Tandoori Chicken is an iconic restaurant style smoky grilled chicken dish, that is so easy to prepare, tastes incredibly delicious and is seriously the best! Make this Tandoori Chicken in the oven, on the grill or in pan on stovetop, air fryer and even in the instant pot, you are going to love it in every way. A perfect healthy, gluten-free and keto friendly chicken recipe great for meal prep, holiday tables or gatherings.
How to make Tandoori Chicken?
For the recipe, we need to do the double marination as mentioned above in the post. The method involves the series of steps that I shall be mentioning in detail below. So, here’s how to make the best chicken tandoori at home in 4 ways.
Preparation of Marinade
- To start off, First, clean, wash and make cuts on the chicken using a sharp knife.
- For the 1st marination process, we need – Ginger garlic paste, Kashmiri red chili powder, lemon juice and salt. In a large bowl, whisk all these 5 ingredients and mix well (photo 2 and 3).
- Add chicken and mix it very well in the marinade. Then, cover the bowl with a plastic cover and leave it for 45-1 hour under refrigeration.
Coming to the second marination of chicken, we need – Roasted cumin powder, ginger paste and garlic paste, Kashmiri red chili powder, Coriander Powder, Garam masala powder, thick or hung yogurt (curd), black salt and pepper powder, Mustard oil.
- In another bowl, add all the ingredients of a second marination and mix it very well.
- Once the first marination process is over, transfer the chicken in this second marinade.
- Cover the second bowl also with a plastic cover and refrigerate for 7-8 hours or overnight.
Note: Remove the marinated meat from the refrigerator 45 minutes before you plan to cook.
Smoking the marinated Chicken
Note: Let me tell you the secret that I follow consistently to make the tandoori chicken smoky. I prefer to give charcoal dhungar(smoke) just before grilling/cooking them or right after the cooking is over. So, the either way works best and you get nice smoky chicken tandoori at home.
If you wish to give smoky flavor to the meat, then, simply give the charcoal smoke to the marinated chicken just before cooking.
- Place a small steel bowl oven the chicken and put 1 teaspoon of ghee over the live charcoal.
- Immediately cover the bowl with lid and allow it to rest for 8-10 minutes.
You can choose to do this charcoal smoking step after the meat is cooked. However, I prefer doing this process before cooking it in the oven or pan or instant pot or air fryer.
Bake or roast in oven
If you do not have Tandoor oven or Angethi (Coal Barbecue), it is totally okay. But, if you have an oven, you have the right alternative to make this tandoori chicken recipe.
- Pre-heat the oven at 220 degrees centigrade. Remove the chicken from the marinade and arrange it on a baking tray or a wire rack.
- Grill the chicken for 25 minutes and then broil it for 5 minutes or until thermometer reads the internal chicken temperature to 165°F. Remember to turn the chicken halfway through of grilling (after 15 minutes).
Note : If you are placing it on a wire rack, then place the dripping tray under the rack to collect the dripping over it. You can even line a baking sheet and use it.
Cook in pan on stovetop
If you can’t resist roast chicken and you don’t have an oven either, do not worry at all, gas stove will do fantastic job.
You may use a roasting grill. This roast grill is easily available in the supermarkets. So, fetch one and place it over your burner.
However, if you do not have a roast grill, simply cook it in a pan and give charcoal smoke in the end. Furthermore, make a note to place a foil beneath the stove to avoid the platform getting oily and greasy.
- Firstly, heat the pan, and place the chicken on it.
- Then cover and cook until done, do flip it once in between.
- Grease the grill with oil so that the chicken does not stick over the grill. Place the cooked chicken pieces over the grill and turn the flame to medium high. Then grill from both the sides until it is slight charred and release smoky aroma.