Tandoori Chicken

This post is pretty delayed in its arrival on the blog. We served this dinner to our friends JJ and Julia about three weeks ago, yet I've managed to forget to post about it for quite a lengthy period! And as you can tell from the picture, it's a beautiful-looking dinner to enjoy, that's surprisingly straightforward, so it's not even like I should have been trying to avoid it! Anyways, this lovely Indian meal was apparently only the second time JJ had tried Indian food in his life, the first being at local favorite Nawab, where he was apparently not impressed/immediately in love. Once he mentioned that (right before dinner was served), I think Will and I got a little nervous, because we wanted him to enjoy the food! However, with the addition of some extra chile powders that we let JJ apply himself, he appeared to enjoy the dinner and we might have convinced him that Indian food isn't so bad! We served this new Tandoori Chicken recipe with our most recent version of Dhal and some Indian Creamed Spinach. The spinach didn't turn out quite right, so it was best mixed with rice, but we've really taken a liking to the new dhal recipe. And of course, the brightly-colored chicken was flavorful and thoroughly enjoyable!

Cooking Notes: The recipe has its own tandoori spice mixture suggested, but we just used a tandoori mixture we got at the Indian grocery store.

Tandoori Chicken (adapted from Indian by World Market; serves 4-6)
1/2 cup plain yogurt
6 cloves garlic, crushed
1-inch piece fresh ginger, grated
2 tsp tandoori spice
1 tsp ground chili powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp salt
8-10 chicken legs
1 tbsp butter, melted

Briefly whisk the yogurt until smooth, then add the garlic, ginger, tandoori, chili powder, cumin, turmeric and salt, and mix well. Make a few incisions in the chicken legs, then place the chicken in the yogurt mixture and turn to coat, rubbing marinade into the incisions. Set aside for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Once the chicken has marinaded, bake until cooked, about 20-25 minutes. Baste occasionally with any leftover marinade and the melted butter, turning to make sure the chicken is cooked evenly. Serve hot!