We love tandoori chicken. We love them tender and juicy and many of our friends love them crispy in spots. But making Tandoori Chicken in home ovens can require a lot of preparation and cleanup. We wanted something simpler yet delicious for busy weeknight dinners.

Our Weeknight Chopped Tandoori Chicken

• Uses Boneless Skinless chicken Thighs bought over deli counter (not frozen) and go straight out of the packet into the marinade after a quick wash
• No cutting or skewering of Chicken needed if boneless skinless thighs are bought
• No bones to negotiate when eating and chicken thighs still provide juicy texture
• Uses a quick and easy marinade if few spices are on hand
• Uses a short marination time while oven pre-heats and while other ingredients are prepped
• Uses a single foil lined sheet pan for cooking, discard the foil at the end, pan cleanup is easier (A quiet nod to Melissa Clark’s trending sheet pan Dinners Book and articles)
• Most of the recipe cooks in oven requiring only two timed interventions
• Can be paired with ready-made naan’s or pre-prepared rice
• Makes for a lean meal on its own

Bone in pieces are great, flavorful and succulent. But eating them is some work. Boneless kababs are brilliant in this case for easy eating and if you can cook them right they can be almost equally delicious. Yet they require some work. Threading them onto skewers and then the cleanup!

For weekdays when work keeps you busy throughout the day we needed something easier. Thus this recipe. This recipe is easy to shop for, prep, cook, eat and cleanup is easy!

A simple tandoori Spice mix

Even if its a weekday we don’t compromise on our spices. If you want to take a shortcut you can always use pre ground cardamom powder, mace powder, cumin powder and white pepper powder. We however keep the blend simple. We use the mild and sweeter kashmiri chili powder in combination with the hot chili powder and turmeric.

These are ground together with the cardamom, white peppercorns, mace and cumin seeds to create our tandoori spice blend.

A slightly thick marinade for oven cooking than usual

We mix this with ground ginger, garlic and green chili paste and only enough yogurt to coat two Chicken thighs. The spice powders don’t only act as a flavoring but also as marinade thickener and in home ovens this thick marinade helps cook a better tandoori chicken. Hence the yogurt should be added only as much is needed and we use Greek yogurt whenever possible. We even skip using lime juice since it adds liquid. We do add some oil though.

The ease and importance of chicken thighs

We choose chicken thighs for this recipe because we still want our chicken to be juicy and moist. Our butcher will gladly give us chicken thighs which are boneless and skinless. We only buy two of them as needed and we literally open the packet and mix this up in the marinade in a soup bowl and are able to cover it with cling film. There is no cutting or processing of thighs involved before marinating and this makes it easy and quick with no cutting board cleanup needed.

Marinate the chicken thighs in this thick marinade paste at least for 30 minutes.

Then set the oven to 550 F. Line a sheet pan with foil and oil lightly. We always use a few veggies like large cut capsicum or large chunks onions to lay the chicken down on. This allows for an uneven bottom side instead of a flattened sear on the bottom side of chicken.

You love those charred pieces of tandoori chicken?

When oven is pre heated to 550 F, we make sure to season the top side with salt. We feel doing this last minute does not dry out the chicken. For friends who like crispy charred spots on chicken, we use a little trick. Having high temperature tandoors make this easy but sometimes it can get tricky with a home oven. Many people sprinkle corn flour on the marinated chicken to make the marinade sticky and get browning through drying out. We believe corn flour changes texture and taste and a lot more of it is needed (results in almost thicker sticky batter coated chicken). We know the browning in meat is caused by Maillard reaction (proteins and reducing sugars) which is actually different than caramelization (sugars). A more alkaline medium at high temperature accelerates this and thus we season by sprinkling a half pinch of baking soda and we are rewarded with some brown spots where the browning is a bit accelerated. Even sprinkling some milk powder and glucose  could help but we are yet to test this (sugar is sucrose not glucose).

The Onions and a fantastic mint chutney

Meanwhile we thinly slice red onion halves and separate the half rings. We use a mandolin slicer for nice thin slices but you can use a knife as well. We soak these in ice cold water to take off the very sharp sulfurous flavors and keep the onions crunchy.

Meanwhile we also make a green kabab chutney with two portions mint leaves, one portion cilantro leaves, garlic, ginger and some green chili. We grind this mixture with a few drops of oil and just enough water (couple of tea spoons). We then squeeze in some lime juice and season with salt and mix some yogurt in using a spoon. The lime juice really brings life into this chutney. If you ever think your mint chutney is flat, try lime juice. Its the winner mojito combination of mint and lime which always works in a chutney. Mixing yogurt into chutney with spoon makes sure the chutney stays creamy and doesn’t collapse. This is reason why lime juice and yogurt should be mixed later with spoon and not blended in a blender.

The importance of Basting

Meanwhile after about 15-20 minutes you will see these dark spots start to form. Baste them with a mixture of melted butter and a tea spoon or two of milk or cream. This will keep your chicken moist and juicy with a lovely shine.

Do this by dabbing with a brush (scraping or brushing could just peel off the marinade off the chicken).

Return the pan to oven and bake for about 10-15 minutes. The top side should be almost cooked. Turn the thighs over and you should see fairly moist bottom side. Cook this for 5 more minutes till starting to dry out and then take out the chicken. Let them rest for a few minutes. Check that chicken is cooked by touch or checking the internal temperature of 165F.

