Oven Roasted Yogurt-Marinated Chicken

A week or so ago Steve and I (mostly Steve on this one) made a delicious Indian dinner from our favorite Indian cookbook, 1,000 Indian Recipes by Neelam Batra.  We made an Oven-Roasted Yogurt-Marinated Chicken.  Although it took a little bit of time to prep and make, it was very much worth the effort, the chicken was extremely moist and flavorful!  The recipe says you can let the chicken marinate for 2-24 hours and I would have to say if you have the time let it go for the whole 24 hours for the best results.  We kinda puttered out at the end of making dinner and ended up with non-Indian sides of boiled potatoes and broccoli, but it was still a very good meal.

Oven Roasted Yogurt-Marinated Chicken

Ingredients:
(Like most of the recipes we make from this book, we left out a few of the spices because we didn't have them on hand.  I've put an asterisk next to the ones that were left out.)

• 1 1/2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 1 whole chicken ( 2 1/2 to 3 lbs)
• 1 cup nonfat plain yogurt, whisked until smooth
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1 1/2 tbsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp fennel seeds*
• 1 tsp green cardamon seeds
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/8 tsp ground asafoetida*
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 cloves
• 2 sticks of cinnamon, broken lengthwise
• 2 tbsp minced fresh mint leaves*

First up, prepare your chicken by removing the skin and making deep cuts all over the chicken.

Next gather all of your ingredients for the marinade.

Start off by adding the yogurt to a bowl and whisking it until it's smooth.

Add the oil to the yogurt, then cut up the cilantro and add that as well.

Next throw in your ginger garlic paste.  You can make your own or you can buy it in any Indian specialty store.

Next grind up your cardamon seeds, and any of the other spices you may need to.  For instance instead of ground cumin we had cumin seeds so we had to grind those.  If you have the fennel seeds you will need to grind those as well.  Do not grind up the cloves or cinnamon sticks. 

Add the spices you just ground ( cardamon seeds, fennel seeds) along along with all of the other ground spices (coriander, black pepper, cumin, cayenne pepper, asafoetida, salt)

Add the chicken to the bowl and cover well with the marinade.  Make sure it really gets into all those slits you made on the chicken.  Cover with plastic wrap and let marinate in the fridge for 2-24 hours.

A few hours later...

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Place the chicken into a roasting pan breast side down.  Pour any remaining marinade over the chicken.  Toss in the cloves, cinnamon sticks, and the mint. 

Make a tent over your pan with aluminum foil and roast for 40 minutes.  Reduce the oven to 375 and turn the chicken over.  Continue to roast for an additional 25 minutes or until done per a food thermometer.

Serve up with any side you please and enjoy.

:)