Monday, July 19, 2010

What's for dinner?

My husband and I love indian cuisine so I cook indian meals from time to time. I craved for tandoori chicken the other day after coming across a recipe online. This isn't the first time I make tandoori chicken but I used to get ready made marinade from the shops so this is the first tandoori that I have made from scratch. It wasn't difficult but you do need to get the timing right as the chicken has to be marinated for at least 6 hours and not more than 8 hours. The end result was so satisfying that I don't think I will ever revert to using store bought tandoori marinade ever again.
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Recipe

Ingredients
3 Tbsp vegetable oil
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 Tbsp garam masala
1 Tbsp sweet (not hot) paprika
1 cup plain yogurt
2 Tbsp lemon juice
4 minced garlic cloves
2 Tbsp minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon salt
4 whole chicken legs (drumsticks and thighs), or its equivalent, skinless, bone-in
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Method
Heat the oil in a small pan over medium heat, then cook the coriander, cumin, turmeric, cayenne, garam masala and paprika, stirring often, until fragrant (approximately 2-3 minutes). Let cool completely.


Whisk in the cooled spice-oil mixture into the yogurt, then mix in the lemon juice, garlic, salt and ginger.

Cut deep slashes (to the bone) in 3-4 places on the leg/thigh pieces. Just make 2-3 cuts if you are using separate drumsticks and thighs. Coat the chicken in the marinade, cover and chill for at least an hour (preferably 6 hours), no more than 8 hours.

Take the chicken out of the marinade and shake off the excess. You want the chicken coated, but not gloppy. Panfry the chicken to brown it.

Turn the chicken so it is brown (even a little bit charred) on all sides. Transfer into a roasting tray and bake in in oven at 180 deg C. The chicken is done when its juices run clear. Let it rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.
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I served the chicken with a vegetarian pilaf (basmati rice cooked in vegetable stock and mixed vegetables) and a cucumber raita. I don't want to crowd this page with recipes so if there's anyone interested in having the rice and raita recipes, just leave me a comment :)

If you like tandoori chicken like I do, give this recipe a go. Cooking from scratch really isn't that hard and I promise you the result is oh so worth it!

2 comments:

Kieu said...

Wow!!!! Looks so yummy! yes please to the recipe for the rice and raita, you know i'm always looking for a good recipe :o)

Cindy said...

sure, I'll send u an email ;)