Easy Tandoori Chicken

Recently I've been quite out of touch with cooking, mostly because I've been getting lazy, soaking in what's left of summer and trying to keep healthy. One person I constantly "unleash" all my cookies and cakes on is Shrad, my Indian colleague at work. He's an excellent cook who opened a whole new realm of Indian cooking possibilities for me, and who makes quite a variety of delicious Indian food, although now he has become rather pretentious and only makes Italian food.


Shrad made me some wonderful sambhar today, which is a South Indian vegetable stew - sort of like the Indian ratatouille. Using fresh green chilis, he made the sambhar both spicy and incredibly delicious served with rice. The boyfriend, however, is one of those carnivores that need meat with every meal. So I rounded off dinner with a quick and easy tandoori chicken - marinating for only 15 minutes, and broiling the chicken. Tandoori in stores are usually red in colour because of food colouring (FC#265 etc.), and I've omitted that to yield a yellowish-tint tandoori.

Easy Tandoori Chicken
Makes 4 servings
4 chicken drumsticks
6 oz chicken breast (sliced into bite size)

1/2 cup plain low-fat yogurt (you can also use unsweetened plain soy yogurt)
1 tbsp garam masala
4 tbsp ground paprika
2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp lemon juice

Marinate chicken in tandoori mix for at least 15 minutes. Bake in a glass dish at 450°F for 20 minutes, turning once until chicken is cooked through. Transfer chicken to broiler pan and broil on high for 15 minutes until juices are almost dried and the outside of the chicken meat is blackened and crispy.