How to make Grilled Tandoori Chicken! | 45-sec video
Tandori Chicken Marinade ingredients:
- PLAIN yogurt
- Garlic
- lemon or lime juice
- olive oil
- salt
- cumin
- coriander
- paprika (not smoked)
- ground turmeric
- cayenne
- ground ginger
- ground clove
- ground cardamom
For the simple marinade, add the Indian spices to plain whole milk yogurt, along with garlic, salt, olive oil and lime juice, and give a stir. Let this marinate 20 minutes or up to 48 hours!
You can grill the chicken whole, or thread onto skewers, up to you!
Marinate the chicken for at least 20 minutes before grilling, or preferably overnight!
The chicken can be skewered or grilled as whole thighs if pressed for time!
I love adding “grillable” veggies – here I have scallions and bell peppers. Zucchini, tomatoes, asparagus, or green beans work well too!
If you don’t feel like starting up your barbecue, a grill pan over your stovetop works great too.
Make sure to grease your grill or grill pan well. Grill each side so all sides are nicely marked, and finish in a warm oven.
What to serve with Tandoori Chicken?
- Indian Spinach Salad with Lentils & Cauliflower
- Bombay Carrot Salad
- Raita!
- Mint Chutney
- Aloo Gobi
- Basmati rice
- Naan Bread
- Authentic Chai!
- Chai Cookies!
Grilled Tandoori Chicken Recipe
- Prep Time: 30
- Cook Time: 30
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 4-6 1x
- Category: chicken, grilled, main
- Method: Grilled
- Cuisine: Indian
Description
How to make the most flavorful Tandoori Chicken in a yogurt marinade, cooked on a grill!
Ingredients
- 2 pounds chicken thighs (boneless, skinless, left whole or cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes for skewers) or chicken breasts (see notes)
Marinade Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup whole milk PLAIN yogurt
- 6 cloves garlic – finely minced ( or sub 1 1/2 tablespoon granulated garlic)
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 2 teaspoons coriander
- 2 teaspoon paprika (not smoked)
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1/2 teaspoon cayenne, more for spicy (this is quite mild)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon ground clove
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
Instructions
In a medium bowl whisk all marinade ingredients together until well combined (or use a blender) Add the chicken and let marinate for at least 20 minutes or up to 24-48 hours in the fridge. The longer, the better. 🙂
If using wood skewers, soak wood skewers in water at least 30 minutes to prevent burning.
Pre-heat grill to med-high heat. Make sure the grate is cleaned and very well greased.
Sear the chicken, for 4-5 minutes or until good grill marks appear. Resist the urge to move them early, or too much or you will lose the lovely yogurt crust.
Once the chicken has nice deep grill marks it will naturally release itself a little from the grill. I really like to use a metal spatula to help preserve that golden yummy crust.
Once both sides have grill marks, turn the grill down, or move to a cooler part of grill and cover – or alternatively, finish cooking in a 350 F oven until meat is cooked through.
Serve the Grilled Tandoori Chicken with Raita, grilled naan bread or basmati rice and grilled veggies.
Notes
For vegetarians -feel free to use the same marinade on tofu! Super tasty.
Feel free to substitute chicken breasts- cooking time will shorten- so be mindful that your chicken doesn’t dry out.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 5.5 ounces
- Calories: 242
- Sugar: 1.2 g
- Sodium: 568.9 mg
- Fat: 10.2 g
- Saturated Fat: 2.6 g
- Carbohydrates: 4.1 g
- Fiber: 0.8 g
- Protein: 32.5 g
- Cholesterol: 145.1 mg
This recipe is perfect for BBQ dinner.
We marinated the chicken overnight which resulted in a tasty flavor.
Thanks for sharing your recipe
Glad you enjoyed this Fay!
Great recipe! I made this with buttermilk instead of yogurt and it was absolutely delicious!
Perfect!
This was absolutely OUTSTANDING. The flavors and spices were spot on. I look forward to making many more of your recipes.
Thanks so much Karen!
Karen, did you make any modifications to Sylvia’s recipe? Do you think guests who say they only like white meat would like this? It looks so delish.
