Tandoori Chicken Masala - Restaurant Style

I love to eat Chicken with lots of taste and aroma. However enjoying it at a restaurant means feeling full after 3-4 bites and eating lots of calories. So I decided to try something new on my own (something that is guilt free), something that is home made and tastes as well as smells just like in a restaurant. After several failed attempts and no where close to what we eat in a restaurant, I finally came up with this amazing recipe.

Ever since we bought our very first grill (which was about 6-7 months ago), grilling has been a weekly affair for us. Our weekends are spent trying our hands in grilling on fish, chicken, and veggies as well as few other meats. Creating this recipe was no piece of cake as the grilled / tandoori chicken requires the right texture and taste along with the sauce.

After coming up with this recipe, my house smells amazing and its quiet enticing due to its eye catchy colors and the lovely aroma from different spices.

So here is the Tandoori Chicken Masala recipe - Restaurant Style...Enjoy it with a naan or zeera rice.

Prep: Marinate chicken overnight in the ingredients below
Cook time: 45 minutes to an hour
Serves: 4-5

Ingredients for marination:
1 pound chicken - cut in small pieces (thigh meat - skinless and boneless)
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilly powder (or more to taste)
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 1/2 cups hung yogurt (with no water) or greek yogurt
Juice of 2 lemons
salt to taste

Ingredients for sauce:
1 tbsp oil
handful of cashews - soaked in 2-3 tbsp of milk for 1 hours
1 tbsp sesame seeds
4 tomatoes crushed/pureed
salt to taste
3-4 tbsp water
4 cloves of garlic
1-2 whole red chilly (to taste - I used one)
2 tbsp dried kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves) - hand crushed
3-4 black peppercorn - Kali Mirch
3-4 cloves - laung
2 bay leaves
4 green cardamon (hari elaichi)
2 inch cinnamon stick (dal chini)

Steps:

1. Grill the overnight marinated chicken till 3/4th way done. Turning after every 3-4 minutes for about 20 minutes or so. Take off the grill and set it aside. 
2. In a heavy bottom pan, on medium heat,  add 1 tbsp oil and add ground spices (grind peppercorn, cloves, bay leaves, green cardamon and cinnamon stick). Cook the spices in the oil for 1-2 minutes.
3. Add pureed/crushed tomatoes to the spices and let it cook through for 3-4 minutes or till tomatoes loose all the water. Add salt to taste. (you can add 1 tsp sugar now. I didn't use it)
4. At this time you can add paste of garlic and whole red chilies by grinding them together in a tbsp of water. Cook for 2-3 minutes by stirring constantly.
5. Grind the cashew nuts and sesame seeds in the milk cashews were soaked. Add the paste to the tomatoes and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
6. Now add the remaining spices to the sauce and cook for 2-3 additional minutes. 
7. At this time you can add the 3-4 tbsp of water (if needed and depending on the consistency you like) to get the gravy/sauce like texture. 
8. Add chicken to the sauce and cook covered for 10 minutes on medium heat and stir it after every 5 minutes. Cook the chicken till done.
9. Once chicken is cooked, sprinkle kasuri methi or dried fenugreek leaves on the top. (You can add 1 tbsp of heavy cream at this time as well. I didn't use it)
10. Serve hot with Naan or Zeera (cumin seeds) Rice.

Enjoy the taste and let me know how it turned out for you. My daughter had a finger licking moment and she requested me to make it quiet often.