Tailgate Tandoori Chicken | Spicy Sheet Pan Chicken | Food Wishes

Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with tailgate tandoori chicken. That's right, this Indianspiced party friendly sheep pan chicken recipe is going to be a huge hit, whether it's enjoyed in an actual football stadium parking lot or where I do most of my tailgating on the couch. And to get started, we'll begin our marinade by adding about a teaspoon or so of minced ginger to a mixing bowl along with some lemon juice and some tomato paste. And what we're going to do is give that a quick mix. And then let it sit for about 5 or 10 minutes while we grab all the rest of the ingredients. And during that time, the acidity is going to neutralize some of the enzymes in the ginger, which depending on the amount can cause kind of a weird texture in the chicken. And by the way, you can also do the same thing by heating the ginger, but that can affect the taste. So, I do prefer this method. But anyway, once that's done its thing for about 10 minutes, we will continue on with a whole bunch of finely minced or crushed garlic, followed by some smoked paprika, and yes, regular paprika will work. We will also do some ground cumin, some ground coriander, some cayenne, some garam masala, some turmeric, some freshly ground black pepper, a generous amount of salt, of course, as well as a little touch of sugar. We will also want a small splash of vegetable oil. And then last but not least, the key ingredient in any tandoori marinade, which would be some plain full fat Greekstyle yogurt. And once we have everything in there, we will take our whisk and we will whisk until everything's beautifully combined. At which point, we'll set that aside and we'll move on to cut up our chicken. And for that, I'm going to be using some boneless, skinless chicken thighs, which I think we should cut into three pieces. And the first cut I like to make is in that thinnest part of the thigh, where you can see there's kind of a natural separation between the flatter, thinner part of the thigh and the fatter, thicker end. And once we cut that first piece, we'll turn the other bigger piece and we'll cut that in half to create three nicely shaped, relatively uniformly sized chunks. And yes, if your thighs are giant, you could cut these into four pieces. Or if they're a lot smaller, you could just cut them in half. But in any event, we'll do that to 2 and 12 pounds of chicken thigh. At which point, we'll transfer those into our marinade. And we will take a spatula and mix that very, very thoroughly. All right. As you may know, chicken thighs are famous for two things, their nooks and their crannies. So, we want to mix this very thoughtfully to make sure every bit of surface area is coated. And once that's been accomplished, we will wrap this up and we'll let it marinate in the fridge for about 30 to 60 minutes. During which time, I'm going to prep an optional component, which is going to be some peeled and sliced sweet potatoes that we will toss with some freshlysqueezed lime juice. And once coated, we will lay those slices down on some buttered parchment paper. And after spacing those out nice and evenly, we will season those generously with some salt. And while this step is optional, I think these sweet, starchy potatoes are the perfect pairing for chicken tandoori. And what we'll do once seasoned is pop those into a 400°ree oven for about 12 to 15 minutes or until they're just barely starting to get tender, which is impossible to tell just by looking at them. Unless, of course, that's your superpower, in which case I probably wouldn't tell anyone about that. But for the rest of us, we'll test with the tip of a knife, which should slide in fairly easily. And that's it. We now have a delicious base on top of which to place our chicken, which we will pull out of our marinade and space as evenly as possible. And not just for appearances. That's also an important thing if we want it to cook evenly. Oh, and anytime we work with chicken thighs, you're always going to get a few small pieces of meat that break off, which is fine. Just go ahead and stick those anywhere. Oh, and it's not that big of a deal, but generally I like the smooth side of the chicken thigh facing up since that's just going to look better and probably brown up better. And that's it. Once our chicken's been placed on, we will take some sliced onions and peppers and we will place those here and there around the pan pretty much in any spot as long as it's not on top of the chicken. Okay, we're about to put this in a very hot oven. And we want the surface of that chicken to get the maximum amount of heat. So during this step, we want to be careful not to cover it up. And besides the red onion, I'm using a sweet red bell pepper as well as a mild green Fresno chili pepper. But if you want, you could definitely sneak in some hot peppers here. I mean, you are after all the Peter Lori of this tailgate tandoori. So you go ahead and use whatever you want. But no matter what we use, once that's been placed over, we will finish this up by drizzling our chicken chunks with some melted butter and more than just a little bit. And besides hopefully giving our chicken a little bit of color as it bakes, that butter is going to mingle with and amplify all those amazing spicy flavors. And I really do think it's one of the keys here, so don't be shy. And that's it. This is now ready to transfer into an extremely hot 500°ree oven or as hot as your oven will go for about 30 to 35 minutes or until our chicken safely cooked through and hopefully looks like this. And then I'm going to let you decide on how to serve this and what to garnish with. But at the very least, I think we should scatter over some freshly chopped cilantro or coriander as it's called in most places. And I'm going to show you how I really think you should eat this in a minute. But for now, I'm going to grab a fork and knife and go in for the official taste right on the pan. And that, my friends, is some incredibly flavorful, tender, and juicy chicken, which would be great by itself. But that limesented sweet potato below is soaked in some of that chicken fat and a lot of those flavorful juices, and it turns something already very good into something even more special. And this really is so delicious. You don't need much more. Although maybe some folks would enjoy some fresh lime wedges or of course any of your favorite Indian chutneys. Oh, and I didn't want to talk about this, but I guess I have to. Yes, technically you can do this with chicken breast, but the thighs just work out so much better and are so much more forgiving, especially if you're not going to be able to serve this hot and you have to rewarm it at the tailgate, right? But the thighs will still be amazing like that, whereas the breast meat tends to dry out once reheated. So, please use the thighs if you can. And while that really was incredibly plain right off the pan, how I really think you should serve this is stuffed in your standard hot dog bun topped with some kind of yogurt sauce. All right, this one just had a little bit of lemon and garlic in it. And we will top that with a little scattering of cilantro before we grab a hold and bite in. And just imagine those feelings of superiority and culinary dominance you're going to feel in the parking lot as you enjoy these next to other tailgators enjoying plain old boring hot dogs in their buns. Oh yeah, you're going to be getting some envious looks. So maybe make a little bit extra. And of course you could do the same thing by wrapping this in naan bread. But if you've ever been to an actual tailgate party, for whatever reason, there's always way too many hot dog buns. But whether you do wrap your naan or you serve it on a hot dog bun like Chef John, this fast, beautiful, and easy chicken tandoori will be the talk of the parking lot or the couch. Which is why I really do hope you give it a try soon. So, please follow the links below for the ingredient amounts, a printable written recipe, and much more info as usual. And as always, enjoy.