Authentic Tandoori Chicken

Joe's birthday dinner turned out great!  The recipe I used was from Aarti Sequeira and the recipe is located here, but if you don't want to click over, I will copy it below with a couple added points.

Note: it is beyond difficult to find all the Eastern spices in stores, but it's well worth not leaving out anything.  I used one website to find all the spices I did not have in my pantry.  It only set me back $20, and I didn't realize I ordered a spice I already had, so that's $2.75 more than I needed. Whoops.  I purchased 1 oz bags of the spices and 5 chiles.  The spices will last me a long time, and I have 1.5 more recipes worth of chiles, so it's a great investment.  I like this site because it allows you to choose the weight of your spices, and because they sent me free vanilla beans and 1 oz of a free sample of my choice. I was smart and chose something I needed for the recipe. The website is My Spice Sage. It did take nearly 2 weeks for me to receive the spices from New York, but hey, I do not live in the most convenient area anymore.

Ingredients

• To Grind:
• 5 cloves
• 2 dried guajillo chiles (if you can't find these, then use 2 chiles de arbol, and more paprika for color)
• 2 green cardamom, husks discarded, seeds retained
• 1 black cardamom, husk discarded, seeds retained
• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
• For Marinade:
• 1 cup whole fat plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup peanut or canola oil
• 2 tablespoons malt vinegar or lime juice
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
• Pinch cayenne pepper
• 8 cloves garlic, minced
• 2-inch thumb ginger, peeled and minced
• The Rest:
• 1 packet boneless skinless chicken thighs (1 1/2 pounds usually) 
•     *I used skinless breasts and tenders, around 2 lbs
• 1 teaspoon honey
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Couple of extra limes, for garnish

Directions

To make the marinade, toast the cloves, whole chiles, both types of cardamom seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds and fenugreek seeds in a cast-iron skillet until fragrant, 3 minutes or so, shaking the pan. Then, pour the spices into a spice grinder and grind them until you get a fine powder.

In large bowl, whisk together the spice mixture you just made with the yogurt, oil, malt vinegar, salt, ground cinnamon, paprika, turmeric, cayenne pepper, garlic and ginger until well combined. It should smell amazing! Taste and adjust with more salt if it needs it.

Reserve 1/3 cup of the marinade and set aside; you're going to make a sauce out of this reserved marinade.

Prick the chicken with a fork. *I pounded the chicken slightly, to about 1/2 inch thick.  Add the chicken to the rest of the marinade, and toss to coat. Marinate at least 1 hour in the fridge, and at most overnight.

When you're ready to cook, line a baking sheet with foil, and turn your broiler on. Place chicken on the baking sheet, making sure each one is coated with the marinade, but isn't swimming in it. Cook the chicken under the broiler until starting to blacken, about 5 minutes. Then turn the oven to 350, and cook until a meat thermometer inserted in the meatiest part of the thigh registers 160 degrees F, another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven.

While the chicken is cooking, pour the reserved marinade into a small saucepan, along with 1/2 cup water and the honey. Bring to a gentle boil over medium-low heat, whisking all the time. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and pour into a small bowl or gravy boat for serving.

Serve the chicken on a platter with a fresh squeeze of lime and a drizzle of the sauce.

My Notes:

I had to use more salt than the recipe called for.

I used more chicken than the recipe called for. I found that after making the yogurt sauce, there was a lot of it, and because I didn't want to waste it, I just threw in more chicken.

I served the chicken on top of parmesan couscous with green beans sauteed in garlic oil. I was considering parsley and butter rice or coconut rice, but I decided on couscous and the texture was really nice with the chicken. Next time I will go a little crazier with the couscous, adding mint, toasted slivered almonds, and raisins or currants or dried cranberries. YUM!

I did not get limes, but I definitely would have loved a squeeze of lime over the chicken.

Next time I make this, we plan to make garlic naan to eat it with.

I found that my electric oven does not get as hot under the broiler as my old gas stove, so I had to broil it for 10 minutes. Next time, I may actually grill it over charcoal. I think that would be closest to the tandoor flavor and texture- crispier on the outside. 

I hope you try this recipe. It was delicious! It was so much fun to make and is authentic. The prep takes 20 minutes but once it's in the fridge overnight, the next day is a breeze. Let me know how it turns out!