Don’t let the lack of a traditional clay oven stop you from making this ‘king of kebabs’ at home
W
hen was the last time you had tandoori chicken? Described by the Liverpool Daily Post in 1962 as “roast chicken Indian fashion”, this delicately seasoned, but often luridly coloured, dish was once the mainstay of the British Indian restaurant menu; yet, always greedy for novelty, I can’t remember when I last had the pleasure.
The loss is mine, because it’s one of the very best ways to eat chicken – rich and tender, thanks to its yoghurt marinade, tangy with lemon and perfumed with spice. Vivek Singh argues that “no Punjabi celebration can be complete without tandoori chicken”, while J Inder Singh Kalra went as far as to crown it the “king of kebabs”, a sentiment echoed by Rohit Ghai.
The issue for domestic cooks is, of course, that few of us have the clay oven, or tandoor, from which the dish takes its name. Traditionally used to cook bread, and capable of getting up to astonishingly high temperatures, it’s this that gives tandoori chicken its characteristically smoky flavour. So, assuming you don’t happen to have one handy, what’s the best way to make tandoori-style chicken at home?
