WOOD FIRED TANDOOR CHICKEN

This is so good, gorgeous sumptuous face stuffing food, great to share with family and friends.  I love cooking over a wood fire it adds so much more flavour and fun!  This is almost as good charred on a hot griddle pan in the kitchen, with the windows open!  I have married up a few inspirational recipes and found this marinade tasted as close to the authentic tandoori chicken cooked in a traditional tandoor oven that I have eaten.

I have used kashmiri chilli powder in this recipe, you can find this on Amazon or in good deli stores.  If you want a redder traditional colour like in the Indian restaurants this is achieved by adding a paprika extract known as paprika oleoresin it is commercially used and you will find it in the commercial mix of tandoori masala powders readily available.  I have made my own tandoori masala, recipe below.

 Serve stuffed in to my gorgeous flat breads that are really are worth the effort to make it only take 5 minutes to make the dough in a mixer, 1 hr to prove and around 3 minutes to cook each flatbread, these are outstandingly fabulous.

Super Easy

Marinating 1 hr - 24 hrs / Cooking time 15-20 minutes

Ingredients 

(serves 6-8)

MARINADE

5 cardamon pods de-seeded

2 tsp cumin seeds

1/4 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp black peppercorns

2 tsp  coriander seeds

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp turmeric powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon powder

1/4 grated nutmeg

2 tsp kashmiri chilli powder

1 tbsp tandoori masala powder (home made recipe below)

1 lrg tsp salt

2" piece of ginger finely grated

6 garlic cloves finely grated

300g Greek yogurt

1/2 lemon juiced

6 chicken breasts diced or 1 kg lamb leg diced

TANDOORI MASALA POWDER

1 tsp ground ginger, cardamom, cumin, coriander, paprika, salt, cayenne and turmeric.

Mix together

TANDOORI MASALA MARINADE

In a pestal and mortar or my favourite a coffee grinder, grind the cardamom, cumin, cloves, black peppercorns and coridander seeds, tip into a larage bowl and add the yogurt, cayenne, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg, chilli powder, tandoori masala, ginger, garlic, salt and lemon juice, mix well into a gorgeous paste and coat the chicken really well.  The longer you can leave this to marinate the deeper the flavour, 30 minutes and you will have a tandoori chicken meal but 5 hours or overnight in the fridge and you will have outstanding tandoori chicken.  Once marinated place the chunks of chicken or lamb on your skewers, if using wooden skewers soak them in cold water for 30 minutes prior to use.  If using metal skewers your chicken will cook a little quicker than wooden skewers.

To Cook Your Tandoori Chicken

Fire up your, fire pit, BBQ, coal pot or stove top griddle and to start cook the skewers low down near the coals, or on a really high heat on a griddle so as to char the chicken, don't turn the skewers until the meat has sealed and slightly charred on one side then once you have charred both sides lower the heat or pop the skewers higher up to finish cooking slowly, allowing the chicken to start resting as it finishes cooking, serve stuffed and rolled up in your flat bread with salad, fixings and harissa yogurt

ACCOMPANIMENTS

200ml Greek yogurt & 8 tsps Harissa paste mixed

Crispy iceberg salad

 1 sliced red onion tossed in dried mint

 1 sliced green peppers

2 tbsp fresh chopped coriander

Mint mayonnaise 

FLAT BREADS

500g 00 flour

15g dried yeast

50ml olive oil

10g salt

320g water

To Make The Flatbreads

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 a minimum of 1 hour 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, just let the dough come up to room temperature before using, 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 tennis ball size 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.