How do i make restaurant style tandoori chicken?

Question

I have tried making tandoori chicken from a couple of recipes. problem is that no matter how popular the recipe is, and how hard i follow it, it never tastes like what i get at the indian restaurants. some how none of indian dishes ever turn out restaurant like when following a recipe.

could anyone please tell me what the indian restaurants do? is there a secret ingredient that most of us dont know about?

i dont think the tandoor vs oven issue matters as much as the ingredients do.

Answer 1

You need a tandoor oven. The closest you might be able to get is to buy a bunch of pizza stones and line your oven.

Answer 2

Tandoori Marinated Chicken

Marinade: (make at least 4 hours ahead, or the day ahead)

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
3 dried red chilies (more or less according to your heat tolerance)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander seed
2 Tablespoons ground ginger
2-3 cloves garlic, minced or put through a press
½ onion, coarsely chopped
1 ½ cups plain nonfat yogurt (look for yogurt without added gelatin)
1 Tablespoon honey
Juice of 1 lime or lemon
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts or 8-10 chicken tenders

Method:
Over high heat, in a small non-stick skillet (lightly sprayed with nonstick spray), sauté the onion, chilies, and garlic until the onion is translucent. Add the ground spices, salt, and pepper and continue to heat briefly until aromatic. Transfer to a food processor or a blender, and add the yogurt and honey, and lime juice. Process until fully blended.

Make several slashes in each chicken breast and arrange in a glass dish. Pour marinade over chicken and turn to coat. Cover and allow to marinate in the refrigerator at least 4 hours, or overnight.

From this point there are two ways to cook the chicken:

Option 1: Remove chicken to a broiler pan (or grill) and broil (or grill) about 20-30 minutes, turning chicken once about ½ way through the cooking time.

Option 2: Bake chicken in marinade, at 375F, for about 40 minutes, or until cooked through.

Heat level can be adjusted by adding or omitting some of the chilies
Excellent served with brown basmati rice and cucumber salad

Answer 3

Take four chicken breasts and score each one, cutting diagonally across breast quite deeply, but not through. Turn over, and repeat with the diagonal cuts; if the cuts are made so that the diagonals criss-cross each other, this way there is less chance of cutting all the way through. The cuts are to increase the surface area of the chicken, and help the flavours to coat as much of the breasts as possible.

In a bowl, combine a small tub of plain low-fat yoghurt, a couple teaspoons of tandoori masala (either bought or make your own), two fresh cloves of garlic (fine chopped) and half an inch of fresh root ginger (finely chopped). You may colour the chicken with food dye, use red, or orange, or red with yellow, its up to you. Add the colour to the yoghurt mix, which will look pink, but turns the characteristic red after cooking. Marinate in the fridge for about 24 hours.

To cook, turn your grill to very hot (I use level 5 out of 6 on an electric grill). Place some aluminium foil (not tin foil as chefs on TV mention!) over your grilling tray. Remove the chicken from the fridge, and place on the foil. Place under the grill, and watch very carefully. It will take about 5 to 8 minutes to cook, depending on the obvious, but just as the very edges start to turn brown/black, remove from the grill and sprinkle with a large pinch of chat masala. Grill again until the edges get a little burnt. Remove from the grill, turn the breasts over, and repeat.

The chicken breasts should be dark red, slightly burnt at the edges and dry. If you prefer a little moisture, add a little ghee/oil/butter. Save any juices to add to the sauce (see below).


Sauteed Ginger and Tomato Cream Sauce

Cut some fresh root ginger (about 2.5cm) into rounds and cook in claified butter (ghee) until slightly crisp. Remove the crisp pieces and cool a little. Meanwhile, add 400g chopped tomatoes (tinned are fine for this as they are a little sweet) to the ghee, and cook for a couple minutes. Chop the crisp ginger into fine dice and add to the cooked tomatoes. Now add double cream (to taste, but at least 100g) then liquidise the sauce. Return to the pan (unless processed in the pan!) and add lime juice to taste. It should balance the cream. Add salt to taste. If liked, drizzle a swirl of cream to serve.

Answer 4

1 (800 gms) of chicken
1 tspn of kashmiri red chilli powder
1 tblspn of lemon juice
Salt to taste

For Marination
200 gms of yogurt
1 tspn of kashmiri red chilli powder
Salt to taste
2 tblspns of ginger paste
2 tblspns of garlic paste
2 tblspns of lemon juice
½ tspn of garam masala powder
2 tblspns of mustard oil

For basting of butter
½ tspn of chaat masala

For garnishing
Onion rings and lemon wedges

Recipe
Skin, wash and clean the chicken. Make incisions with a sharp knife on breast and leg pieces.

Apply a mixture of kashmiri red chilli powder, lemon juice and salt to the chicken and keep it aside for half an hour.

Remove whey of yogurt by hanging it in a muslin cloth for fifteen to twenty minutes. Mix Kashmiri red chilli powder, salt, ginger-garlic paste, lemon juice, garam masala powder and mustard oil to the yogurt.

Apply this marinade onto the chicken pieces and refrigerate for three to four hours.

Put the chicken onto the skewers and cook in a moderately hot tandoor or a pre-heated oven (200 degrees Celsius) for ten to twelve minutes or until almost done. Baste it with butter and cook for another four minutes.

Sprinkle chaat masala powder and serve with four onion rings and lemon wedges.

Chef’s Tip : To make Chicken tikka, use boneless chicken pieces cut into 1 ½” cubes and proceed same as Tandoori chicken.

Answer 5

I'd have to guess that unless you have a tandoori oven your out of luck. Happy hunting! I wouldn't mind a good recipe for that too. :(

Answer 6

try tandoori masala.. u get it in packets.. after that usually u have to mix garlic curd n ginger..n make it in an OTG