Here's how to make restaurant-quality Tandoori Chicken. It's my gluten-free recipe, made especially for a family that loves savory and spicy indian dishes.
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I serve my tandoori chicken with gluten-free naan and rice, and I garnish it with chives. Of course, it's also one of my very favorite gluten-free Indian recipes. I'll show each step below.
Try it as an alternative to a traditional Thanksgiving meal, or make it in place of dal makhani or chicken tikka masala for a weekend treat.
How to Make Tandoori Chicken
It's easy to follow along with my gluten-free tandoori chicken recipe. I'll include images for each step of the process with a full recipe at the bottom. Just scroll down to view the full recipes all in one place. I also have a short video that shows my full tandoori chicken recipe.
First, add the marinade ingredients to a large mixing bowl. This is where you add the cayenne pepper, ginger, cumin, smoked paprika, and other dry ingredients. I mix them together before adding my yogurt, lime juice, and other wet ingredients.
Once it's mixed together, I add chicken drumsticks (or chicken quarters). It's important to coat the chicken fully because it needs to marinate in the sauce for two hours.
After two hours of marinading, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with baking paper or parchment paper.
Add your chicken to the sheet, shaking off any excess marinade. It's important to save any of the sauce you shake off. It comes in handy in the next step.
Once you've baked this for 20 minutes, it's time to baste. Pull out the chicken and brush on all that delicious, savory sauce again. I like to be generous here. The flavor comes from the tandoori sauce, and you'll want it to bake with the chicken.
Once everything is covered with more delicious tandoori sauce, bake for 45 minutes (until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees). To check on this part of the process, try an instant-read thermometer or a common turkey thermometer. Make sure to check the temperature in the thickest part of the chicken leg.
Then, garnish!
Voila. The finished dish turned out so well. It's spicy and finishes with a memorable cumin flavor.
Looking for an easy side dish? Serve it with my gluten-free samosas!
Ingredients for Gluten-Free Tandoori Chicken
Here's what you'll need to use for the marinade. I'll also share what to include for garnishes. As always, scroll to the bottom of this page for the full recipe card, where you can find all the ingredients and steps in one place.
For the marinade (which is also the sauce you'll brush onto the chicken after 20 minutes of baking):
- Plain Greek yogurt
- Lime juice
- Cayenne
- Fresh Ginger
- Ground cumin
- Smoked paprika
- Garam masala
- Ground turmeric
- Salt
- Black pepper
- Olive oil
- Ketchup
For garnishing and sides:
- Cooked rice
- Lime wedges
- Chopped chives
Optional Alternative Ingredients:
- Garlic
- Lemon juice (for the marinade)
- Lemons (for garnish)
And you know I like to vary my recipes with different ingredients. I haven't swapped out the yogurt, lime juice, cayenne, turmeric, or paprika. But you have some flexibility here. If you don't have garam masala, you can make a substitute blend with black pepper, cumin, cinnamon, coriander, cardamom, cloves, and nutmeg.
Alternative Cooking Methods and Questions
If you want to change up the recipe, there are two common ways to adapt my gluten-free tandoori chicken. The first? Grill the chicken instead of baking it.
Grilled Tandoori Chicken
To make grilled tandoori chicken, which is such a wonderful treat during the summer, follow the same recipe as above. You'll just want to change the baking for grilling.
Make sure to marinade the chicken for two hours before you grill, and consider making some extra sauce. You'll want to brush it on liberally when grilling.
Tandoori Chicken with an Air Fryer
To make my tandoor chicken recipe with an air fryer, you'll follow the same steps I mentioned before. Instead of baking the chicken, just add it to your air fryer and cook the meat that way.
Air fryers can help the chicken stay moist, but that means the tandoori sauce will be extra wet. To finish the air fryer tandoori chicken, consider brushing on some of the marinade and broiling for a minute just before serving.
The Simplest Spice Mix
If you want to try a simplified version of this tandoori chicken, try it with just cumin and coriander instead of garam masala. This changes the flavor pretty significantly, but it's one option for those without access to the more robust spice blends.
Is tandoori chicken gluten free?
This recipe shows how to make gluten-free tandoori chicken. It uses only gluten-free ingredients.
Should I use Tin Foil?
You don't need to use tin foil for my tandoori chicken recipe (and you won't need it for mala chicken either). The sauce dries out a little when cooking, and that's exactly what we want to see. Note that you can use tin foil to cover the chicken during the second part of the baking process. You'll just end up with juicier sauce.
Do I Need a Clay Oven to Make Tandoori Chicken?
No, you don't need a clay oven to make tandoori chicken. I make mine in a regular oven. That's what this recipe is made for!
What Kind of Chicken Should I Use?
You can use drumsticks, chicken thighs, or even a half or quarter chicken for this recipe. The bake time is about the same regardless, as all of these include bones.
If you choose to make my tandoori chicken with boneless chicken breasts, chicken tenders, or even with my gluten-free chicken nuggets, you'll want to shorten the baking time accordingly. Just make sure your chicken is cooked to 165 degrees all the way through.
Did you make this gluten-free tandoori chicken? Please let me know in the comments! I'm always excited to hear how you like my recipes.
Gluten-Free Tandoori Chicken
Here's how to make restaurant-quality Tandoori Chicken. It's my gluten-free recipe, made especially for a family that loves savory and spicy indian dishes.
Ingredients
- 6 chicken leg quarters
- ½ cup greek yogurt
- ½ tsp lime juice
- 2 tsp cayenne
- 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- ½ tsp garam masala
- ¼ tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tbsp salt
- 2 tsp ground black pepper
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp ketchup
- Cooked rice
- lime wedges (for garnish)
- Chopped chives (for garnish)
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add the yogurt, lime juice, cayenne, ginger, cumin, paprika, garam masala, turmeric, salt, blackpepper, olive, ketchup. Stir to combine.
- Place your chicken legs into the marinade, mix well to cover all the chicken.
- Allow to marinate for at least 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a sheet tray with baking paper.
- Remove the chicken from the marinade, shaking off excess (reserve the marinade for basting), and place on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes, remove the chicken from the oven and brush the marinade generously.
- Bake again for 45 minutes or until cooked through.
- Serve up with rice, fresh chives, a wedge of lime and enjoy!
Notes
Note that the prep time includes a full two hours for marinading. It really only takes 20 minutes to put the marinade together before you add the chicken. For a vegetarian version, swap the chicken for extra-firm tofu.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
6Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 549Total Fat: 25gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 16gCholesterol: 329mgSodium: 1450mgCarbohydrates: 12gFiber: 1gSugar: 2gProtein: 65g
This nutrition info is based on the exact ingredients and brands used at the time. It may not be 100% accurate. Please check your ingredients nutrition labels.
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