- I made a stop last week at Penzeys Spice store in Uptown. That is a fun mini adventure in and of itself. $45 later, I left with a bagful of spices and lots of ideas. Prior to that, I saw a cooking channel show in which the stars described the best thing they ever made. Aarti Sequeira (Aarti's Party host and winner of Season 6 Next Food Network Star) made her mom's Tandoori Chicken without a Tandoori oven. It looked delicious and really easy. I even made it easier by buying the Tandoori spice mix at Penzeys. I used about 1-2 Tbls in place of all of Aarti's spices. So far so good. However, I strayed a bit and didn't used full fat yogurt, mistake #1. It still tasted really good, but it didn't brown under the broiler. That would've been really yummy stuff. Mistake #2-I forgot the canola or peanut oil. Would that of helped in browning? I used lime juice instead of malt vinegar. I only had 1 lime. So, for my extra sauce I used the supposed "real lime" juice in a bottle, mistake #3. I can't wait to try this one again, but I hope to get a nice brown color to my chicken and I'll use all real limes, or malt vinegar. If you give this one a whirl, let me know how it turns out.
- Tandoori Chicken
- 5 cloves
- 2 dried guajillo chiles (if you can't find these, then use 2 chiles de arbol, and more paprika for color)
- 2 green cardamom, husks discarded, seeds retained
- 1 black cardamom, husk discarded, seeds retained
- 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
- 1 cup whole fat plain yogurt
- 1/4 cup peanut or canola oil
- 2 tablespoons malt vinegar or lime juice
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
- Pinch cayenne pepper
- 8 cloves garlic, minced
- 2-inch thumb ginger, peeled and minced
- 1 packet boneless skinless chicken thighs (1 1/2 pounds usually)
- 1 teaspoon honey
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- Couple of extra limes, for garnish
Directions
To make the marinade, toast the cloves, whole chiles, both types of cardamom seeds, coriander seeds, fennel seeds and fenugreek seeds in a cast-iron skillet until fragrant, 3 minutes or so, shaking the pan. Then, pour the spices into a spice grinder and grind them until you get a fine powder.
In large bowl, whisk together the spice mixture you just made with the yogurt, oil, malt vinegar, salt, ground cinnamon, paprika, turmeric, cayenne pepper, garlic and ginger until well combined. It should smell amazing! Taste and adjust with more salt if it needs it.
Reserve 1/3 cup of the marinade and set aside; you're going to make a sauce out of this reserved marinade.
Prick the chicken thighs with a fork. Add the thighs to the rest of the marinade, and toss to coat. Marinate at least 1 hour in the fridge, and at most overnight.
When you're ready to cook, line a baking sheet with foil, and turn your broiler on. Place each chicken thigh on the baking sheet, making sure each one is coated with the marinade, but isn't swimming in it. Cook the chicken thighs under the broiler until starting to blacken, about 5 minutes. Then turn the oven to 350, and cook until a meat thermometer inserted in the meatiest part of the thigh registers 160 degrees F, another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven.
While the chicken is cooking, pour the reserved marinade into a small saucepan, along with 1/2 cup water and the honey. Bring to a gentle boil over medium-low heat, whisking all the time. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and pour into a small bowl or gravy boat for serving.
Serve the chicken thighs on a platter with a fresh squeeze of lime and a drizzle of the sauce.
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