Tandoori chicken is a dish originating in the Indian subcontinent. It is widely popular in India, other Asian countries. Let’s see some amazing facts and trivia about it!
1.It become popular in other parts of the world mainly United Kingdom, France and Southeast Asia.
2. It consists of roasted chicken prepared with yogurt and spices. The name comes from the type of cylindrical clay oven, a tandoor, in which the dish is traditionally prepared.
3. The chicken is marinated in yogurt and seasoned with the spice mixture tandoori masala.
4. Cayenne pepper, red chili powder or Kashmiri red chili powder is used to give it a fiery red hue.
5. A higher amount of turmeric produces an orange color.
6. In milder versions, both red and yellow food coloring are sometimes used to achieve bright colors, but turmeric powder is both mild and brightly colored, as is paprika, a sweet red pepper powder.
7. It is traditionally cooked at high temperatures in a tandoor (clay oven).
8. Marinated chicken is skewed on to the skewer and cooked in a heated clay oven known as the Tandoor.
9. It is heated by charcoal or wood which also add to the smoky flavour.
10. Tandoori chicken as a dish originated in Delhi at the Moti Mahal Delux restaurant.
11. The dish is believed to be invented by Kundan Lal Gujral, a man who founded the restaurant called Moti Mahal Deluxl in Delhi in 1947.
12. Gujral, a Punjabi Hindu moved to Delhi, after the partition and started a restaurant called Moti Mahal Delux in the Daryaganj area of Delhi.
13. It was in this restaurant that Gujral invented Tandoori chicken, along with other dishes like Butter Chicken.
14. Tandoori chicken is also used as a base chicken in many Indian curries.
15. Rather than mostly being eaten as in starters and appetizers, sometimes it is also eaten as a main course traditionally with naan (an Indian flatbread) and is used in numerous cream based curries such as butter chicken.
16. Of late, localized varieties of tandoori chicken prepared from the rooyi posto in Bengal have appeared in local eateries, particularly those between Kolaghat and Kolkata.
17. Tandoori chicken was popularized in post-independent India by Moti Mahal Delux in Delhi when it was served to the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru.
18. There, tandoori chicken became a standard offering at official banquets.
19. The fame of tandoori chicken led to many derivatives, such as chicken tikka (and eventually the Indian dish popularized in Britain, chicken tikka masala), commonly found in menus in Indian restaurants all over the world.
20. Tandoori masala or Tandoori sauce is a mixture of spices specifically for use with a tandoor, or clay oven, in traditional north Indian and Pakistani cooking.
21. The specific spices vary somewhat from one region to another, but typically include garam masala, garlic, ginger, onion, cayenne pepper, and may include other spices and additives.
22. The spices are often ground together with a pestle and mortar.
23. Tandoori masala or Tandoori sauce is a mixture of spices specifically for use with a tandoor, or clay oven, in traditional north Indian and Pakistani cooking.
24. The specific spices vary somewhat from one region to another, but typically include garam masala, garlic, ginger, onion, cayenne pepper, and may include other spices and additives. The spices are often ground together with a pestle and mortar.
25. The term tandoor /tɑːnˈdʊər/ refers to a variety of ovens, the most commonly known is a cylindrical clay or metal oven used in cooking and baking.
26. The tandoor is used for cooking in Southern, Central and Western Asia, as well as in the Caucasus.
27. The heat for a tandoor was traditionally generated by a charcoal or wood fire, burning within the tandoor itself, thus exposing the food to live-fire, radiant heat cooking, and hot-air, convection cooking, and smoking by the fat and food juices that drip on to the charcoal.
28. Temperatures in a tandoor can approach 480 °C (900 °F), and it is common for tandoor ovens to remain lit for long periods to maintain the high cooking temperature.
29. The tandoor design is something of a transitional form between a makeshift earth oven and the horizontal-plan masonry oven.
30. The Punjabi tandoor from the Indian Subcontinent is traditionally made of clay and is a bell-shaped oven, which can either be set into the earth and fired with wood or charcoal reaching temperatures of about 480 degrees Celsius (900 Fahrenheit), or rest above the ground. Tandoor cooking is a traditional aspect of Punjabi cuisine in undivided Punjab.
31. In India and Pakistan, tandoori cooking was traditionally associated with the Punjab, as Punjabis embraced the tandoor on a regional level, and became popular in the mainstream after the 1947 partition when Punjabi Hindus resettled in places such as Delhi.
32. In rural Punjab, it was common to have communal tandoors.
33. Some villages still have a communal tandoor, which was a common sight prior to 1947
34. The Afghan tandoor sits above the ground and is made of bricks.
35. In ancient times,the tonir was worshiped by the Armenians as a symbol of the sun in the ground. Armenians made tonirs in resemblance with the setting sun “going into the ground” (the Sun being the main deity).
36. The underground tonir, made of clay, is one of the first tools in Armenian cuisine, as an oven and as a thermal treatment tool.
37. Armenians are said to have originated underground tonirs.
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