Tandoori Chicken

What is Tandoori Chicken?

Originally a Punjabi preparation, tandoori chicken is a soft, succulent dry dish made by slow-roasting spiced and marinated chicken in a clay oven called tandoor.

In the late 1940s, Tandoori Chicken was popularised at Moti Mahal restaurant in Peshawar by Kundan Lal Jaggi, Thakur Das & Kundan Lal Gujral.

What is the marination of Tandoori Chicken?

Tandoori chicken uses two steps for marination.

First marination – Requires salt, lime juice, ginger-garlic paste, and Kashmiri red chilli powder. The first marination makes the chicken tender and juicy when cooked. Refrigerate the covered marinated chicken for one hour.

Second Marination – Requires yoghurt, oil, ginger garlic paste, lime juice, and dry spices like Kashmiri red chilli powder, cumin powder, garam masala powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, Kasuri methi and lemon juice. Refrigerate this for another 4-5 hours or overnight.

Serving Suggestions for Tandoori Chicken

Once the chicken is ready, remove it from the tandoor or oven and brush the chicken with butter. Sprinkle chaat masala on top. Serve hot with lime wedges and onion slices.

Serve it with Coriander Mint Chutney or Mint Yogurt Chutney and onion rings. Do not forget to serve lime wedges, thinly sliced onions, and some chaat masala.

Tandoori Chicken goes well with any Indian flatbread, including Roti, Naan, Tawa Paratha, Lachha Paratha, Roomali Roti, etc. A green salad perfectly complements it.

Origins of Tandoori Chicken

Historians and archaeologists believe that the origin of the Tandoori Chicken took place during the Harappa Civilization because the excavation revealed the remains of the clay oven named Tandoor used for cooking the chicken.

Hence the origin of the Tandoori chicken can be dated back to Harappa Civilization when it was reintroduced by the Punjabi from Pakistan.

Another proof that reinforces the fact that the origin of Tandoori chicken took place in the Harappa Civilization is the mention of roasting the meat, after marinating it in the spices, in the clay oven in the Susruta Samhita.

However, there have been arguments that the origin of Tandoori chicken dates back to the Mughal era. The counterargument for the same is that it is not in Awadhi cuisine.

Folklore says that Afghani women used the clay oven aka Chula for making food. While someone else coined the term Tandoori, Chula was being used already.