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The best compliment Aarti Sequeira ever received was when someone said her homemade tandoori chicken was better than any they had had in an Indian restaurant. Yet the Food Network chef, host, and frequent judge was a little reluctant to share her family’s recipe when she appeared on the network’s series, “The Best Thing I Ever Made.” “This is a hallowed recipe in the Sequeira household,” she said, admitting that she has “a little trepidation about giving [family recipes] away.” Thankfully, she put aside her fears and shared what makes her tandoori chicken special.
While Sequeira says all you need for this recipe is “a spice grinder, an oven, and a bunch of spices” (and presumably some chicken), it’s actually a little more complicated than that. One of the chef’s secrets is to use two dried guajillo chilis, which give the dish a smoky flavor as well as some color. If you’re unable to find those particular chilis, she suggests using chili de árbol instead but adding a little extra paprika for the color.
Sequeira uses several of the five key spices you need for Indian food, including coriander, but also suggests fenugreek seeds for maple flavor, fennel seeds for a taste of licorice, and both green and black cardamom. She toasts the spices and then grinds them together, often blending enough to have leftovers. In fact, Sequeira says she has given out this particular blend of spices as Christmas gifts. The Cuisinart SG-10 is a dedicated nut and spice grinder, but an electric coffee grinder would also work well. Or you can go manual with a rolling pin or mortar and pestle.
A flavorful overnight yogurt marinade
Some chefs use a double marination process for tandoori chicken, first using an acid base to break down the connective tissue of the meat. Then the meat gets a second marination in yogurt. Yogurt works well with even the toughest steak or chicken because its lactic acid slowly tenderizes the meat. It also creates a coating around the chicken that caramelizes in the oven. Aarti Sequeira, however, marinates only once, using yogurt and a mix of paprika, cayenne, turmeric, malt vinegar, ginger, and garlic. She recommends leaving the chicken in the marinade overnight, ideally, or for at least a few hours. The chef prefers using chicken thighs because, “they have more flavor and they stay moist when you put them under that broiler,” she says.
Tandoori chicken is traditionally cooked in a clay oven called a tandoor. A tandoor reaches very high temperatures — up to 900 degrees Fahrenheit — which cooks meats quickly, leaving them moist and juicy on the inside while crispy on the outside. The oven also uses coal or wood as fuel, imparting a charcoal flavor to food. Tandoori ovens for home use are hard to come by, and expensive — Puri sells a version for home use for $800 — but you can also use your oven’s broiler, as Sequeira does, or an outdoor grill.
Although tandoori chicken is not usually served with a sauce, Sequeira makes one using the leftover marinade, cooking it over the stove with some water and honey. Many celebrity chefs’ favorite chicken recipes reflect their roots, and Sequeira is no different. As she says of her tandoori chicken, “while mine comes really close, it’s still missing that little mum magic.”
