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.