Tandoori Whole Chicken

What climate it is out here!!! Really in love with it.... yesterday, we went for a long drive towards the outskirts and the beach side.  It was fantastic. Even though when we started, the sun was quite harsh and we were worried about the reminder of the day. But from afternoon, the sun mellowed down and there was a beautiful breeze. So much fun eating my umma's fried rice and my cousin's wife's chicken manchurian in open air, enjoying nature's bounty... The kids enjoyed themselves running around and we enjoyed chatting ourselves to glory. Sometimes, you do need to get out from the hustle-bustle of life, just be yourself and enjoy, isn't it??? :)

While browsing through my recipe index the other day, I was a bit surprised to see that I have never posted whole chicken roasts, when it is something I keep making especially when we have gatherings at home. I have to say, my HD loves my full chicken roasts *blush blush*... hehe... Whenever we have guests coming home, he insists that I roast a full chicken. Actually speaking, when it is among yourselves, it is fine to attack a whole chicken but I am always wary while doing this for a group of people, who may feel shy to attack it when others are around!!! Still, what I get back is just the bones, to be frank! InShaAllah, in the future, I will try to post in some more whole chicken roasts when I get a chance to click them before they are devoured, but today, I will share with you the way I make tandoori chicken. I am not a fan of the readymade tandoori powders as they just don't give the taste you want. This was a mish-mash of many recipes that I referred to, and I must say that the whole family was really happy with the way it tasted!

Ingredients:

1 kg chicken, skin removed and cleaned
4 tbsp thick yogurt
2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp cumin powder*
1 tbsp Kasoori methi
Salt and pepper to taste
Butter for basting

Method:

Clean the chicken well, slit using knife on various parts and pat dry. Mix ingredients from yogurt to salt and pepper in a bowl to a thick paste. Add in the chicken and cover it well in the masala. Cover the bowl with cling film and marinate the chicken for a minimum of one hour. It is better to marinate overnight for the best results. 

When time for roasting, take out the chicken and leave to reach room temperature. Transfer to your roasting pan and bast with melted butter generously. Bake in preheated oven at 200 degrees for 30-40 minutes on one side, turn over and repeat till the other side is cooked too. Serve hot with anything you like or eat it as it is!!! ;)

* I added only 1/2 tsp cumin powder as my family is cumin-averse (I really don't know why!!!) so the taste was slightly different. Adding the full cumin quantity would give a more tandoori flavor!

Notes:

1. You can grill the chicken as per your normal setting as well. My oven has a specific setting for chicken, which I use for cooking my chicken. 

2. Instead of whole chicken, you can use chicken pieces or boneless chicken as well.

I must say that taking this picture was such a pain - I had a little hungry gang of people not being able to hold their hunger pangs, I was not even allowed to pull out my camera and had to be content with taking a snap on my mobile!!! :)