Tandoori Chicken

Simple Chicken marinade to make and freeze for Butter Chicken

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This recipe is the first step in making my Butter Chicken. Traditionally, Butter Chicken is made with leftover tandoori chicken, not chicken cooked raw in a sauce like Tikka Massala.

There are three ingredients I needed to get for this recipe that you might not have on hand. The first is Garam Masala. Getting a good quality blend will make a difference in your cooking if you want to make a lot of Indian food. I use this brand. The second is Red Kashmiri Chili Powder. American chili powder will NOT work in this dish. I got this large bag of Kashmiri chili powder when I started making this dish and thought I’d never go through it all, but I’ve already bought another bag. The third is Kasoori Methi (dried fenugreek leaves). This was the missing ingredient to get my butter chicken to start tasting like what I had experienced at restaurants. I’ve been using this brand.

I use boneless skinless chicken thighs for this recipe, but you can use chicken breast if you prefer.

CHICKEN + MARINADE

• 2- 3 lbs boneless/skinless chicken thighs

• 3 1/2 teaspoons salt

• 4 cloves minced garlic

• 2 tablespoons minced ginger (alternatively, you can use 4 tablespoons garlic ginger paste to sub for the garlic and ginger)

• 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice

• 2 teaspoons dried kasoori methi leaves

• 1-2 teaspoons kashmiri chili powder

• 1 teaspoon garam masala

• 2 cups plain whole milk greek yogurt

This is a yogurt-based marinade. Thick greek yogurt is necessary for this recipe. If you only have regular yogurt you can strain it to create a thicker yogurt. You don’t want too much water in the marinade as it will affect how the chicken cooks.

Combine chicken with the ingredients above, rubbing marinade all over to cover the chicken. I like to do this all together in a ziplock freezer bag). Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes up to overnight to marinate. You can also freeze the raw chicken in the marinade at this stage. Pull it out to thaw overnight in the fridge before proceeding to the next step.

Preheat the oven to 450F/232C. Line a sheet pan with foil and place the chicken on it. Put the tray into the oven and bake for about 15 minutes or until the chicken reaches an internal temp of 165F. You might notice a good amount of water released while baking the chicken. You can pour off some of this water if needed before the next step.

Place the sheet pan under the oven broiler and broil on high until the chicken starts to get some color (about 2-3 minutes). Flip each piece of chicken to the back side and return to the broiler until side 2 begins to char and take on color. Allow the chicken to rest before cutting it into about 1.5" chunks.

Alternatively, you can cook the chicken thighs on the grill, turning until they are cooked through and have a good amount of char.

Once your chicken is cooked and chopped into pieces, you can add it directly to the butter chicken sauce or freeze it alone to add to the sauce later.