on winter evenings, i am transported back to childhood days when my parents plunked us in the backseat of the trusted old fiat and drove to A-ONE chicken! it was our neighborhood drive-through chicken place. no amount of KFC or hooters wings will ever be able to get close to the experience of all those hearty flavors wafting through the air when we rolled down the car windows. the earthy smell of the tandoor, the red (brilliant red, i might add) chicken legs and whole chickens hanging on iron skewers and the scent of onions wallowing in the acids of vinegar and lemon juice.
note to readers: if you see an incomplete post, it might just be me leaving work and post mid-way to run home for some of what i plan to cook tonight. yum!
(oh, note on this yum! this is the food-bell that goes off in my brain every time i can almost-smell and almost-taste the goodness that i am planning for dinner and as i mentioned earlier - that's all i am doing in my mind all day.)
tandoori chicken has always been a big hit with atul & me. true to our indian roots, we detest the red flavorless chicken legs that most buffets in the US serve up on weekend lunches. shame be to those who deny us another taste of what was an integral part of our childhood. for those who will salivate at the look of these so called tandoori chickens in indian restaurants these days, beware! these are devoid of all flavor and oh, also of any juiciness that tandoori chicken stands for.
So when a dear friend, Amit, cooked some tandoori for us (resulting in a net gain of almost a pound over that weekend!!! what? don't raise your eyebrows at me - you CAN gain weight if you eat a TON of chicken), I decided to get in on the action and develop a recipe of my own. Amit, thanks to your instructions, I already had a good base ready. Tweaked it a bit to make it my own.
it is really simple, u know. all u need is some drumsticks with slits made upon them so that the marinade can sink in (of course, if u end up buying them from shoprite like me, they will look more like ostrich legs and most hens would be very offended that their offsprings could have thighs so fat!)
then grab some of that trusted yogurt and Everest Tandoori Masala. Yes, yes yes...i use boxed masala for most of my dishes - trust me, with a toddler who hates the sound of my spice grinder, i would have it no other way. Everest Tandoori Masala has a nice earthy taste to it - very spicy (so use it sparingly if you tend to tear with heat) and very tangy. just the right balance of all things tandoori. now here we go - 3 more things are really needed - fresh ginger/ garlic paste, chaat masala and a good big dash of lemon juice. now here it is: lemon juice and yogurt together? people raise brows, question my sanity and then tell me, there's enough acidity in your marinade to add more! mais non monsieur. how can one rely on chaat masala to do its bit without adding a catalyst to make it work? lemon juice brings out the best in this masala - a marriage made definitely by the gods of food.
and of course, don't forget some olive oil. adding oil to any marinade will of course bring about meat tenderization and juiciness that you will never be able to forget.
marinate this not for long, as usual, i have no patience to wait. if you are a heat lover like me, you will go ahead and add a big heaping spoon of red chilli powder to top any heat from the tandoori masala - i am cookey, yes!
of course at this point i have pre-heated my oven at 400 and have ensured that enough windows and doors are open for the smoke to escape - lest you want the smoke alarms going off every 3 seconds (this is another thing that freaks out my little toddler, and i try to stay away from such eventualities)
i now proceed to hungrily await as i spread the marinated drumsticks on a baking tray and ensure that there is some aluminium foil to catch any drippings! but hold on, the end is not in sight yet. there is a good wait of about 35 minutes if you want succulence. these are the times when i walk about the house like i await news from a critical medical procedure.....or i switch on foot network, because i absolutely must be distracting myself with more thoughts of food. sigh, the link between my stomach and my brain will be the end of me.
but wait, do i see the clock telling me that its halftime? run run run to the oven dear chef and turn over those beauties. they need to be done from all sides, no? by now, i am salivating and have tasted the marinade a 100 times - oh, don't laugh. i'll see how dignified your waiting can be when you get there.
in about 20 more minutes, i am finally rewarded, but the good child that i am, i wait some more. when i take the chicken out, i instantly cover it with some more aluminium foil - this trick i've learnt from the grillmasters on foot network. if you cover the meat as soon as it is out of the heat, the juices go right into the depths of that succulent leg awaiting your teeth to sink into it - and then we get DRIPPING GOOD CHICKEN!
here's what it looks like when it is done. you can make a very healthy meal of it if you roll some of the forked out meat in a thick roti with onions and tomatoes and you've got (yes, another ding in my head) YUMMMM!!!
try it, you won't regret this one.
note to readers: if you see an incomplete post, it might just be me leaving work and post mid-way to run home for some of what i plan to cook tonight. yum!
