Tandoori Chicken with Cucumber Raita.

The past couple days have been really good. I being a new blogger giggle with joy like a baby when I discover something new out here and if something positive comes out of it, that’s just awesome. I recently got to know about and submitted some of my photographs on Tastespotting and Foodgawker and to my biggest surprise all of them got selected! How cool is that? So you can guess that I’m really excited.

Today there is another reason for us ( me and my dear husband) to be excited . We today add one more year to our togetherness. One more year and we did not chop each other’s heads off. We deserve an award for that. But its so amazing that you love someone and decide to spend your life with them and when you are doing that you fall in love with them all over again.

Anyways! so like every year or like any special occasion in our home I had to make Rajma Chawal for dinner. He loves it so much that its almost meaningless to plan a special dinner for him and forget about that so that was there and then I also made some Tandoori Chicken along-with Cucumber Raita. It turned out to be a great dinner. Best part was the gift BTW, which always is but this time I got this awesome chef’s knife which I had been eyeing for a while. I couldn’t resist showing it off on one of the pictures!

Now if you know Indian food then you know Tandoori Chicken. Its easy, its delicious and kind of no brainer and as its summer there had to be some cold raita in the menu.
Here’s how I made them:

Ingredients for Tandoori Chicken:

6 chicken drumsticks
2 tbsp coriander powder
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp tandoor masala (optional)
1 tsp garlic powder or you can also use 1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp ginger powder or you can also use 1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp cumin powder
juice of one lime
2 tbsp yogurt ( I used whole milk creamy yogurt firstly because I had some in the fridge and it also gives the chicken some richness. If you don’t have whole milk yogurt just add a tsp of extra virgin olive oil)
Salt to taste.

Method:

Just mix all the ingredients together. Make a few slits on your drumsticks and rub the marinade on the chicken nicely. Let the chicken marinate for atleast one hour but not more than 24 hours.

Now there are people who add red coloring to the marinade to give it that restaurant style look but I personally don’t like it so I didn’t do that.

Preheat the oven to 450 deg. F
Place the drumsticks on a baking sheet and place it into the oeven turning the temperature down to 350 deg. F. Let it cook for 20-25 mins and then flip the drumsticks upside down. Cook it for another 10 mins. You’ll see a clear juice running out of the chicken when poked, that means your chicken is cooked and its time to turn the oven to broiler. Place the drumsticks on a cooling rack and then cook it on broiler setting for 5 mins and then flip again upside down and another 5 mins.
Your Tandoori Chicken is ready to be served.

I served them with Cucumber Raita. recipe follows…

Ingredients for Cucumber Raita:

1 cup finely chopped cucumber (peeled preferably)
1/2 cup non fat yogurt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp chat masala
1/2 tsp red pepper powder

Thoroughly mix all the ingredients and you are done!