FLOWER POT KITCHEN: CLAY POT COOKED TANDOORI CHICKEN

18 Apr 2020

CLAY POT COOKED TANDOORI CHICKEN

The most succulent chicken ever...

Cooking in a clay pot is one of the most glorious ways to guarantee the most juiciest meat and a thick sumptuous stock sauce from all the juices from the chicken, this Tandoori chicken is beautifully combined with the yogurt, herbs and spices. This is a simple one pot cook which is packed with flavour that will have you wiping your plate clean with your flat breads!

Prep time 20 minutes / Marinate time 30 mins - 24 hrs / Cooking time 45 minutes

Ingredients

(serves 4)

Don't panic... you do not have to make your own Tandoori spice mix, for me I love the alchemy sensation of making my own spice mixes, you can buy Tandoori spice mix from a good deli store, if so just skip to adding the spices to the marinade instructions part below.

4 chicken quarters

1 tbsp ghee

1 large onion puréed

2 cloves garlic puréed

5 cardamom pods, seeds only

1tsp cumin seeds

tiny pinch ground cloves

1/2 tsp black peppercorns

2 tsp coriander seeds

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/4 ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp grated nutmeg

2tsp Kashmiri chilli powder

1tbsp tandoori masala powder

1lrg pinch of salt

2" piece of ginger grated

6 cloves of garlic grated

1/2 juice of a lemon

300g Greek yogurt

First make the marinade for the chicken, in a dry frying pan gently warm up the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black peppercorns, place in a pestle and mortar or a coffee grinder and pound to a powder, next intake a saucepan add the ghee and on a medium heat add the puréed onions and garlic, cook for 5 minutes until softened, add the ground spices and all the dry ingredients mix well.

Marinade

Next place the yogurt in a bowl and add the 6 cloves of grated garlic, ginger and the lemon juice and all the other mixed spices, mix well and coat the chicken quarters thoroughly with the marinade, leave in the bowl, place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, overnight is even better.

Take your terracotta crock pot, tandoori oven or chicken brick and pour the chicken and marinade into the pot with a little water, place the lid on and cook for approx 45 minutes at 180 degrees for the first 20 minutes and 160 degrees for the rest of the time (25 mins), check that your chicken is cooked through before serving, to check pierce the chicken in the fattest part with a skewer then place the tip of the skewer on your upper lip, if it’s hot the chicken is cooked.

When you take the lid of your tandoori pot the aromas will be outstanding, serve with fluffy rice, flat breads and a side of yogurt with some Harissa paste rippled through.

Flat Breads

Ingredients

500g 00 caputo Italian flour

10g Himalayan sea salt

50g extra virgin olive oil

15g yeast

320g water

Place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and either by hand or by machine with a dough hook mix for seven minutes, then dust a little flour over the dough mix and gently form into a ball, cover the bowl with a tea towel and leave in a warm area to prove for 1-2 hours until doubled in size if you want to use immediately, then other options are leave to prove slowly in the fridge for 24hrs, this is what I do as it gives me much more control over time and usage, this will keep for 48hrs in the fridge ready to go when you are, you can also freeze any left over dough at this stage, then when ready to use remove from the freezer defrost and once up to room temperature use as you would fresh.

Take a oversized golf ball piece of dough, dust your work top with a little 00 flour, roll into a ball and roll out a large disk no bigger than your skillet, heat to a hot heat, place the flat bread in the pan and cook for one and a half minutes on each side, best served warm but are almost as good used later the same day, to use the following day dip the flat breads in water and pop in a pre heated oven foe 3-5 minutes and Ta-Da almost as good as fresh, brilliant.

PERFECT RICE

Cook your rice, quick, easy and perfect every time, take two cups of rice (serves 4-6), rinse, add to your pan with four cups of water, do not stir, pop on the lid and bring to a gentle simmer for 8 minutes, do not take the lid off at any point, when the time is up remove from the heat and as fast as possible pop in the butter, lid back on, do not stir, leave for 10 minutes to finish steaming, when you do take off the lid you will have lots of steam holes which confirms you have perfectly cooked rice, fluffy and light, fork through the butter and serve.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.