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BBQ Chicken
Sam Sifton
2583 ratings with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars
2,583
45 minutes
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Pop the joint on each leg: Grasp a drumstick in one hand and a thigh in the other, and bend the joint back until you hear a crack. This helps the leg cook more evenly.
Using a small knife, make a slash in the meaty part of each drumstick and thigh twice or three times, going all the way to the bone.
In a large bowl, stir together garlic, ginger, vinegar, cayenne, garam masala and salt. Keep half the mixture in the bowl and set aside; rub remaining mixture all over chicken, getting underneath the skin. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes (or up to 2 hours) while you prepare the yogurt marinade.
Stir yogurt into the large bowl with ginger-garlic mixture, then stir in black pepper, clove, mace, anise, black cardamom (if using) and green cardamom. Transfer spice-rubbed chicken to yogurt mixture, tossing gently to coat.
Cover and refrigerate chicken for at least 6 hours, and preferably overnight.
When ready to cook, prepare the grill for indirect heat. (If using a charcoal grill, mound coals to one side, allowing for an area of indirect heat. If using a gas grill, turn on only a few of the burners and leave the rest off.) Or heat oven to 450 degrees.
Using a mortar and pestle, the flat side of a knife or a spice grinder for a very brief time, crack the cumin, coriander and red-pepper flakes but do not grind; you want a coarse texture here. Sprinkle spice mix onto chicken to coat each piece.
Place a rimmed baking sheet on the unlit side of the grill or in the oven and let heat for 15 minutes. Carefully place chicken on the hot baking sheet and drizzle each piece with a little melted butter. Cover grill, if grilling. Let chicken cook for 25 to 35 minutes, drizzling with melted butter two or three times. The chicken is done when the skin is dark brown and the juices run clear when pricked with a knife.
If you are grilling, you can sear the chicken over direct heat for 1 to 2 minutes per side just before serving to char the skin, but this is optional. Serve chicken on a platter, with lime wedges on the side.
I think this is wonderful, but I think under-spiced to cater to so called "American" tastebuds. I think that most of those spices (except clove and mace) should be doubled for this dish, based on my following the recipe the first time.
Step 6 says, "Or heat oven to 450 degrees".
You can buy readymade garam masala in many spice stores, not necessarily Indian. It is indeed a pre-made mixture. Buy in small amounts so it stays fragrant. You may see Punjabi garam masala and Kashmiri garam masala; the latter has more fragrance from nutmeg etc but the Punjabi-ish version, slightly more fiery, is the most commonly found generic GM. Gujarati versions are "sweeter" and I wouldn't use it for this chicken. If you want to roast and grind your own GM, I like Madhur Jaffrey's recipes
Why not just roast in a hot oven.
I took a few short cuts but used all of the ingredients to bake a turkey breast. Results were very tasty.
Delicious. I used a slightly under 4 pound chicken, spatchcocked it, did everything else as the recipe said, cut a few slits in the legs, thighs and down the breastbone. I banked the coals in my Webber to be half on each side. Breast up for 15 minutes, down for 15, up for 15, basted it with the butter and sprinkled the chunky bits on it each time. It turned out perfectly, even the breast. Skin was mahogany and perfect.
Oven notes please?
double spices oven for 350
I made this today and roasted it in the oven. When it was done, I transferred chicken to a clean tray and broiled for around 2 1/2 minutes to create a dark crusty chicken. I also made a raita (yogurt, lime juice, minced ginger, mint, salt) and served it with the chicken and rice. DELICIOUS!!!
Is this with or without the skin?
A keeper of a recipe. Roasted the chicken in the oven at 425 for 25 minutes and came out perfect, with a delicious crispy skin.
she did say either grill or oven so in the oven it is roasting with the help of a little butter, right?
I made it a second time.. For the final spice application. I went with 1.5 TABLESPOONS each for cumin/coriander and 1 tablespoon of Red pepper flakes... Great coverage of crunch and punch. There is a lot of surface area in 6 leg/thigh combinations.
Just got baking it this yesterday (too hot for grill 115 dF) and finished off with cast iron grill pan for char marks. Due to the size of leg/thigh's ( I would hate to meet up with chicken with those legs in a dark alley) I had to double up the cumin, coriander and red-pepper flakes due to the huge surface area.
This was fabulous. Doubled all the spices with the exception of salt (though the ground mace was on the old side so might hold back a little if fresher), roasted in convection oven at 425 for 40 minutes. This definitely goes on repeat though we will not serve it to the spice adverse.
If Melissa Clark adapted thus, her one major omission is removal of skin. If the skin is not removed, then the marinade does not penetrate the meat. Western adaptations that insist on keeping the skin on to keep the chicken juicy lose all the flavor in the meat. However but doing so, you can be super lax about cooking time and temp. The true brilliance is removing the skin. Marinating the meat and still having it be juicy. But not enough detail is provided to help the chef achieve this effect.
I make this with Cornish game hen as spice to flesh ratio is better. I use plain greek yogurt (the marinate is typically made with yogurt cheese). The signature spice of bhatti murg is yellow chilli powder (not red chilli powder)...you can order it online. Otherwise, good recipe!
I substituted low fat buttermilk for the yogurt and it worked well. Delicious!
I think this is wonderful, but I think under-spiced to cater to so called "American" tastebuds. I think that most of those spices (except clove and mace) should be doubled for this dish, based on my following the recipe the first time.
Made this tonight using boneless, skinless chicken breasts halved, a 5 Oz. container of Greek yogurt, no red pepper flakes & used 1/2 Tsp. cayenne pepper which gave enough heat to the mixture. I halved the garlic & ginger & eliminated the salt. I upped the anise & ground cardamom to 1 Tsp. I heated gently in a small saucepan the remaining yogurt mixture & cooked the chicken yogurt spice mixture at 400° turning at 10 minutes/2X in the oven center. Served it with basmati rice & it was delicious.
I haven't tried this yet (will be soon), but the tip in step 1 about popping the joint is brilliant - and I now realise that this is how they always look in Indian restaurants and I had never thought about it! Whole chicken legs (called Marylands here for some reason) are so tasty but indeed difficult to get them thoroughly cooked when grilling.
The article for this recipe is at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/19/dining/bhatti-da-murgh-recipe.html
Made on both oven and grill, recommend fully cooking in oven then charring on grill to finish off. Layering the butter gets lost on the grill. If you are not using whole spices I definitely recommend doubling your spices. Most preground spices bought in stores are on the older side and lose potency.
Fabulous! To make it kosher, subbed coconut milk for yogurt and coconut oil for butter. Used Ginger and garlic paste. I cooked it in the air fryer at 400F for 35 minutes turning about halfway. The skin was beautiful and crispy, while the chicken was moist and succulent. We had it over basmati rice drizzled with the juices from the tray and stir fried zucchini. