Tandoori Chicken

As part of my quest to continually expand our culinary horizons, I wanted to introduce the deliciousness that is Tandoori to Ty. Matt, Jacob and I had Tandoori years ago when my parents picked up a big shaker of it from a natural foods store. For the short time that we had it, I sprinkled Tandoori on nearly everything. Then, when it was gone, it was, well, gone. Recently, the deliciousness re-entered my mind and I made it my mission to find it...which was fairly hard to do in "Big Sky" country.

For those who have not yet had the opportunity to experience the deliciousness of Tandoori, let me tell you a bit about it. Tandoori is a blend of Indian spices named for the oven, called the tandoor, that is traditionally used to cook this particular type of Indian foods. The spice itself is a blend of a variety of spices including ginger, coriander, cumin, paprika, pepper, turmeric, nutmeg, cloves and cinnamon.

Tandoori Chicken, as I've recently learned, is actually a Punjabi dish that dates back to the time of the Mughal Empire in Central and Southern Asia. It's made by marinating the chicken in a mixture of the Tandoori spice blend and plain yogurt.

Though I wasn't able to find dry Tandoori seasoning here in Great Falls, I was able to find a Tandoori paste at 2J's. There was a simple recipe for Tandoori Chicken on the bottle so we decided to use it.

As per the recipe I mixed eight tablespoons of the Tandoori paste with six tablespoons of plain yogurt and marinated the chicken for 24 hours. Then we baked the chicken in the oven for about a half an hour. It was delicious!!

Before I forget to mention it, as good as the Tandoori was, the real star of the show was the Basmati rice I made to go along with it. Basmati is a fragrant, long-grained rice that smells and tastes a bit like popcorn. It's so different from the typical white rice and an amazing treat. It goes really well with dishes like Tandoori Chicken.

The night we made the Tandoori Chicken Ty was working late to finish an album review and both Matt and Jacob were either working or otherwise engaged. So, because I made the dinner by myself I, regrettably, don't have any photos of the cooking process. I was able to snap a few photos of the finished product.



I think there's some kind of unwritten rule that every time I bring out the camera Matt has to do some kind of crazy pose...as evidenced by the following two photos...




Here are a couple of photos of Ty, looking cute and enjoying my food!




Because we still had half a bottle of Tandoori paste, another carton of plain yogurt, three thin cuts of steak that needed to be used and left-over basmati rice, we decided to make Tandoori Steak the next night. Not only was it good, but it was about ten times better than the Tandoori Chicken...which was mouth-watering! Definitely a keeper!