Summary:
This Indian dish may be traditionally made in a tandoor clay oven, but you can easily make this at home using your oven and everyday ingredients. Chicken is infused with flavor from a richly spiced yogurt marinade, then broiled or baked until crisp with delicious blackened bits. Keto friendly and low carb.
INGREDIENTS
- 1.5 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs, trimmed (Note 1)
Rub:
- 1 lime, juiced (1-2 tablespoons)
- 3/4 teaspoon table salt
- 3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
- Marinate Chicken: Rub salt, pepper, and lime juice over all surfaces of chicken thighs; set aside. Stir together all marinade ingredients in large bowl until well-mixed. Add chicken thighs to bowl one at a time, using tongs to stir them around until smeared with marinade before adding another. Cover and refrigerate for 6 to 24 hours.
- Prepare: Position oven rack in center of oven. Turn on broiler, set to high. If broiler is not available, plan to bake instead (Note 4) by preheating oven to 450 F. Prepare baking sheet lined with foil or
parchment paper , optionally fitted with greased wire rack (Note 5). Use tongs to transfer marinade-covered chicken thighs to baking sheet, spreading out each thigh to lay it flat without touching others. Discard excess marinade in bowl. - Cook Chicken: Place baking sheet in oven, cooking until chicken appears mostly dry on top with a few blackened tips, 15 to 20 minutes. Take out baking sheet, flip chicken thighs, and return to oven. Cook until chicken appears dry and is cooked through, about 10 minutes, monitoring frequently to avoid burning. Serve (Note 6).
NUTRITION
| Makes 3 Servings (Note 7) |
| Amount Per Serving: |
| Calories 340 (43% from fat) | |
| Total Fat 16g | 25% |
| Saturated Fat 1g | 4% |
| Cholesterol 189mg | 63% |
| Sodium 930mg | 39% |
| Net Carb 5g | |
| Total Carb 6.5g | 2% |
| Dietary Fiber 1.5g | 5% |
| Sugars 2.5g | |
| Protein 44g |
PHOTOS
This is the best chicken but you must try adding garam masala to the spices and it makes it perfect!
This Tandoori Chicken is now in the weekly dinner rotation! It’s so good I made a triple batch last time. I froze the chicken thighs on a parchment lined cookie sheet in a single layer, (raw, after marinating 24 hours) and then transferred to a couple large Ziploc bags once frozen solid. Now I can just take a couple pieces out at a time, and throw them in the air fryer at 400 for about 13-15 minutes. Freezing doesn’t affect the yogurt marinade at all! It’s delicious on a salad, grain bowl, or wrap.
Could this be grilled on a bbq instead of broiled or baked?
Yes, grilling would work nicely for tandoori chicken.
I zoomed through the instructions and accidentally put the lime juice and salt and pepper in with the marinade, so the texture of the marinade came out a little cakey. Also only marinated for 5 hours, so it’s likely extra contents would have been absorbed had it marinated longer. Will also premix the spices so they are evenly mixed so flavor is not bitter in any way.
It smelled amazing and had I followed the instructions it would’ve come out delicious. Will def try again!
This was delicious and so easy to make. Unfortunately I didn’t have any yogurt so I just added 2 T olive oil and it turned out quite good, although I’ll be sure to use yogurt next time I make it. Family loved it! Thanks for sharing
Has anyone tried this in the air fryer?
Easy to make and very flavorful. Will marinate for 24hrs next time.
Could this be frozen as raw chicken in the marinade?
I haven’t tried that, but I think it could work out. Only potential issue is that the yogurt in the marinade might split once you thaw and cook the chicken.
Loved the chicken, easy to make. I will add more spice next time.
Great recipe, but not everyone has an oven with a ‘broiler’ (a grill in the UK). I ended up cooking in the oven and then grilling to blacken up the chicken, which is probably not quite the same but at least I could give it a go!