Last updated on February 3rd, 2018 at 05:16 am
Baked Tandoori Chicken – healthy and delicious Indian flavors you can enjoy right in your home.
I love Indian food and just recently went to an Indian restaurant with my husband. He really enjoyed the tandoori chicken there and I thought I’d attempt to make it home. Now obviously making it at home will never turn out as it does in restaurants, because I don’t have the right oven, but this recipe which I found here, with a couple changes of my own, turned out quite good . You get all the right smells of the Indian flavors as you bake the chicken, which I just love.
Tandoori chicken is traditionally made in a Tandoor oven which is a clay oven, but it can also be grilled. It gets its nice color from spices like red chili powder, or cayenne pepper. If you want it to be a more yellow color then turmeric is used.
This recipe uses ingredients like garam masala, chili powder, cumin and coriander. If you do not have these spices, they can be found at your local grocery store.
Here’s how you make this.
I decided to use skinless chicken breasts, but if you go in an Indian restaurant, they’ll pretty much use the entire chicken, but you’ll see a lot of drumsticks. Clean the chicken and pat it dry then cut it in medium size pieces and cut deep slits into the chicken breasts. In a small bowl, mix all the wet rub ingredients together to form a paste.
Smear the rub in between the slits and if there is any left over, rub it over the entire chicken breasts.
In a medium size bowl, whisk together all the marinade ingredients. Since Tandoori chicken is usually red, I used a few drops of liquid red food coloring, however this is optional and the more food coloring you use the more red color you’ll get, I only used a couple drops.
Place the chicken in the bowl with marinade and mix well, making sure each chicken breasts is fully coated.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a couple hours. After a couple hours you can start preheating your oven to 400 F degrees. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and over it, place a grill rack. Place the chicken breasts over the grill rack leaving a bit of space in between each piece. Bake the chicken for 30 minutes, and after 15 minutes brush some butter over each piece. After the first 30 minutes, turn the chicken pieces over and bake for another 30 minutes, again brushing the meat with butter after 15 minutes. To serve, garnish with lemon slices and chopped green onions.
Trust me, you’ll want the lemon slices, and make sure you squeeze them over the chicken, it will be so much better. Although chicken breast can be so dry if not cooked properly, this chicken breast turned out moist and full of flavor. One other thing I should mention is that almost it may seem like there’s a lot of chili powder in this recipe, the chicken did not turn out spicy at all, very mild, so if you prefer it a bit spicier, then add some more. 🙂
If you guys love this recipe, and most importantly make it yourselves, please let us know. Leave a comment below and rate this recipe or take a picture and tag it #jocooks on Instagram so we can see it. I always love to see what you guys come up with!
Baked Tandoori Chicken – healthy and delicious Indian flavors you can enjoy right in your home.
- 3 lb chicken breasts boneless and skinless, cut in large pieces (about 5 large)
- 2 tbsp butter unsalted, melted, for brushing
- 1 1/4 tsp chili powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup yogurt
- 1 tbsp ginger and garlic paste
- 2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp ground pepper freshly ground
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 3 tbsp lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp salt
- liquid red food coloring optional
- Wash and pat dry the chicken breasts. Cut them in half or thirds, depending on the size of the breasts. Cut deep slits into the chicken breasts.
- In a small bowl mix together all the ingredients for the wet rub. Smear the rub in between the slits and if there is any left over, rub it over the entire chicken breasts.
- In a medium size bowl, whisk together all the marinade ingredients. Place the chicken in the bowl with marinade and mix well, making sure each chicken breasts is fully coated.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a couple hours.
- Preheat oven to 400 F degrees.
- Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and over it, place a grill rack. Place the chicken breasts over the grill rack leaving a bit of space in between each piece.
- Bake the chicken for 30 minutes, and after 15 minutes brush some butter over each piece. After the first 30 minutes, turn the chicken pieces over and bake for another 30 minutes, again brushing the meat with butter after 15 minutes.
- Garnish with lemon slices and chopped green onions.
Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on products used.
Oh my gosh! This was absolutely delicious. Definitely going to make again, and again. Thank you!
