Tandoori Chicken Legs (cooked in home oven)

Cooking Time:         1 Hr                                 Servings: 7
Preparation Time: 15-20 minutes                   Category: Non-Veg

Tandoori chicken is a popular Indian/ Pakistani dish consisting of roasted chicken prepared with yogurt and other traditional spices. It is characterized by the red coloring of the marinade and the creamy yet tangy flavors of the yogurt and spices. The name comes from the type of cylindrical clay oven, a tandoor, in which the dish is traditionally prepared. The tandoor is used for cooking mostly in Southern, Central and Western Asia. It is traditionally cooked at high temperatures in a tandoor (clay oven), but can also be prepared on a traditional barbecue grill or in convention bake/roast cycle in our home oven.

I experimented with this dish a couple of times to come up with the perfect restaurant-style tandoori chicken taste and recipe that we can make in our home oven. Tandoori chicken, if served at dinner is best when the marinade is prepared the night before (24 hrs before cooking) to give it the fullest chance of flavoring the chicken prior to cooking. I usually follow this. We can prepare this dish with combo of chicken legs and thighs and it would work well even with breasts, thighs and legs. In this post, I used only chicken legs. Here is the recipe:-

Tandoori Chicken legs

Ingredients
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Chicken drumsticks/thighs - 14
Yogurt - 1 or 2 cups
Black pepper powder - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Ground Cayenne Pepper - 1 tsp
Garam Masala powder - 2 tsp
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Lemon Juice - 1 Tbsp
Ginger Garlic paste - 1 Tbsp
Thai chilli paste - 1 Tbsp (adds to the spices and also gives rich red color)
Red cooking color - 1/4 tsp (Optional)
Smoked paprika - 1 tsp (optional)
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp (optional)
 

For garnish
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Lemon - 1, cut into slices
Onions - sliced into cubes or rings
Bell pepper - cut into cubes

Preparation

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• Wash the chicken legs in warm water thoroughly. Drain out the water and take them into a bowl.
• Now add all the spices, lemon juice, yogurt and mix it well. A small quantity of sliced onions and bell pepper can also be added to this marinade.
• Let this mix marinade for atleast 12 hrs in refrigirator. As I said earlier, the more we let it marinade the more it adds to the flavor of the chicken.
• When ready to took, take out the marinde and place the chicken legs in a roasting pan with foil and touch up any empty spots on chicken legs with marinade. Add few drops of cooking oil over each chicken leg piece.
• Pre-heat the over upto 400C (If your home oven has a convention bake or roast cycle, please use that).
• Once done, place the rack in the oven and cook for about 30 mins. When done, take out the rack and turn the chicken legs, add few drops of cooking oil over each piece again and cook/roast it for another 15 mins or until the chicken is slightly charred on the other side. If chicken legs/thighs are used, its strictly not more than 15-20 mins to cook the other side.
• When done turn off the oven and let the dish be in the closed oven for another 10-15 mins. This will let the chicken absorb all the juices that form on it while cooking.
• Once done, take these chicken legs into a serving plate, sprinkle small quantities of ground cayenne pepper and paprika powder over chicken. Garnish with sliced onion rings/cubes, bell pepper and squeezed lemon.
• The authentic restaurant style tandoori chicken, prepared at your home is now ready to be served :)