Indian Recipes
Tandoori Murghi
Bone-in chicken thighs marinated twice, first in lemon and chilli, then in spiced yoghurt, and roasted very hot until charred: tandoori chicken without a tandoor.
- Serves 8
- Marinate 5–24 hrs
- Cook 30 min
- Indian
Method
Cut two or three deep slashes in each chicken thigh, right down to the bone. Rub with the lemon juice, chilli powder and salt and leave for 20 minutes.
Mix all the second marinade ingredients together. Add the chicken and massage the marinade well into the slashes. Cover and refrigerate for at least 5 hours, and up to 24 hours.
Take the chicken out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking. Heat the oven to 240 °C (fan 220 °C), gas 9, or as hot as it will go. Set a rack over a foil-lined roasting tin and arrange the thighs on it in a single layer, shaking off excess marinade.
Roast for 25–30 minutes, turning once, until charred at the edges and cooked through (the juices should run clear and the centre should reach 75 °C). For a smokier finish, flash under a very hot grill or on a hot barbecue for a few minutes each side.
Brush with the melted butter, scatter with coriander and serve with the onion rings, lime wedges and mint and coriander chutney.
Tip: tap a step to tick it off as you cook.
Chef’s notes
- Bone-in thighs stay much juicier than breast. For skewers, use 1.2 kg boneless thighs cut into chunks and cook for 12–15 minutes.
- Restaurant tandoori chicken gets its bright red from food colouring; paprika gives a natural red here.
How this recipe was developed
The old Cookeryonline page reproduced a published recipe, so we wrote a new one. We compared Madhur Jaffrey’s tandoori chicken with the most-rated BBC Good Food version.
- Two marinades. Roopa Gulati’s tandoori chicken for BBC Good Food slashes 16 skinless thighs and marinates them first in lemon juice and paprika, then in spiced yoghurt.
- Bone-in thighs, long marinade. Madhur Jaffrey uses bone-in thighs and drumsticks and marinates for 5–24 hours (Food & Wine).
- Quantity. The BBC Good Food version (3.9/5 from 124 ratings) serves 8 from 16 thighs, which suits this recipe’s 8 portions.
- Hot oven, butter finish. Our choices for home kitchens without a tandoor: a very hot oven or grill, and melted butter brushed on at the end.
Sources we compared (ratings as shown on each site on 31 October 2026):
- Food & Wine (Madhur Jaffrey): Grilled tandoori chicken
- BBC Good Food (Roopa Gulati): Tandoori chicken (3.9/5 from 124 ratings)
This is an original Cookeryonline recipe written in our own words. Ingredient choices and techniques are credited above; no source text has been copied.