Tandoori Chicken

Tandoori chicken is a chicken made with a heaping tablespoon of  Indian spices consisting of curry, turmeric, cardamon, ginger, garlic, and paprika.  These spices are blended in with yogurt or sour cream to marinate the chicken overnight. This chicken is normally grilled but it tastes just as great oven baked.  Someone from the neighborhood ran a catering service. Shortly after my brother was born, my parents would order take out from them. Their famous tandoori chicken was highly requested. Orders would flow in and we were sometimes placed on the waiting list. After a while, my mother got the recipe from them and she would make it on special occasions and sometimes on the weekends.  Since we can’t mix dairy products with chicken, my mother uses  tofutti sour cream instead. Unfortunately, tofutti  sour cream is not available at my local supermarket. Instead, I used tufutti cream cheese whisked with lemon juice. This recipe is easy to prepare and it doesn’t entail that many steps. This chicken serves well with Basmati rice or with my curry cauliflower parsnip puree . For this recipe, you will need :

1. 1 3 lbs chicken cut into serving pieces, skinned and visible fat trimmed
2.  1/2 cup of tofutti sour cream (or 1 container of tofutti cream cheese)
3. 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
4. 1 heaping tablespoon of tandoori seasoning
5. Kosher salt
6. Ground pepper

Instructions

Season chicken pieces with Kosher salt. In a mixing bowl, whisk sour cream/cream cheese, lemon juice,  and tandoori seasoning. Divide the chicken and creme marinade into two gallon-sized Ziploc bags. After  sealing the bags, squish everything around to make sure the chicken parts were well coated. Store the bags in the fridge for about 8 hours.  When ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Arrange chicken pieces in a greased baking dish. Sprinkle with ground black pepper. Bake covered for the first 45 minutes. Remove foil and bake for the remaining 15 minutes.

Yields 4 servings