Tandoori Chicken

After years of ogling tandoori chicken in Indian restaurants, it was time to figure out how to make this in a kosher kitchen at home. Impossible, you say? Nope! Thanks to the growth of non-dairy products for aging baby boomers with lactose intolerance, you can find soy-based anything.

I used Whole Soy & Co.'s Plain organic soy yogurt, which is kosher, pareve, vegan, casein, whey and gluten free, and has no cholesterol. Amazing, huh? How do they make something that has nothing? (How very Zen.) The texture did seem a little non-yogurty, but once I transferred it to a mixing bowl and began adding the other ingredients, it started looking and smelling like a potentially delicious and exotic dish.

1/3 cup soy yogurt

2-3 tbs tandoori spice mix * (more or less to taste)

1-2 cloves garlic, finely minced

1/4 tsp fresh ginger, peeled and finely minced

1 1/2 lbs chicken cutlets, thinly cut

Combine soy yogurt and spices and dip cutlets in mixture, making sure to cover all surfaces of the chicken. Place chicken in zip-loc bags or a plastic container and pour any remaining marinade over the chicken. Seal and refrigerate for 2-3 hours, turning the bag or plasticware several times to insure that chicken is fully covered with marinade.

Cooking options: I used a non-stick grill pan and grilled the cutlets until slightly browned. Cutlets can be broiled or baked at 400 degrees 20 minutes. And if you have access to a charcoal or gas grill, go for it!

Serve with basmati or jasmine rice. Garnish with a thin slice of lemon or orange.

*Tandoori spice - I used Fairway's Tandoori, which has an OU seal. The label reads salt, coriander, paprika, garlic, cayenne and other spices. While it was tasty, I found it very Americanized. Here's a more traditional Tandoori spice recipe:

1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon red chilli powder (adjust according to preference)
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1 tablespoon garlic paste
1 tablespoon ginger paste
1 tablespoon cumin powder
½ tablespoon mustard
½ tablespoon garam masala powder

Optional Spices:
few pods of cardamom
pinch of saffron

Salt to taste

And here's a great YouTube video with a fellow far more entertaining than I. He'll show you how to make Tandoori Chicken using chicken legs!

B'tayavon, everyone!

Hey There - Nice to See You!

Welcome! Three weeks in the new home, and I was hoping to be a bit more settled. Still surrounded by walls of boxes and feeling a bit like things will never be organized...sigh. But the new home came with an unbelievably terrific dream kitchen, complete with-you guessed it-a Viking Stove. Be still, my heart!!! A gazillion pounds of burgundy steel wonder just crying out for a culinary workout.

And that would have happened, too, if I hadn't experienced an EPIC FAIL when I used the self-clean mechanism to kasher the oven for its inaugural run. The oven heated up hotter than the Pompeii lava flow...and I set to dreaming of fabulous meals, mouth-watering desserts and the cooking experiments I'd never previously performed...EXCEPT the oven never opened again after the cycle. NEVER. NEVER until the very nice Viking repairman came and literally laid on the kitchen floor with his skinny piano fingers jammed into the oven door hoping to bypass the locking mechanism...and lo, two weeks later, we are still waiting for the back-ordered part.

But fear not, dear reader! I have recouped and determined to make the best of it, have cooked my little heart out atop the range. Question: do people actually like cooking on an electric stovetop? I'm not sure I do. I've spent an inordinate amount of time cursing at pots of water that seem to take forever to boil, rice and orzo that stick to the bottom of their pots, chicken that browns painfully slowly. Sure, I'll adjust...or we'll all cultivate a taste for the slightly crunchy.

Next posting: New! Improved! Kosher Tandoori Chicken!