Tandoori Chicken on the Smoker

Tandoori Chicken on the Big Green Egg.

How to Cook Smoky Tandoori Chicken

Tandoori chicken is an amazing Indian dish that is ideal to cook on a hardwood grill. If you have a ceramic cooker -- like a Big Green Egg -- even better, as these mimic traditional Tandoor ovens fairly closely. Traditional Tandoori Chicken has no smoke added, so feel free to remove the wood chips from the mix. However, I have tried this dish many ways and I have added a few twists. In particular, I find that the slight smokey musk of a bit of wood goes beautifully with the sweet and spicey flavours of this great Indian dish. So, if you want to try authentic Tandoori Chicken with only the smokey flavour from the coals, leave out the wood chips the first time you cook this. Then you can compare the two. Enjoy.

Chicken breasts cut into thirds, with salt, pepper and lemon.

For this cook we will be using direct heat and apple wood chips. We will start by preparing the marinade. Note: the chicken needs to marinate for at least eight hours. The ideal time is anywhere between eight and 12 hours. Here is what you will need:

Ingredients

• 8 boneless skinless chicken breasts (I cut mine into thirds)

• 2 teaspoons sea or kosher salt

• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper

• 1 small lemon (or 1/2 large lemon)

• 500 ml/2 cups plain yogurt (which is most of a 750g tub)

• 150 ml white wine vinegar

• 2 inch piece of fresh ginger

• 2 cloves fresh garlic

• 1 large onion

• 1 teaspoon hot chili powder

• 2 teaspoons paprika

• 4 teaspoons Garam Masala (traditional Indian spice)

• one handful of apple wood chips (optional)

After 10 hours of marinating, the chicken is removed from the fridge and stirred. It will rest for 30 minutes. A handful of wood chips await.

A couple of notes before you begin...

Traditional Tandoori Chicken has food coloring added to give the chicken a pinky/red colour. This is purely aesthetic and I don't care for it, so I do not add food colouring to my recipe. If you want the colour, add 1/2 teaspoon each of red and orange food coloring to the marinade.

If you cannot find Garam Masala in the spice section of your local stores, it is easy to make. Here are the ingredients (just mix them together): 1 tablespoon cumin, 1.5 teaspoons coriander, 1.5 teaspoons cardamom, 1.5 teaspoons cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, and 1.5 teaspoons ground black pepper.

The chicken is placed on the grill. Smoker is at 450F, with woodchips chugging away. If you are doing this for the first time, you may want to leave the breasts uncut (or cut in half) to make it easier to work on the grill. The smaller pieces can be a challenge.

Prepare for the Marinade

Prick the chicken pieces a few times with a fork to give the marinade a better chance of penetrating. Place the chicken in a non-reactive bowl. Juice the lemon and pour this over the chicken. Add the salt and pepper and mix it all around in the bowl.

Next you will need some sort of food processor or blender. Add the yogurt and white wine vinegar to the blender and then chop and add the ginger, garlic and onion. Add the juice from the lemon and all the rest of the spices and blend the entire mixture until you have a nice, smooth marinade. When you open that lid, you are going to smell an amazing preview of the meal to come!

Pour the entire mixture into the chicken bowl and mix it around to ensure that all of the chicken has been covered and that all of the chicken is under the marinade (you can also use a large baggie). Cover and refrigerate for eight to 12 hours.

After 8 minutes on the grill, the chicken reached 120F. Time to flip it over for the remainder of the cook. Things are progressing perfectly.

The Cook

Remove the chicken from the refrigerator 30 minutes before the cook. Get the lump going in your smoker and get it up to approximately 450F to 475F degrees. Your grill should be six to eight inches above the coals. Oil your grill or spray with Pam's Grilling cooking spray.

The cook can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 30 minutes, depending on the size of your chicken and the specifics of your smoker. Mine tend to take around 20 minutes. Cook the chicken to an internal temp of 165F degrees. I use a remote thermometer placed in the fattest piece of chicken so that I can monitor the cook minute by minute -- you do not want the chicken to dry out by overcooking.

Before placing the chicken on the grill, drain and discard the excess marinade. Add one handful of dry alder or apple wood chips to the burning coals. When the smoke begins to rise, place the chicken on the grill and close the lid. With the fast cooking time, you will not get an overpowering smoke flavour, but a hint of smoke is all that we are after.

Monitor your internal temperature and turn the chicken once when you reach an internal temperature on the chicken of approximately 120F degrees. For the cook in the photos on the right, this was at the 8-minute mark.

Continue cooking direct until your chicken reaches 165F degrees.

Remove the chicken from the grill and get ready to enjoy. Ideally, your Tandoori chicken should be blackened in many parts (mostly on the thinner cuts and edges). This is normal and these are my favorite parts! Serve with slaw, naan bread, or a side of your choice and enjoy!