Chicken Tandoori #1 of 2

---------- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.04

Title: Chicken Tandoori #1 of 2
Categories: Chicken, Barbecue, Indian, Low-cal
Yield: 4 Servings

8 Chicken legs with thighs
- attached
1/3 c Lemon juice
2 1/2 ts Meat tenderizer
- unseasoned; natural

----------------FOR LOVELY VERMILLION COLOR----------------
1 tb Red food coloring
2 tb Yellow food coloring

-----------------------FOR MARINADE-----------------------
1 c Yogurt; plain
2 lg Garlic cloves
1 tb Ginger root; fresh; chopped
1 ts Cumin seeds; roasted;ground*
1/2 ts Cardamom; ground
1/2 ts Red cayenne pepper
Ghee or vegetable oil;
- for basting

*HOW TO ROAST CUMIN SEEDS: Take a small sauce pan or
frying pan and heat it until moderately hot. Put in
the cumin seeds and shake pan back and forth or stir
until seeds turn from dark green to brown. This
happens very quickly. Remove seeds immediately. When
cool, grind to a powder. If this seems like a big
hassle, just use powdered cumin. Flavor of dish will
be only slightly different from original.

**ABOUT GHEE: Ghee is clarified butter. I usually use
a mixture of half margarine and salad oil.

DIRECTIONS: 1. Remove skin from chicken legs. Prick
the chicken all over with fork or thin skewer. Make
diagonal slashes, 1/2- inch deep, 1 inch apart on the
meat. Mix food colors together, and using a pastry
brush, paint chicken. Coloring will stain fingers, so
be careful. Put the meat in a large bowl.

2. Add meat tenderizer and lemon juice to the chicken,
and rub them into the slashes and all over for 2
minutes. Cover and marinate for 1/2 hour.

3. Put all the ingredients of the marinade into the
container of an electric blender or good processor,
and blend until reduced to a smooth sauce.
(Alternatively, garlic and ginger may be crushed to
paste and blended with the remaining ingredients.)

4. Pour this marinade over the chicken pieces and mix,
turning and tossing, to coat all the pieces well.
Cover and marinate for 4 hours at room temperature, or
refrigerate overnight, turning several times. (I
refrigerated chicken) Chicken should not remain in the
marinade for more than 2 days, because the marinade
contains a meat tenderizer which, with prolonged
marinating, alters the texture of the chicken meat to
very soft and doughy.

SOURCE: "Classic Indian Cooking" by Julie Sahni.
Format in Meal-Master by Karen Adler,
SPXB77A@prodigy.com.

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