(oh, note on this yum! this is the food-bell that goes off in my brain every time i can almost-smell and almost-taste the goodness that i am planning for dinner and as i mentioned earlier - that's all i am doing in my mind all day.)
tandoori chicken has always been a big hit with atul & me. true to our indian roots, we detest the red flavorless chicken legs that most buffets in the US serve up on weekend lunches. shame be to those who deny us another taste of what was an integral part of our childhood. for those who will salivate at the look of these so called tandoori chickens in indian restaurants these days, beware! these are devoid of all flavor and oh, also of any juiciness that tandoori chicken stands for.
So when a dear friend, Amit, cooked some tandoori for us (resulting in a net gain of almost a pound over that weekend!!! what? don't raise your eyebrows at me - you CAN gain weight if you eat a TON of chicken), I decided to get in on the action and develop a recipe of my own. Amit, thanks to your instructions, I already had a good base ready. Tweaked it a bit to make it my own.
it is really simple, u know. all u need is some drumsticks with slits made upon them so that the marinade can sink in (of course, if u end up buying them from shoprite like me, they will look more like ostrich legs and most hens would be very offended that their offsprings could have thighs so fat!)
then grab some of that trusted yogurt and Everest Tandoori Masala. Yes, yes yes...i use boxed masala for most of my dishes - trust me, with a toddler who hates the sound of my spice grinder, i would have it no other way. Everest Tandoori Masala has a nice earthy taste to it - very spicy (so use it sparingly if you tend to tear with heat) and very tangy. just the right balance of all things tandoori. now here we go - 3 more things are really needed - fresh ginger/ garlic paste, chaat masala and a good big dash of lemon juice. now here it is: lemon juice and yogurt together? people raise brows, question my sanity and then tell me, there's enough acidity in your marinade to add more! mais non monsieur. how can one rely on chaat masala to do its bit without adding a catalyst to make it work? lemon juice brings out the best in this masala - a marriage made definitely by the gods of food.
and of course, don't forget some olive oil. adding oil to any marinade will of course bring about meat tenderization and juiciness that you will never be able to forget.
marinate this not for long, as usual, i have no patience to wait. if you are a heat lover like me, you will go ahead and add a big heaping spoon of red chilli powder to top any heat from the tandoori masala - i am cookey, yes!
of course at this point i have pre-heated my oven at 400 and have ensured that enough windows and doors are open for the smoke to escape - lest you want the smoke alarms going off every 3 seconds (this is another thing that freaks out my little toddler, and i try to stay away from such eventualities)
i now proceed to hungrily await as i spread the marinated drumsticks on a baking tray and ensure that there is some aluminium foil to catch any drippings! but hold on, the end is not in sight yet. there is a good wait of about 35 minutes if you want succulence. these are the times when i walk about the house like i await news from a critical medical procedure.....or i switch on foot network, because i absolutely must be distracting myself with more thoughts of food. sigh, the link between my stomach and my brain will be the end of me.
but wait, do i see the clock telling me that its halftime? run run run to the oven dear chef and turn over those beauties. they need to be done from all sides, no? by now, i am salivating and have tasted the marinade a 100 times - oh, don't laugh. i'll see how dignified your waiting can be when you get there.
in about 20 more minutes, i am finally rewarded, but the good child that i am, i wait some more. when i take the chicken out, i instantly cover it with some more aluminium foil - this trick i've learnt from the grillmasters on foot network. if you cover the meat as soon as it is out of the heat, the juices go right into the depths of that succulent leg awaiting your teeth to sink into it - and then we get DRIPPING GOOD CHICKEN!
here's what it looks like when it is done. you can make a very healthy meal of it if you roll some of the forked out meat in a thick roti with onions and tomatoes and you've got (yes, another ding in my head) YUMMMM!!!
try it, you won't regret this one.
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