Tandoori Chicken

There's an Indian place in the food court near work that has delicious chicken tandoori. They cook pieces of chicken breast on a skewer for an almost crunchy, red outside but tender, juicy inside. Since chicken was on sale and I had some leftover plain yogurt, I decided to try making chicken tandoori on my own. I pulled a recipe from Allrecipes.com that was pretty well-received. The recipe itself was simple enough--marinate the chicken in a yogurt-spice mixture, grill, then serve.

After gathering all my supplies, I mixed up the marinade. It consisted of yogurt, garam masala, garlic, onion, cayenne pepper, and ginger. Fun fact: I had never cooked with actual ginger root before. I left out the food coloring because I was somewhat curious what color it would turn out on its own.

After mixing everything together, I poured it over the chicken breasts and put everything in my fridge for about 8 hours. I will be honest, it was kind of funny prepping dinner in my PJs before even having coffee! But it was very nice to have everything set to go in the evening.

Since I don't really have access to a grill, I decided to follow one reviewer's method of cooking the chicken breasts in the oven. I considered using the broiler (looking back, I wish I had), but instead went with cooking the breasts at 350F for about 45 minutes. I flipped the breasts over halfway through. I used my digital thermometer to check for internal temperature, which would have worked out great if I hadn't left the chicken breasts in "for just a few more minutes" while I cooked the rice and corn to serve with the chicken.

Overall, it turned out okay. If I ever made it again, I would definitely let the chicken marinate for closer to 24 hours and either find a grill or use the broiler to crisp up the outside. I'm also wondering if I was supposed to scrape off the excess marinade from the chicken before cooking, and if that would have helped with the outside.

Tandoori Chicken (from allrecipes.com)

Ingredients

• 2 pounds chicken, cut into pieces
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 1/4 cups plain yogurt
• 1/2 onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger root
• 2 teaspoons garam masala
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon yellow food coloring
• 1 teaspoon red food coloring
• 2 teaspoons finely chopped cilantro
• 1 lemon, cut into wedges

Directions

Remove skin from chicken pieces, and cut slits into them lengthwise. Place in a shallow dish. Sprinkle both sides of chicken with salt and lemon juice. Set aside 20 minutes.

In a medium bowl, combine yogurt, onion, garlic, ginger, garam masala, and cayenne pepper. Mix until smooth. Stir in yellow and red food coloring. Spread yogurt mixture over chicken. Cover, and refrigerate for 6 to 24 hours (the longer the better).

Preheat an outdoor grill for medium high heat, and lightly oil grate.

Cook chicken on grill until no longer pink and juices run clear. Garnish with cilantro and lemon wedges.