Indian tandoori chicken

How to make Indian tandoori chicken The tandoori chicken dish is one of the main and distinctive dishes in the Indian kitchen. It is not required that you have a special oven to cook the chicken. Rather, it can be grilled using an electric or regular grill, or it can be made in the regular oven at home, where the essence of this dish lies in the ingredients and infused with the unique Indian spices, not way of preparation.

the components :

Two large lemons.

Four teaspoons of paprika.

Two small red onions.

Sixteen pieces of chicken thighs, or two whole chickens can be used if ready-made pieces are not available.

A quarter cup of vegetable oil, such as corn oil, olive oil, or others.

A cup of labneh, or you can use plain yogurt if labneh is not available.

A piece of fresh ginger, and you can add the amount you want according to taste.
Four cloves of garlic cloves.

A teaspoon of Indian garam masala spices, which are available in many commercial food stores.

Teaspoon ground cumin.

A quarter teaspoon of turmeric.

Half a teaspoon of dried and crushed red hot pepper flakes, or you can adjust this amount according to desire and taste for spicy food. A dash of salt.

How to prepare :

 

Prepare the ingredients before starting to prepare in order to organize and facilitate the cooking process:

Finely chop the two small onions
Crush the garlic cloves and squeeze the two lemons

Grate the piece of ginger as finely as possible, or you can chop it finely with a knife if you do not have a grating tool.

If you use a whole chicken instead of ready-made chicken pieces, you should cut one chicken into eight pieces in order to facilitate the distribution of spices and flavor.

Mix the juice of the two lemons, the paprika, and the two chopped onions in a large bowl and mix well together.

Make slits using the knife on the skin of each piece of chicken – and these slits will contribute to locking the flavor of the different spices inside the chicken instead of slipping off the skin – then add them to the previous dish, rub the ingredients into each piece and try to insert them into the slits you made in the skin and make sure not to stack the chicken pieces on top Rather, put them on the plate above the other ingredients until they absorb and absorb the flavor from them, then cover the plate with transparent nylon paper and leave it in the refrigerator for fifteen to twenty minutes until the flavors mix more with the chicken pieces.
In a large bowl, add labneh, ginger, vegetable oil, turmeric, ground cumin, dried red chili flakes, garam masala, crushed garlic cloves and a pinch of salt, and mix well.

Take the dish containing the chicken out of the refrigerator and remove the transparent nylon cover, then pour the contents of the previous large bowl over the chicken and rub each piece with your hand to make sure it is completely covered with the mixture, then cover the dish again with the transparent nylon paper, and leave it in the refrigerator for at least an hour (and it can be left until today Next until the flavor is enhanced even more).
Take the chicken dish out of the fridge and prepare the electric grill to grill the chicken pieces on it over medium heat and cook each chicken piece for eight minutes on each side, or you can grease an oven tray with oil and then place it on medium heat on the regular stove if you do not have an electric grill.

Serve hot chicken pieces as a main dish alongside Arabic bread or rice flavored with spices and seasonings, and you can also serve yogurt or salad with it.