Topic: BIR tandoori chicken

[ScottyM]

This is the marinade used at one of my favourite Leicester curry houses.

* Scaled down for home use *

8 chicken thighs (i use skin on)
1 tbsp salt
1 lemon, juice only

Marinate chicken in lemon juice and salt for 30 minutes

* This seals the meat, keeping it juicy and stopping other ingredients drawing out moisture *

5 tbsp natural yoghurt
1 tbsp garlic & ginger paste
1/2 onion, finely sliced
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp garam masala
2 tbsp tandoori masala
1 tsp hot chilli powder
1 tsp fennel seeds, toasted
1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and ground
1 tsp dried mint leaves
1 tsp colmans mustard powder
1 tsp red food color
1/2 tsp yellow food color
small bunch fresh coriander, chopped

Marinate chicken in mixture overnight or atleast 6 hours.

Preheat oven to its highest temperature (250c) for atleast 20 minutes, then place meat on a rack over a foil covered tray.
Roast at highest temp for 20 minutes, rotating pan 180 degrees half way through cooking.

let chicken rest for 10 minutes before using.

* If using lean meat like chicken breast, marinate no longer than 6 hours, as meat will become dry *

* I was told by the chef that mustard powder is his preference, but some places use the more bitter mustard oil. *

[Donald Brasco]

Nice simple recipe thanks.

[JerryM]

ScottyM,

an interesting recipe. i've been trying to make the tandoori version for long time without getting close.

i've either got a red patak tasteless version (you might even say close to BIR TA norm) or essentially a red "tikka"

do you have any details on how the 2 differ at the fav curry house

[fried]

* This seals the meat, keeping it juicy and stopping other ingredients drawing out moisture *

I was wondering why some recipes use 2-stage marinades, I'd never thought about it like that before.

[Garp]

Similar method I use for my red tikka style chicken - without the yogurt and massive anount of spices of course I do recall being informed that the salt would actually draw out the moisture

http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,12548.msg101834.html#msg101834

[macferret]

Looks the biz. Useful tips about keeping the chicken moist: marinate it in lemon juice first; leave it for max 6 hours before cooking; and I notice you use dried mint rather than mint sauce, which some say toughens the meat.
I have got lazy and I just put the lemon juice in with everything else, so I'll try putting it in as a first stage again and see if it improves the finished product.
Cheers,
Tim

[fried]

I'm the same, my recipe(s) are pretty much the same except I chuck everything in together.

[JerryM]

tried this recipe. well worth giving it a go.

there was a lot i liked. i still feel its a too close to a red tikka. its the best tandoori meat ive made though. the slight niggle being the family said the norm tikka was what they wanted to stick with.

id use mustard oil in place of the powder. i loved the fennel.

i also could not find at the time my own chef garam and used jalpur - the gm is really going to make the dish and the jalpur is just too strong to get the balance needed.

the recipe does not use pataks and is very impressive given that all the taste is produced by the known ingredients - well impressed.

i know i used breast meat when tandoori is bone meat - i just used what i had to hand.

very pleased i gave it a go. the pleasing for me is that i feel the taste i'm after is a simplified version of this ie by using the recipe and taking out or reducing a few ingredients i might just hit bingo.

needless to say all was eaten.