°C in a sealed plastic bag. When needed, grate the frozen root directly as is. The root will grate much finer than fresh, firm root. Firmly pack the cup of the measuring spoon to obtain an accurate measure. This procedure will not work with a normal box grater’s fine grate side.

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