Chatpata Tandoori Chicken | Without Oven Tandoori Chicken Recipe | Pan Grilled Tandoori Chicken

Tandoori Chicken Recipe

Tandoori chicken is a classic Indian cuisine and is among favorites of all chicken lovers due to its mind-blowing smoky aroma, taste and flavor! Roasted chicken must have been around since ages and have only become better with each passing day!

If you are as much in love with roasted chicken like us, then you must already have one favorite restaurant whose special chicken tandoori has taken your heart away and you are already in their frequent guest list! But, I am sharing a quick & easy recipe to prepare tandoori chicken at comfort of your home and that’s exactly where this fail-proof recipe of tandoori chicken comes in handy!

Benefits of chicken

Chicken is an excellent low-calorie and low-fat source of high-quality protein
Chicken contains vitamin B12 and choline, which together may promote brain development in children
It is a source of high-quality dietary protein, which give benefit to muscle growth.
Chicken provides heart-healthy, low-fat, low-cholesterol diet.
Chicken helps in weight loss, it is high in protein may be a tool for managing weight and a normal blood sugar.

Roasted Chicken

Ideally, tandoori chicken or any tandoori dish is made in a large clay oven at a very high heat using charcoal or wood. Charcoal or wood adds the smokiness to chicken making it so irresistible. I am going to share the easy way to make the tandoori chicken by marinating, cooking & grilling on a gas-top. The smoky flavour can be added by keeping the bowl of marinated chicken on a bowl with burnt charcoal.

Tandoori chicken is distinctly different from any other chicken kabab thanks to its vibrant red color. Also, the spices play a major role in getting the smokiness right. Chicken is marinated using a thick yogurt based marinate which is loaded with immense flavor from all quintessential Indian spices. Make sure to use hung curd in your marinade, else too much water in curd will dilute the spice blend and lead to loss of flavors.

The thick & creamy hung curd has double action – it tenderizes the chicken during the marination time, plus due its thickness, it binds all the spices together enabling them to adhere to the chicken pieces. Ensuring that the spices remain stuck to the chicken is very important as that will infuse the meat during grilling process and help penetrate the flavors deep inside!

You may start to get skeptical about making tandoori chicken at home as it may seem too much effort. But trust me, it isn’t as difficult as it sounds like and this is not only good but the best tandoori chicken that you will reward yourself with!

Tandoori chicken

I prefer to prepare tandoori chicken legs rather than using the entire chicken but it is more of a personal & family preference. You can follow the same process and make your Chicken Tandoori with other pieces of chicken as well. My family do not prefer chicken breast pieces for Tandoori as they are very dry and mostly tasteless. It’s pretty simple – don’t use chicken breast for tandoori chicken! Use the dark meat instead i.e. chicken drumsticks & thighs. Drumsticks & thighs are best suited for tandoori cooking thanks to their high fat content which is why they never

You will also notice that I have used red food color in my recipe and that’s only to replicate the restaurant style roasted chicken as without that vibrant red color, you won’t get that feel! But yes, the use of color is entirely optional; feel free to leave it out; your tandoori chicken will still turn out to be exceptionally delish! Enjoy!

Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 1 hour 10 mins

Total time: 1 hour 30 mins Serving: 5 Approx.

Ingredients

Chicken Legs -10 pieces
Lemon Juice- 2 tsp
Ginger Garlic Paste- 2 tsp
Kashmiri Red Chilli Powder- 1 tsp
Salt- 1 tsp
Tandoori Masala- 2 tbsp.
Hung Curd- 2 tbsp.
Garam Masala Powder- 1/2 tsp
Mustard Oil- 2 tbsp.
To serve
Butter- 1 tbsp
Chaat Masala- 1 tsp

Instructions to make Pan Grilled Tandoori Chicken

To make hung yogurt, tie the plain yogurt in a muslin cloth and hang it over a bowl or kitchen sink for 2 to 3 hours so that all the water drips out and you are only left with the thick yogurt.
Wash and pat dry the chicken pieces thoroughly so that no moisture is left. Make multiple incisions on them so that the marinade can go deep inside.
Prepare the marinade by mixing together of Kashmiri red chilli powder, lemon juice, ginger-garlic paste, tandoori masala, hung curd, garam masala, salt and 2 tablespoons of oil.
Finally add the red food color and give a mix since it takes time to mix food color thoroughly.
Massage this marinate into the chicken pieces making sure to go deep inside the incisions you had made. Set aside for 45 minutes. And keep in refrigerator.
Take a pan heat oil, add marinated chicken into it. Cook 5 min with lid cover.
Cook for 10 min on medium to high flame without lid, so the water of chicken can be reduce.
To give chicken a grilled look, take a grill pan add butter to it.
Add chicken leg pieces to it and cook with both side.
Take them out and let the chicken rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving. Then sprinkle some chat masala on top and serve your yummy tandoori chicken with lemon wedges and coriander-mint chutney. Enjoy!