This is an easy baked Tandoori Chicken recipe for everyone who happens not to have a tandoor sitting in the middle of your kitchen! Made with accessible ingredients from scratch, chicken is infused with flavour from a yogurt tandoori chicken marinade then baked until golden with little charred bits.
Finger lickin’ good!
Tandoori Chicken recipe
Butter Chicken, Chicken Tikka Masala or Tandoori Chicken?? Any outing to an Indian restaurant causes a crisis of indecision as we battle it out between these 3 wildly popular Indian chicken dishes!
There’s no denying that one of the reasons why we love Tandoori chicken is the signature smokey chargrilled flavour that can only be achieved in a clay tandoor built to withhold fierce charcoal heat.
But don’t worry, you won’t miss the chargrill flavour in this Tandoori Chicken recipe. My trick is to jack up the flavour of the marinade to compensate – we’re talking big, big flavours here!
Tandoori Chicken Marinade
Here’s what you need for the Tandoori Chicken Marinade.
Kashmiri Chilli is what gives Tandoori the signature red colour. Tastes like paprika with a bit of spiciness, you’ll need to hunt down an Indian grocery store for this. But don’t worry, paprika is a near perfect flavour sub! The chicken won’t be quite as red but will still have a red hue. You can easily increase the redness with a drop or two of red food colouring.
How to make it
The making part is very straight forward: mix marinate, add the chicken, then leave to marinate. 12 to 24 hours is best, or 48 hours. If you’re in a rush, then 2 to 3 hours will do the trick if you cut slashes into the chicken.
While this is a baked tandoori chicken recipe, it’s a ripper on the barbie too. And off the charts amazing if cooked over charcoal!
What to serve with Tandoori chicken
Here’s what I serve with Tandoori Chicken:
Saffron Rice– love the colour contrast! Recipe below. Though plain basmati rice will do in a pinch (or other rice of choice).
Minted Yogurt– the freshness of the mint and cool yogurt pairs so well with all things Indian. Recipe below.
Side Salad*– try this Indian Tomato Salad or use the same dressing with slices of cucumber. Otherwise, check out this South Indian-style Cabbage & Carrot Salad with Coconut. A simpler alternative is Everyday Cabbage Salad (it’s in the recipe notes).
Flatbreads – When naan is in hot demand, I reach for my Easy No Yeast Flatbreads. Because it’s not a saucy curry, I like to brush the flatbreads with garlic butter for extra flavour – SO GOOD!
* Fresh side salads are less common in Indian cuisine, vegetables tend to be cooked. So don’t get too caught up about an authentic fresh side salad – go with what you like! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Baked Tandoori Chicken
Ingredients
Tandoori Marinade:
- 1 1/2 cups plain yoghurt (full fat best)
- 2 tbsp oil (any)
- 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp ginger , grated
- 5 garlic cloves , minced
- 3 tsp garam masala spice mix (Note 1)
- 1.5 tbsp kashmiri chilli powder (Note 2 subs)
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 tsp cumin
- 2 1/2 tsp coriander powder
- 1/2 tsp chilli powder, adjust to taste (pure, not US chili Note 3)
- 1 tsp salt
Chicken:
- 1.2kg / 2.4lb drumsticks, bone-in skin on chicken thighs or Marylands (whole chicken legs) (Note 4)
- Oil spray
Mint Yoghurt (optional)
- 1 cup plain yoghurt
- 1/2 cup mint leaves, packed
- Salt and pepper
- Olive oil
Serving
- Basmati rice OR Saffron rice (see note)
Instructions
- Mix Marinade ingredients in a large bowl. Add chicken, cover and marinate 12 to 24 hours (Note 5)
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Line a tray with foil and place a rack on the tray.
- Remove chicken from the Marinade, shaking off excess (reserve Marinade), and place on the rack. Bake for 20 minutes, then slather Marinade generously on both sides.
- Bake for a further 10 minutes, brush/dab top with Marinade.
- Bake further 10 minutes, do a final baste with Marinade then spray with oil.
- Increase heat to 220C/450F. Bake for a further 10 to 15 minutes until you get some nice charred spots. Serve with Minted Yogurt and Saffron Rice (below) or plain Basmati Rice.
Minted Yoghurt:
- Combine ingredients in a food processor and blitz until mint is very finely chopped.
BBQ Option:
- Preheat BBQ with closed lid to medium, brush grills lightly with oil. Place bone-in skin-on chicken skin side down on grills, cook 5 min until surface is just caramelised – no more.
