Topic: Traditional Tandoori Chicken

[benbob]

I have been making this Tandoori chicken for around 15 years now and it never fails to deliver I don't know where this came from as it was given to me on a typed sheet and has since been copied to my PC.

I marinade a whole chicken and cook it using the rotisserie on the BBQ, perfect summer food for family and friends served with new potatoes and a fresh salad  ;D

You will need

1 whole chicken
10 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 Tabelspoon of salt

Marinade

10 Cloves
2 teaspoons of coriander seeds
2 teaspoons of cumin seeds
seeds of 10 Cardamons
2 onions, chopped
4 glarlic cloves, crushed & chopped
7cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
2 teaspoons of chili powder
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 teaspoons of Turmeric
350ml natural yogurt
Red food colouring (optional)

Carefully remove all the skin from the chicken and discard.
Wash and dry the chicken.
Score the breast, legs and thighs several times with a sharp knife and place the chicken in a container (with a lid) big enough to hold the bird but small enough to fit in your fridge.
Sprinkle the salt and lemon over the chicken and rub in with your hands, ensuring you work the mixure into the scores but not hard enough to damage the meat.
Cover and place in the fridge for an hour.

Now for the marinade:

Spread the cloves, coriander, cumin and coriander seeds on a baking tray and roast in a preheated oven at 200?C/gas mark 6 for 20 minutes, keep an eye on them and make they dont burn! Remove, cool and grind them coursely in a mortar.

Put onions, garlic, ginger, chili powder, black pepper, turmeric, yogurt and ground roasted spices in a food processor and blend until smooth (oh and red colouring if using), also strain the lemon juice from the chicken into the mixture.

Pour the marinade over the whole chicken and leave it in the fridge to marinade for at least 24 hours. I regulary turn the chicken and spoon the marinade over the chicken to ensure good coverage.

Cook over a red hot BBQ for ever so tastey tandoori chicken

Obviously this works just as well with legs/thighs, I find this cut is extremely well proced at my butchers and works just as well.

I've alwasy assumed this is a tradional method as the ingredients are different to any BIR 'style' recipe I use. Either way its a great way to BBQ a whole chicken and tastes fantastic.