So many options to Serve

Now take it to the cutting board and chop the chicken up in strips or chunks. Serve this in different ways as follows.

Mix in the onions and cilantro with the chopped chicken and give it a nice squeeze of lime juice. Serve it on top of some fluffy steamed basmati rice and some kabab chutney topped dollops.

Or serve the strips over chutney mixed with onions and cilantro and a lime for squeezing on top.

Or you can serve it alongside a naan and mix in also some of the vegetables like capsicum or onions that you used in the sheet-pan. You can also use our Makhani sauce recipe to create Chicken Makhani.

Beyond this you can make salads, sandwiches, pita pockets and so many more which we leave for you to imagine and create.

Weeknight Chopped Tandoori Chicken

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• Author: www.breakingnaan.com
• Total Time: 1 hour 5 mins
• Yield: Serves 2

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Description

A quick but delicious recipe for Tandoori Masala Flavored chicken which uses boneless and skinless chicken thighs without any cutting or skewering and cook in a sheet pan

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• For the Chicken:
• 2 boneless skinless chicken thighs
• 4 large garlic cloves (30 gm)
• 6 tsp chopped ginger (30 gm)
• 1 small green chili de-seeded and chopped (optional)
• 0.25 cup yogurt (Greek preferred)
• 2 tsp oil (vegetable or mustard oil)
• Salt to taste
• 0.25 tsp baking soda (optional)
• 1 green bell pepper or 1 onion to place chicken on while in the oven in the sheet pan
• Tandoori Spice mix:
• 4 whole green cardamoms (Substitute 0.25 tsp cardamom powder)
• 1 to 2 mace (0.25 tsp mace powder)
• 6 white peppercorns (0.25 tsp white pepper powder)
• 3 tsp Kashmiri or mild chili powder
• 1 tsp hot chili powder
• 1 tsp turmeric
• For basting:
• 1 Tbsp Butter melted
• 1 tsp milk or cream
• For the chutney
• 0.5 cup mint leaves
• 0.25 cup coriander leaves
• 2 tsp chopped ginger
• 1 garlic pod
• 1 green chili chopped and de-seeded
• salt to taste
• 0.5 tsp oil
• 1 to 2 tsp water
• 0.25 to 0.5 cup yogurt
• lime juice to taste (approx juice of half a lime)
• For the Garnish:
• 1 Medium sized onion peeled and halved vertically
• 1 cup ice cold water
• wedges of lime
• 4 tsp chopped cilantro
• For accompaniment:
• 1 Naan or 1 Cup cooked steamed basmati rice

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Instructions

1. For the chicken:
2. Pre Heat oven to 550F or as high as possible
3. Grind the tandoori spice mix to a powder
4. Grind the ginger, garlic and green chili to a paste
5. Mix oil, above paste and the spice mix along with yogurt while adding yogurt little at a time. Keep the marinade thick and just enough for the chicken. The spice mix flavors as well as functions as thickener
6. Wash chicken and pat dry with paper towel and mix with marinade in a bowl
7. cover the bowl with plastic cling wrap and refrigerate for at-least 30 minutes
8. Line a sheet pan with foil, lightly oil it
9. Chop onion or bell pepper coarsely to help support chicken thighs on the sheet pan without touching the pan
10. Arrange the above on the pan
11. When oven is preheated place marinated chicken on these vegetables, this allows the bottom side to not cook flat like a skillet and via convection rather than conduction
12. season generously both the top sides with salt and a pinch of baking soda for encouraging some browning in spots (optional)
13. Cook in oven for 15 to 20 minutes
14. Once the chicken starts cooking and browning a bit, mix the milk and melted butter and dab this on the chicken with a brush (do not brush since this can scrape of marinade, but dab lightly instead)
15. Cook for another 10 minutes till the top portion is cooked
16. Then baste again and flip the chicken over
17. Cook for another 5 minutes till this side is cooked but moist
18. Remove and check the chicken is cooked properly. You can use a thermometer and internal temperature should rise to 165F
19. Remove pan and let the chicken rest, and after it has rested dab some of the basting butter just before serving
20. For the onions:
21. Slice using a knife or mandolin slicer into thin semicircular separated slices
22. Keep them in iced water for 30 minutes to mellow them out and keep their crunch
23. Drain and dry before serving
24. For the chutney:
25. Grind everything except lime juice and yogurt to a paste adding only little water as needed.
26. Season with some lime juice and mix half the yogurt and mix to a smooth consistency with a spoon and taste. It should taste refreshing and minty
27. Adjust seasoning with salt and lime juice and mix in rest of yogurt with spoon till a good consistency is reached (it should not be watery but emulsified, though less thick than mayo)
28. Serving:
29. Chop the chicken on the cutting board into strips or chunks
30. Mix in some onions and cilantro with the chopped chicken and season with some lime juice
31. For serving with rice, plate some rice with a few dollops on chutney on top and then place the dressed chopped chicken on top.
32. For serving with Naan, spread some chutney on the plate alongside the naan and top with the dressed chopped chicken
33. Finish with some more chopped cilantro, onions or lime juice in both cases as desired. The green peppers or onion that baked on the sheet-pan can also be chopped and used for serving.

• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 35 mins
• Category: Entree
• Cuisine: Indian