Tandoori Chicken

Chicken thighs and drumsticks get a two-stage marinade — a sharp lemon and chilli rub first, then thick yogurt with ginger-garlic and ground spices — before roasting hot on a rack. The double marinade is what gives you takeaway-level flavour right through the meat rather than just a red crust. A final blast under the grill with melted butter delivers the blackened edges and glossy finish.

Tandoori chicken from a takeaway tastes of three things: deep spice, tangy yogurt and real char. You can get all of it from a domestic oven without a clay tandoor. The trick is a two-stage marinade, a wire rack so heat circles the meat, and a hard finish under the grill. Start it in the morning and dinner is twenty minutes of work.

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks — skin removed — skin blocks the marinade
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 1 tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder — mild and intensely red; use 2 tsp sweet paprika plus 1 tsp hot chilli powder instead
• 200 g full-fat Greek yogurt — thick is essential — runny yogurt slides off
• 3 tbsp ginger-garlic paste — or 30 g root ginger and 6 garlic cloves blitzed with a splash of water
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp garam masala — plus extra to finish
• 1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi) — crush between your palms; skip if unavailable, the dish still works
• 1 tbsp gram flour — or cornflour — helps the marinade cling and crisp
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 40 g butter — melted, for basting
• 1 red onion — sliced into rings, to serve
• 1 lemon — cut into wedges, to serve

Method

1. Pat the chicken dry and slash each piece to the bone two or three times — deep cuts let the marinade get inside, which is the whole point. Rub with the lemon juice, salt and half the Kashmiri chilli powder, then leave for 20 minutes while you mix the second marinade.
2. Whisk the yogurt with the ginger-garlic paste, cumin, coriander, turmeric, garam masala, the remaining chilli powder, the crushed fenugreek leaves, the gram flour and the oil until smooth and thick enough to coat a spoon.
3. Add the chicken and work the marinade into every slash with your hands. Cover and chill for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight. Take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking so it roasts evenly.
4. Heat the oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Sit a wire rack inside a foil-lined roasting tin — the foil catches drips, the rack lets hot air get underneath so the underside chars instead of stewing.
5. Shake excess marinade off each piece and arrange on the rack with space between them. Crowding steams the chicken and you lose the char. Roast for 25 minutes.
6. Brush generously with melted butter and switch to the grill on high. Grill for 4-6 minutes, turning once, until the edges are blackened in patches and blistered.
7. Check the thickest piece: the juices should run clear and the meat by the bone should be opaque with no pink. If it needs longer, drop back to the oven for 5 minutes rather than grilling harder.
8. Rest for 5 minutes, dust with a pinch more garam masala, and pile onto a platter with red onion rings and lemon wedges. Squeeze the lemon over just before eating.

Serve it with

• Warm naan or chapatis for scooping
• Mint and coriander yogurt chutney
• Kachumber salad of cucumber, tomato and red onion
• Pilau rice
• Cold lager or a salted lassi

Why this works

The lemon-and-salt rub goes on first so the acid and seasoning penetrate the slashed meat; the yogurt marinade then sits on top, its milk proteins tenderising while the gram flour glues it into a coating that dries and blackens rather than dripping away. Roasting on a rack and finishing under a fierce grill with butter reproduces the tandoor's two-part heat — sustained radiant cooking, then a short savage blast for the char.

Common swaps

• Boneless thighs work and cook in about 18 minutes plus the grill blast, though bone-in stays juicier.
• Paneer or thick-cut cauliflower steaks take the same marinade; roast for 20 minutes total.
• Coconut yogurt plus 1 tsp extra gram flour makes it dairy-free — baste with oil rather than butter.
• No Kashmiri chilli powder: sweet paprika does the colour, ordinary chilli powder does the heat.
• Barbecue instead of oven — cook over indirect heat, then finish directly over the coals.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Leaving the skin on. It shields the meat from the marinade and goes flabby rather than charred.
• Using runny natural yogurt. It slumps off in the oven and you get pale, wet chicken — strain it or use Greek.
• Marinating for only an hour. Under 4 hours the spice sits on the surface and it tastes like a coating, not tandoori.
• Roasting in the tin rather than on a rack. The underside sits in juices and steams instead of charring.

Storage, freezing & reheating

Storage: Cool within two hours, then keep covered in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Freezing: Freeze the raw marinated chicken in a sealed bag for up to 3 months — it improves as it thaws. Defrost fully in the fridge overnight before cooking. Cooked pieces also freeze for 2 months but lose some juiciness.

Reheating: Reheat on a rack in a hot oven at 200C/180C fan/gas 6 for 10-12 minutes until piping hot right through, then flash under the grill for 2 minutes to bring back the charred edges. Avoid the microwave — it turns the crust soft and the meat rubbery.

Allergen notes: contains Milk. Always check individual product labels.

Estimated nutrition

Per serving, estimated from typical ingredient values — not a substitute for precise dietary calculation.