Chicken tandoori #1 of 2

4 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
8 Chicken legs with thighs attached
⅓ cup Lemon juice
2½ teaspoon Meat tenderizer unseasoned; natural
1 tablespoon Red food coloring
2 tablespoons Yellow food coloring
1 cup Yogurt; plain
2 larges Garlic cloves
1 tablespoon Ginger root; fresh; chopped
1 teaspoon Cumin seeds; roasted;ground*
½ teaspoon Cardamom; ground
½ teaspoon Red cayenne pepper
Ghee or vegetable oil; for basting

Directions

FOR LOVELY VERMILLION COLOR

FOR MARINADE

*HOW TO ROAST CUMIN SEEDS: Take a small sauce pan or frying pan and heat it until moderately hot. Put in the cumin seeds and shake pan back and forth or stir until seeds turn from dark green to brown.

This happens very quickly. Remove seeds immediately. When cool, grind to a powder. If this seems like a big hassle, just use powdered cumin. Flavor of dish will be only slightly different from original.

**ABOUT GHEE: Ghee is clarified butter. I usually use a mixture of half margarine and salad oil.

DIRECTIONS: 1. Remove skin from chicken legs. Prick the chicken all over with fork or thin skewer. Make diagonal slashes, ½- inch deep, 1 inch apart on the meat. Mix food colors together, and using a pastry brush, paint chicken. Coloring will stain fingers, so be careful. Put the meat in a large bowl.

2. Add meat tenderizer and lemon juice to the chicken, and rub them into the slashes and all over for 2 minutes. Cover and marinate for ½ hour.

3. Put all the ingredients of the marinade into the container of an electric blender or good processor, and blend until reduced to a smooth sauce. (Alternatively, garlic and ginger may be crushed to paste and blended with the remaining ingredients.) 4. Pour this marinade over the chicken pieces and mix, turning and tossing, to coat all the pieces well. Cover and marinate for 4 hours at room temperature, or refrigerate overnight, turning several times.

(I refrigerated chicken) Chicken should not remain in the marinade for more than 2 days, because the marinade contains a meat tenderizer which, with prolonged marinating, alters the texture of the chicken meat to very soft and doughy.

SOURCE: "Classic Indian Cooking" by Julie Sahni. Format in Meal-Master by Karen Adler, SPXB77A@....

Related recipes