I made no modifications and I think those that prefer white meat wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.
Fantastic!!
Awesome!
Do you think it would get the same lovely crust on a rack in the convection oven? I saw the baked recipe just curious
Hi Roxanne- I have not tried this but seems like it should work. You could always pan-sear the skin side first then place in the oven?
Fun to make but honestly, it didn’t have the same flavor of what I get at the restaurants.
Sorry to hear that!
I make this all the time now. It is fabulous. I cut each thigh into three pieces and put it in a zip log bag with the marinade and refrigerate it overnight. The next day I thread the strips onto my metal skewers. I love it grilled but you can also put it n the broiler. I’m making a huge batch right now for a cookout tomorrow. Thanks for such a tasty yet easy recipe!
Great to hear Donette- thanks for sharing!
Great recipe, a really tasty easy dish. Definitely be using it again 🙂. Thanks
thanks Louise!
My Husband thinks thatches a wonderful recipe he loved the spices and Tandoori Chicken is te new favorite chicken recipe for him. Thanks, I made with tofu for myself and I loved the spices too.
I like to freeze extra chicken in marinade so it’s ready when needed. Can I freeze this with the yogurt?
Great question- and not sure if the yogurt will get grainy? I haven’t tried freezing it. If you try, will you let me know? Curious!
Left out the ground cloves by mistake. Marinated 4 hrs. Did whole bone-in thighs on Char-Griller indirect fire 20 minutes per side. One of the best pieces of chicken I can remember ever having. OUTSTANDING!
Another easy, flavorful recipe! Even with a marinating time of only about 30min, I was really surprised at how much flavor the chicken took on. We grilled on the stove with a cast iron grill pan, but next will definitely use the outdoor grill next time to boost the smoky, charred flavor. Paired the chicken with your Palak Paneer recipe (which is also AMAZING!!), a quick Tomato Salad, and some Naan from the freezer. What a feast!
Incredible! Your website has opened up my world to such flavorful and beautiful dishes. Thank you for sharing these amazing recipes. This tandoori chicken recipe is a staple in our house now!
Made this chicken and your Spinach Lentil Dal tonight for my husband, daughter, son-in-law, sister and mother and everyone loved it! Marinated the chicken before leaving for work this morning and the spinach dish was pretty easy to whip together when I got home! I forgot to make the Raita, but will make it next time and it will probably be even more delicious!
We made this and it was outstanding! Grilled up perfectly! Loved it. Thank you for the recipe.
Perfectly marvelous recipe. Made exactly as written except halved the cayenne to suit my better two thirds’ tastes. Splendid responses from my wife and guests. They are clamoring for me to make it again sooner rather than later. The riata seems very versatile and I plan to use it with a ground lamb “meat loaf” dish next week. Think it will pair quite nicely. Thank you for truly top shelf tandoori and riata recipes.
Glad you and your family liked it!
Delicious! I just found it to be a little too salty, so I will put a little less salt next time.
We love Indian food and this recipe was just delicious. Was a tad spicy for our 18 month old grandson, but he still ate it! Raita was a great accompaniment. It was a fast, tasty dinner, especially if you grill the chicken thighs whole, rather than skewered!
So Glad you liked it!
Love all the spices with just a kick of heat. This is going to be a family favorite!
Question: I tried clicking on the 2X and 3X buttons, and only some of the ingredients changed. Can you fix this please?
Linda, Im sorry about that. It’s malfunctioning …tried fixing and it won’t fix. Will have to have my tech person take a look on monday. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Excellent recipe! I loved it! Never thought I could make this at home and always dined out for this meal. Much better than I ever had at a restaurant.
So great to hear! It’s an older recipe I just recently updated and we had last night for dinner too. so tasty! Glad you liked it!
Did anyone tried to replace yogurt with coconut cream or other creams like whipped , i am following keto diet and love this recipes but yogurt has high carbs .
This sounds so delicious. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Simon
My kind of food, looks really good and your pictures are so nice.
These look fabulous! Loving this recipe 🙂