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!

Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese

We ended up having a last-minute dinner guest and because I haven't been cooking large meals with my better eating habits, he is a meat and potatoes sort of fellow, so I looked through my pantry to see what I had on hand and headed to the market for a couple more ingredients.  What I came up with was Buffalo Chicken Mac and Cheese, from scratch!  I did not have a moment to take a photo, but it was a looker!

Here's what you'll need:

1 lb pasta (I had macaroni)
4 oz grated cheddar cheese (I used sharp, reduced fat)
4 oz grated Gruyere cheese
1 stick butter
milk (I used skim)
heavy cream (or just use more milk!)
salt and pepper
1.5 lbs boneless skinless chicken of your choice (I used tenders)
flour
hot sauce
brown sugar
honey
1 scallion
breadcrumbs (I used half seasoned and half panko)
1 large broccoli head

Season chicken with salt and pepper and grill it.  While it's grilling, make your buffalo sauce:
1/4 cup hot sauce, 1 tbs melted butter, 1 tbs brown sugar, 1 tbs honey.  Once chicken is cooked, dice or shred and toss in buffalo sauce.  Set aside.

Cook pasta to box directions for al dente. (You will be baking it later, so al dente is perfect). Chop broccoli to small florets and add to cooking pasta 1 minute before pasta is done.  Once pasta is finished, drain and put back in cooking pot.

For the sauce, here's what you'll need.  Grate your cheeses ahead of time and have them set aside.  In a medium saucepan, melt the remaining 7 tbs of butter.  Sprinkle in flour, enough to soak up all the butter (1/4 cup is my guess, but it may have been more), and whisk.  You're making a bechemel sauce.  Cook out the flour and add milk, a half cup at first, whisking to work out any lumps.  Continue to add milk (I had heavy cream so I used it as well) in increments until the flour seems to not seize everything up again. Add 1 tsp salt and 3/4 tsp pepper, and your cheeses.  Whisk until cheese melts into the sauce (this should be over low heat), and add milk if you need to thin out the mixture.  It should be fairly thick.  Pour over macaroni and broccoli and fold in chicken with all the remaining sauce and chopped scallions.

Load macaroni into a baking dish, top with breadcrumbs (I sprayed my breadcrumbs with butter spray), and set into a preheated 375 degree oven for 20-30 minutes, uncovered, until the breadcrumbs are browned and sauce is bubbly. Serve with hot sauce bottle on hand for those who need a little extra punch!

*Alterations.  I planned to use cream cheese in here as well, but I grated too much hard cheeses and omitted it. Feel free to use whatever nice melting cheese you like.  Gruyere is expensive but I only used about $4 worth for this recipe.  Crumbles of your favorite bleu cheese would be great in this too.
If your family prefers another veggie instead of broccoli, change it up!  Broccolini would be nice here, asparagus, spinach, bitter greens... go nuts!
I did not have nutmeg, but if you do, grate a bit into the bechemel!