Tandoori Chicken

Chicken marinated in spiced yoghurt and cooked in a scorching tandoor oven until smoky, charred and impossibly juicy.

Tandoori chicken was created by Kundan Lal Gujral at Moti Mahal restaurant in Peshawar in the 1940s — the same man who invented butter chicken. Gujral had the idea of cooking chicken in a tandoor — a cylindrical clay oven traditionally used only for bread. The result was revolutionary: the yoghurt tenderised the meat, the spices penetrated to the bone, and the extreme heat (up to 480°C) created a char outside while keeping the inside extraordinarily juicy. When Moti Mahal moved to Delhi after Partition it became the restaurant that introduced tandoor cooking to the world. The orange-red colour should come from Kashmiri chilli — not food colouring, though many restaurants use the latter.

Marinate for a minimum of 8 hours — overnight is better. Score the chicken deeply so the marinade penetrates. Squeeze excess marinade before cooking or it steams instead of chars.