- Baste, then flip. Baste, then close lid. Cook for 20 minutes or until internal temperature is 175F/80C (bone in thighs and drumsticks), basting once or twice more.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Originally published September 2015. Completely rewritten April 2019, new photos, new video, tidied up video and most importantly, new Life of Dozer section added!
Life of Dozer
Final photo from Dozer’s birthday cake recipe from Monday – when I was trying to do a “nice” overhead photo of the cake and when he saw I was teetering on a ladder fiddling with my camera, he knew it was an opportune time to lunge in for ANOTHER slice!
This recipe was delicious. I pretty much followed it and was delighted with the taste and authenticity – as were the rest of my family. Definitely a keeper.
NAGI,
I would dearly love to be in a position to shout you a drink or two! My wife and I love your recipients and techniques. We have used many from you and your flavours have turned a few heads from my friends at my BBQ. I am in NZ and we love your work.
Have a VERY good and happy new year, and we look forward to your ideas.
Lots of love. Colin and Cindy Donnelly.
Hi Nagi
Thank you for this lovely recipe. Thanks you I made a lovely lunch for the family which included your recipe for chicken tikka masala .
I noticed that the mint sauce for the tandoori chicken came out watery . Was I supposed to blitz the yoghurt as well along with the other ingredients?
I can’t wait to make this next week. Do you think plain greek yogurt would work for the marinade/mint sauce or should it really be just plain yogurt?
Yes the yogurt would come out watery – if you google it- it breaks down the proteins that make it thick if you put it in a blitzed- I found this out the hard way too. Probably best to chop mint finely and then add the yogurt and mix through
Is ii safe to use the marinade to bast even though the raw chicken was in it? Should I reserve marinade before the chicken is added?
Hi Tara, it’s completely fine as you are cooking the chicken again after basting. N x
I have made this dish before. I’m making for dinner this evening. It is delicious. Thank you for the recipe.
Hi Nagi,
Just wondering if coriander powder is the same as ground coriander seed?
That’s all I can find at the shops. Thank you
Hi Andreea – yes the same thing! N x
This looks delicious! May I use skinless things? Any changes in cooking method to use skinless?
So excited to try this. Have it in the fridge marinating and will be cooking it over our charcoal grill.
Sounds fabulous Annie! N x
Thank you for the recipe of this delicious looking tandoori chicken. Really useful and worth reading this article.
Love love love your recipes!
We are doing an Indian feast, my husband is adamant he wants to do these on the bbq, will that work?
Did you read the recipe
Loved the way its illustrated, very clear, very perfect,Thanks Nagi
Love your recipes! I’ve tried quite a few. More importantly, love your commentary on Dozer!!
Thanks Vanessa 🙂 N x
Loved the spice & the color of the tandoori marinade. I keep Kashmiri chili powder on hand and it went to good use here. I only had 1.25 lb chicken, but used the full marinade recipe so each piece of chicken was thoroughly flavored. I used Greek yogurt, which was almost too thick for a good marinade–I would use regular full-fat yogurt next time. A quick broil at the end nicely blackened the chicken. Very tasty.
I have never made Tandoori chicken before and was so nervous doing this. Lol. What an awesome surprise! Tasty and not at all too hot. We loved it. My husband, who is not a lover of chicken, said it’s the best thing you could do with chicken. I have already ordered some smoked paprika. Excited to see how that mixes up the flavour.
Husband and I love this so much that I am already making it again. Very flavorful as promised. I also made this marinade for Cauliflower (subbed some Curry Powder for the Coriander and doubled the Turmeric) marinated then baked with a little more oil – delicious!
Chicken turned out perfect! Just what I was looking for. I served it with raita, rice, curried roasted cauliflower and some slices of onion, tomato and cucumber. Thank you for another great recipe!
The best tandoori chicken we have made & quite moist, marinated 24 hrs. Used Vietnamese purple mint for the yoghurt which is a much milder mint. Quite nice. Thanks for your great channel. Bill
Can i also oven cook the chicken thighs in a open casserole dish if it possible please. Thank You
Thank you for sharing we’ll be having this today for teatime dinner, which i’ll be doing the cooking for both my partner and my self. Many Thanks
What an amazing recipe!!!!!😁 We made the Tandoori, Butter Chicken Sauce and Saffron Rice.😚It was delicious and my children loved it most!
That’s great to heat Jason! N x
Hi Nagi!
I’m using this marinade for lamb cutlets (1.5kg) would you recommend same timing as baking the chicken?