Tandoori Chicken
Yogurt-marinated chicken charred over high heat for a smoky, spiced crust.
Meat
⚠ Contains: Dairy, Mustard. Always check your own ingredients — this isn't a guarantee for severe allergies.
How this varies: The fire-engine-red tandoori chicken common at restaurants gets that hue from added red food coloring, not spice; the traditional, purist version colored with Kashmiri chili alone comes out a deeper brick-red/orange — genuinely how it looked before mid-20th-century restaurants started adding dye for visual punch. The dish itself was invented in the 1930s by Kundan Lal Gujral at his restaurant in Peshawar — in what was then undivided India and is now Pakistan — before the recipe moved to Delhi's Moti Mahal after Partition.
Ingredients
- 8 chicken drumsticks and/or thighs, skin removed, deeply scored
- 2 tbsp ginger-garlic paste, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tsp salt (first marinade)
- 1 cup thick yogurt (hung/Greek-style), strained
- 2 tsp Kashmiri chili powder
- 1 tsp garam masala, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp ground coriander, 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp mustard oil
- 1 tbsp melted butter or ghee, for basting
- Lemon wedges and sliced onion, to serve
- 1 small piece charcoal, for smoking (optional, dhungar method)
Steps
- First marinade: rub chicken with ginger-garlic paste, lemon juice, and salt, working it into the scored slits. Rest 20-30 minutes — this tenderizes the meat before the spice coating goes on.
- Second marinade: mix yogurt, Kashmiri chili powder, garam masala, cumin, coriander, turmeric, and mustard oil into a thick paste. Coat the chicken thoroughly. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
- Optional smoking (dhungar): heat a small piece of charcoal until red-hot, place in a small bowl set in the center of the marinated chicken, drizzle with a few drops of oil to make it smoke, cover immediately and let sit 2-3 minutes, then discard the charcoal.
- Preheat grill or oven to its highest setting (240°C/475°F+).
- Grill or roast chicken, basting with melted butter or ghee halfway through, until charred in spots and cooked through, 20-25 minutes.
- For extra char, finish under a hot broiler for 2-3 minutes.
- Rest 5 minutes, serve with lemon wedges and sliced onion.