Baked Indian Chicken

My son loves Indian food and often he will ask me to cook Chicken curry with chapati for lunch.

Usually lunch is a very important meal for my family because the kids really come home hungry from school. So all the heavy meals such as curries, skewers, rice dishes, noodles, baked dishes get done for lunch.
Dinner on the other hand is lighter or rather not necessarily a hot meal.So Pizzas, stuffed breads, pita bread with hummus, Eggs & cottage cheese, Salmon sandwich or tortillas are usually for dinner.

Anyway back to today's recipe. If you like Indian butter chicken and if you like your chicken baked... you will love this recipes. My kids love butter chicken but often I have no time to make it.. So I make this version of my Butter Chicken which is so easy to make because I can marinate the chicken ahead of time and then let the oven do the baking while I do the Chapatis - works great on days where I am so busy with my orders.

The only issue wit this dish I have is that is does not have much esthetic value... Doesn't look as pretty as my usual recipes.. but since my family loves it so much I thought you might like it too..
See what I mean? Looks plain but taste absolutely delicious.

Here's what you will need:

4 chicken quarters or 8 chicken pieces. ( I prefer on the bone so the juice add moister)
1 cup yogurt
1 tbsp garlic paste/ grated
1 tbsp ginger paste /grated
1 tbsp Coriander Powder
1/2 tsp Cumin Powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp Cayenne or hot paprikah
1/2 tsp Sweet Paprikah
1 tsp Kasoori Methi (fenugreek powder) (Optional)
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp Canola Oil
2 tbsp Tomato paste
Salt and pepper to taste

Lots of ingredients above but quite similar to the butter chicken right? Told you it's taste similar to butter chicken.

Method: Here's the easy part.
Wash, drain and pat dry the chicken. Notice my Chicken is already in the baking dish.
Add Salt, pepper and let sit for 15 minutes while you prepare the marinade.

In a bowl mix all the ingredients except the tomato paste and oil.

 Stir well and then add the tomato paste followed by the oil. You can add them all together but the paste gets lumpy sometimes so.... I do it last.
If you like the red Tandoori color for your chicken you can add a pinch for aesthetic value..

Pour the marinade over the chicken.  Cover with cling wrap and let rest in the fridge for an hour, a few hours or even over night. 

Leave it at room temperature an hour before baking. Then.....
Bake in a pre heated oven at 200C for about 45 mins to an hour.
I usually prefer my chicken to have to dark spots but you can cook as much or as little as you like. Usually but 45 minutes  my chicken is cooked.
Alternatively this taste delicious when grilled but you also loose all that lovely gravy.  

See what I mean about aesthetic value? - Not as pretty looking as my other chicken recipes.. But you will so love the taste..

 Dish it out and serve...
I usually always serve this with Chapati and some vegetable dish. 

Enjoy!

Thank you for stopping by, Have a great day...