You don’t always need a tandoor oven to have great tasting tandoori chicken. Although if you do have one I would be highly impressed! And jealous. Can I come over?

A tandoor oven is a traditional clay oven widely used in Indian cooking that cooks food at high temperatures over charcoal. It creates the most delicious charred flavour that is difficult to replicate.

However, with a few little tricks you can have something that is a close second! After all, you can’t always go to your local Indian restaurant every time you have a craving (or maybe you could?) Anyway I like to make this at home as it makes a great healthy weekday evening meal.

To start, you need to marinate your chicken. I like to use chicken thighs because its cheaper and more tender, whereas breast chicken is more expensive and dries out quicker. If you can marinate it in advance and leave the chicken over night or even a few hours then all the better flavour! If not, you can cook it right away and it will still taste delicious.

Also, I have a pantry full of spices that makes this marinade. But don’t worry if you don’t have all of the ingredients, you can always buy tandoori masala or paste in most supermarkets. My recipe doesn’t have that bright red colour that you might be used to seeing, this is because artificial colouring is added in the restaurants and I didn’t see the need to add it at home. As always, I like to eyeball my recipes so you can adjust it according to your tastebuds!

The trick is to use yoghurt in the marinade. This burns slightly when you cook it and this gives it that charred flavour. I also like to start cooking it in a grill pan for extra char marks, and then finish cooking it in the oven.

Delicious! Serve with a big salad and a mint yoghurt and you will love it.

Here’s my recipe:

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken thighs
• 4 tablespoons plain yoghurt
• 1 tsp oil
• 1/2 juice lemon
• 1 tsp tomato puree
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 coriander powder
• 1/2 cumin powder
• 1/2 smoked paprika
• 2 garlic cloves (ground to a paste)
• 1 inch ginger chunk (ground to a paste)
• 1 small red chilli (ground to a paste)
• 1 small handful chopped coriander

Method:

• Mix all of the ingredients into a paste and marinade the chicken in it. Leave for a few hours or overnight to marinade if possible.
• Grill the chicken on a high heat on a grill pan, until the outside is charred. Then transfer to an oven tray and finish cooking in the oven at 180 degrees C for approximately 30 mins or until cooked through.
• Serve with a large salad, poppadoms and a mint yoghurt. Enjoy!

This one is a winner, give it a try! Thanks for reading and check out my website at www.jbimagery.co.uk