My pleasure, so happy you liked it!
This is my first time to cook and it actually turned out soo so good. Definitely will cook this again. I didnt put any food colouring but I put a bit of paprika. I used the drumsticks and maybe next time I do will grill for 5-7 minutes before taking it out.
This was a good one.. I tried this in a manual Tandoor..it came out delicious !!
This was my first time making Tandoori chicken and this came out great! The chicken was moist and tender, but I still would have preferred it with some sort of sauce. We used Red Pepper Jelly from Trader Joes as it was the closest thing to a chutney in the fridge as a sauce this time and it complemented the chicken well. Next time I plan on making some sort of garlic-yogurt sauce. Great chicken recipe though!
Hi, in the ingredient list it says chili powder and red chili powder. Is there any difference between the two? Can I use the same chili powder in the marinade and the wet rub or are they two different kinds of chili powder? Thank you
No there isn’t, same thing, updated the recipe so it’s no longer confusing. 🙂
Thanks!!
Great recipe, but should the cooking time be adjusted for boneless chicken? I pulled it out about 5 mins early and it was a bit overcooked. Overall though it was very delicious!
Yeah you’ll probably need to cook it for less, or you know your oven best, I’ve had quite a few ovens over the past few years and they all varied greatly.
Ok thanks, I’m a rookie in the kitchen especially when it comes to baking chicken. I’ll adjust the cooking times and hope for a better result, but the mix of ingredients is awesome!
I’ve been using this recipe due to it being a healthy alternative and it is fantastic. I tend to cut the chicken breast with the slits and rub in the marinade leave for the night . Do the marinade the next day and leave it for at least 6 – 8 hours. I also add smoked paprika into the marinade
I would say it’s better to make your own garlic and ginger paste rather than buy . It can last up to about 6 weeks in the fridge
It’s my second time using your recipe and I LOVE it!
So glad you like it!!
Is the ginger garlic paste available in jar form in grocery stores? Thanks, can’t wait to try!
Yes it is, it comes in little jars and I usually find it in the produce section with all the herbs.
I don’t have yogurt but found online that you can substitute it with sour cream. What do you think about that?
Sour cream would work just fine 🙂
You’re right! I tried it with sour cream and it tasted just as good as the first time with yogurt! Great recipe, both my husband and I love it. Definitely a keeper. Thanks for sharing!!
You’re welcome Curious 🙂
Hello.
Can i put this marinade in a ziplock bag? … Ive heard that it locks in more flavour (i maybe wrong though)
thanks
Rosie
Sure you can.
I have just made this but with chicken chunks instead of the breast using the same slicing method.
will they still cook the same?
I would think so. You might want to check them first and make sure they’re done, but I think they should be fine.
I will be making this lot of chicken tonight any tips? Grill or oven?
My chicken never cooks properly in the oven for some reason and it then ends up being too dry. What am i doing wrong.
Thanks : )
I think grilling it would be a great idea!!!
Easy and delicious. Absolute winner over store-bought paste
Jo, what gas mark do I cook the chicken on?
I’ve been checking this out since last night.. Finally going ahead!
You make this at 400 F degrees, don’t have a gas mark oven here, but did a google search and it seems like that’s gas mark 6.
This came out great. Thanks for the easy to follow instructions!
You’re welcome, glad you liked it. 🙂
Mmmm, I love Tandoori. I get the spices from this great little shop in my town with a fantastic Tandoor spice blend. (http://www.worldspice.com/blends/curry-tandoori) I’ve always grilled it, but I’ll have to try it in the oven, too! Instead of using red food coloring, World Spice (where I get the Tandoori Spice) carries beet powder, a natural colorant with really no flavor, and it just bumps the color up beautifully. I’ve also had really good success using their Alderwood Smoked Salt in place of the regular salt… It’s just subtle enough to give it that more authentic wood-fired taste! Clearly I have a mild addiction to World Spice… What’s a flavor-lovin’ girl to do??!
Oh, I’ll have to try the beet powder, sounds like a great alternative to food coloring. Thanks.