Tandoori at home: the tandoor oven, tandoori masala and tandoori chicken without a tandoor

Tandoori food is cooked in a tandoor oven, a tall clay oven fired with charcoal, wood or gas. The best-known dishes are tandoori chicken, tikka and naan, which is slapped onto the inside wall of the oven. Without a tandoor you can get very close at home: you need a good yoghurt marinade with tandoori masala spice mix and a very hot oven or grill. In Polish the oven is "piec tandoor" and the spice mix is "przyprawa tandoori".

What a tandoor oven is

A tandoor is a clay cylinder, usually set inside a metal or brick casing. Charcoal burns at the bottom, or a gas burner does the same job. The clay heats up and gives off heat from its whole surface, so the inside gets very hot and food cooks fast from every side.

There are two ways of cooking in a tandoor:

• Meat, fish and paneer go onto long metal skewers that stand upright in the oven. Fat and marinade drip onto the bottom and burn, which gives a light smoky smell.
• Naan and tandoori roti are shaped from dough and pressed straight onto the hot oven wall. After a minute or two the bread comes off with a long hook.

The tandoor belongs to the cooking of North India and Pakistan, above all Punjab.

A tandoor oven for a restaurant

A full-size tandoor is catering equipment. Little India sells the Shaan professional gas tandoor oven with a clay chamber, which runs on LPG from a cylinder and is meant for restaurants. Before you buy a gas oven, check the rules on installation, ventilation and safety for your premises.

Tandoori chicken without a tandoor

This recipe gives chicken with a charred crust and a juicy inside, in an ordinary home oven.

Ingredients (serves 4):

• 1 kg chicken thighs or drumsticks (skin on or off)
• 200 g thick plain yoghurt (Polish: jogurt naturalny)
• 2 tablespoons tandoori masala
• 1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste (or 3 cloves garlic and a piece of ginger, grated)
• juice of ½ lemon
• 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder (for colour, optional)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons oil or melted ghee

Method:

1. Cut a few deep slashes in the meat, down to the bone. This lets the marinade go deeper.
2. Rub the chicken with lemon juice and salt. Leave for 15 minutes.
3. Mix the yoghurt, tandoori masala, ginger-garlic paste, chilli and oil. Coat the meat in it.
4. Cover the bowl and put it in the fridge for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight.
5. Heat the oven to 230–240°C (conventional or fan). Put the chicken on a rack over a tray lined with foil.
6. Roast for 30 to 40 minutes, turning halfway. At the end, switch on the grill for 3 to 5 minutes to char the edges.
7. Check that the meat is cooked: there must be no pink at the bone and the juices must run clear. Chicken must always be fully cooked.

Serve with sliced onion, lime and green mint chutney, with naan or rice.

Other ways without a tandoor

• Barbecue. The closest to the original, because it adds smoke. Cook over a medium-hot grill with the lid on, turning often.
• Cast-iron pan. Good for tikka, small boneless pieces. Fry on a high heat for a few minutes on each side.
• Paneer tikka. The same marinade works for cubes of paneer, pepper and onion on skewers. Cook for less time, about 10–15 minutes.

Where to buy tandoori masala in Poland

For the marinade you need a tandoori masala mix, for example TRS Tandoori Masala or MDH Tandoori Barbeque Masala. There is also a ready Patak's tandoori marinade paste. Little India has shops in Warsaw, Kraków, Wrocław and Gdańsk and ships orders across Poland. For the other spices, see Indian spices: a starter kit, and for the breads, roti, chapati and naan.