Tandoori chicken is highly popular Indian and Pakistani dish consisting of roasted chicken, yogurt, and spices.
[edit] Preparation
The chicken is marinated in yogurt and seasoned with tandoori masala. It is moderately piquant in India and Pakistan, but the heat is reduced in most Western nations. Cayenne pepper, red chili powder or kashmiri red chili powder is used to give it a fiery red hue in the original version. A higher amount of turmeric produces an orange color. In milder versions, both red and yellow food coloring are used to achieve the color.[1] It is traditionally cooked at high temperatures in a tandoor (clay oven), but can also be prepared on a traditional barbecue grill.
[edit] History
The story of its origins lies with Kundan Lal Gujral, a who ran a restaurant called Moti Mahal in Peshawar Pakistan in the 1920s. Following the partition in 1947, Gujral found himself one of many Hindu refugees fleeing to India to escape the rioting and upheaval. He moved his restaurant to Delhi in a place called Daryaganj.[2] Using new recipes to keep his patrons interested, Gujral tried cooking chicken in tandoors which were until then only used to cook naan. Tandoors are bell-shaped ovens set into the earth and fired with wood or charcoal; they can reach temperatures of about 485°C (903.5°F).
The tandoori chicken at Moti Mahal so impressed the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, that he made it a regular at official banquets. Visiting dignitaries who enjoyed tandoori chicken included American Presidents Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy, Soviet leaders Nikolai Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev, the King of Nepal, and the Shah of Iran.
The fame of tandoori chicken led to many derivatives, such as chicken tikka (and eventually the Indian dish popularized in Britain, chicken tikka masala), commonly found in menus in Indian restaurants all over the world.
[edit] Regions
It is popular outside of Pakistan, in other parts of South Asia, where it is eaten as a starter before a meal.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
