Thanks to my background, only a certain amount of time can go by before I start to really crave Indian food. My cravings got to an all time high this week after a few failed attempts at going to an Indian Restaurant for dinner. It brought to mind a certain scrumptious dish at one of my favorite restaurants in Bombay, India. Ironically enough, it’s an Italian restaurant that happened to spice up a few of its menu items with Indian flavors.
I decided to take on the task for myself- Tandoori Chicken Risotto. Having already conquered a risotto recipe, it was the Tandoori Chicken part I had to worry about. Luckily for me, my mom knows how to make some of the best in town!
There’s two ways to make Tandoori Chicken— one with using ready made Tandoori mix and one without. I chose the slightly easier route and purchased the mix, however!!!! I will provide both recipes for you; it only involves a few extra ingredients here and there.
Ingredients for Tandoori Chicken (make your own marinade)
- 3 boneless chicken breasts, cubed
- 1 cup plain yoghurt
- 1 tsp. cumin powder
- 1 tsp. garam masala
- 1 tbs. mango chutney
- 2 tsp. lal masala
- tomato ketchup
The reason why I didn’t use this recipe is because it is rare to find ready made Lal Masala at your normal supermarket. If you wish to try this out and make your own, refer to my Lal Masala recipe from my post ‘Kheema’: http://signaturesabrina.com/2011/07/18/kheema-indian-dish/
If you choose to minimize the workload for yourself, follow this recipe instead:
Ingredients for Tandoori Chicken (ready-made marinade)
- 3 boneless chicken breasts, cubed
- ½ cup tomato ketchup
- 1 cup plain yoghurt
- 1 tsp. cumin powder
- 1½ cups tandoori mix (usually a paste, found in the international section of most supermarkets)
Ingredients for Risotto
- 1 pack Arborio rice
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 bunch parsley, chopped
- ½ cup tomato ketchup
To get the best results for your Tandoori chicken, the key is marination. The longer you marinate the chicken for, the more succulent and flavorful it will be. I chose to break up the marination in two steps.
First, I trimmed the fat off my chicken breasts. Leaving them whole, I made two slits in the center of the chicken, so that the marinade could sink in and work from the inside, so to speak.
Using my ready-made Tandoori mix, I began to liberally coat the chicken breasts. Make sure that every last surface of chicken has been covered with the deliciously pungent mix! Place it in the fridge, covered with foil, and leave it to marinate overnight.
About 2-3 hours before you’re ready to start cooking, remove the chicken and begin cubing it into bite sized pieces. Put the chicken back in your mixing bowl and add the yoghurt and ketchup. Mix it in with the marinade thoroughly.
Cubed chicken
Mixing the yoghurt with the marinade sauce
Putting it all together
Cover the chicken up again and place it in the fridge until you’re ready to use it again.
The yoghurt is used to soften the spice in the marinade. If you would like the chicken to be particularly spicy, mix in less yoghurt.
The ketchup, in this particular instance, is used to balance out the lime flavor in the marinade. This may not hold for all marinades, but plenty use a great deal of lemon juice when mixing the Lal Masala. To sweeten it out a little, ketchup works well. If you don’t want to use ketchup, make sure you use a sweetened (but not flavored!!!) yoghurt instead of plain yoghurt.
To cook the chicken, spread it out in a large baking pan or dish so that no chicken piece is on top of the other. Bake it with the marinade mix for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.
In the meantime, you should start on the risotto because that takes awhile. If you’re feeding four or more people, it is necessary to use the entire pack of risotto rice and the process will take longer. [This recipe serves 4-6].
As you can see, I chopped the onion and garlic on the same chopping board I used to dice the chicken. This allowed the spices to mix in well with the ingredients.
Begin cooking the onion and garlic in a large frying pan until the onion turns golden brown.
For best results on making a creamy risotto, one needs to portion out the ingredients and let it all cook well. Start by adding 1 cup of the rice into the frying pan and mix it with the onion and garlic. Keep stirring until the rice becomes translucent.
In a saucepan, heat up your chicken broth with 3 cups of hot water. Keep it on a low fire the entire time you are making your risotto.
When the first batch of rice becomes translucent, add one cup of the hot broth mixture. Stir consistently until all the broth has been absorbed into the rice.
Then add your second cup of rice and repeat the process. Keep going until all the rice and broth has been cooked together, resulting in thick, creamy rice.
Rice cooking with the chicken broth freshly added
Rice after the chicken broth has been fully absorbed into the starchy grains
At this point you may be wondering why the rice has taken on a reddish-brown color. This is because I scraped the bowl that held the chicken marinade with a spoon and added the leftover marinade into the rice and broth mixture to start obtaining the same Tandoori flavor.
By now, your chicken should be ready to remove from the oven. Pour the entire mix into the rice, ensuring all the marinade sauce goes with it. Mix thoroughly.
This is what the chicken and rice should look like by this point.
As you’re stirring in the chicken, add your ½ cup of ketchup and cumin powder. For an extra zesty flavor, add a dash of curry powder as well.
Keep stirring through the rice for an additional ten minutes. If you feel like the rice is getting too dry, add some additional broth or hot water. No gravy is supposed to form, but the rice must be moist at all times.
When done, take your chopped parsley and sprinkle it atop the dish.
Serve with Parmesan cheese on top or on the side.
There you have it! An authentic Indian dish, right in your own home!
Very often, we serve Tandoori Chicken with a yoghurt-based side called ‘Raita’. While I didn’t make it, I will provide the recipe anyway!
Raita:
- 2-3 cups plain yoghurt
- 1 finely chopped cucumber
- 1 small bunch coriander, chopped up
- 2 tsp. cayenne pepper
Mix them all together and serve chilled. If you want a sweeter flavor, use sweetened yoghurt instead of plain. It’s supposed to be a side to the Tandoori Chicken. You can either dip the chicken in it or simply mix it into your meal. Of course, different families have different Raita recipes with additional ingredients, but this is the most basic.
Well, what are you waiting for? Go start so you can brag about how you can make delicious Indian cuisine!
Mangez bien, riez souvent, aimez beaucoup!
Thank you for posting your recipe, it sounds delicious.
anytime! I’m glad you like it, I hope you enjoy making it.
If you make the Raita, let me know how it turns out!