If you love tandoori chicken from your favorite Indian restaurant you will love this recipe. The best way to get the authentic flavor of Indian tandoori is to cook in a tandoor oven and if you’re like me, you don’t have easy access to one so cooking it on the grill is the closest thing. Used in Indian cuisine to get that unique cooked flavor into naan bread, chicken and seafood that is operated at a very high temperature of 900°F/500°C for that unmistakable char and flavor.
Tandoori Chicken Color
To recreate the very recognizable red hue of the meat an Indian red chili powder (kashmiri) is used. This chili powder can be found on the internet, which is where I bought it. Or, if you’re lucky to live close to an Indian market, they should have it. Sometimes red food coloring is used, but I’m not a fan and I don’t think this recipe needs it. There’s no perfect way to re-create the flavors of the tandoor, but us home cooks can certainly try and the next best thing to getting the tandoori flavor is making tandoori sauce.
Tandoori Chicken Marinade
Starts with greek yogurt and a delicious combination of Indian spices are mixed in along with lemon juice to marinade the chicken which is the key to the flavor. This recipe has a 2-stage marinating process. The chicken is first coated in the red chili powder. Then coated in yogurt and spices for the final marinating.
Spatchcock Tandoori Chicken
In addition to skewering chicken breast pieces. I recently tried this recipe with a whole spatchcock chicken on the grill. You can read here all about spatchcock chicken and how to easily spatchcock/butterfly the whole chicken. In this instance, it is best to remove the skin so the meat can come in contact with the grill. Pictured below.
Tandoori chicken serving suggestion
I always serve this chicken with Curry Vegetable Basmati Rice (pic below) and a side of Easy Homemade Naan Bread.
Oven roasted tandoori chicken
This recipe can be made indoors using a stovetop grill pan or roasted in the oven (I would not recommend using wooden skewers). Roast at 425°F/218°C for 8 minutes per side then broil/oven grill to get a nice char. If you don’t want to use skewers, use boneless, skinless chicken breasts using the marinade and roast them whole for 20 – 30 minutes then broil.
Tandoori Chicken Wings
For a delicious appetizer idea, I’ve created a Tandoori Masala Chicken Wings recipe that comes with a cooling raita dipping sauce. Picture below.
Grilled Tandoori Chicken – Step by Step
In a small bowl, mix the Indian red chili powder, salt and oil to make a paste Coat the chicken breast pieces with the paste mix. In a separate bowl, Greek yogurt, mix more Indian red chili powder, garam masala, coriander, cumin, turmeric, cardamom. Add the Greek yogurt mix to the chicken pieces and marinate for 30 minutes. Thread the chicken pieces onto metal skewers. Grill 5-8 minutes per side until cooked through to a an internal temperature of 165°F/75°C. If you’ve tried these Grilled Tandoori Chicken Kebabs or any other recipe on the blog then don’t forget to rate the recipe and let me know how it turned out in the comments below. I love to hear from my readers! You can also FOLLOW ME on FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and PINTEREST to see daily recipe updates. Chicken Tikka Masala Sweet Potato Samosas with Mango Chutney
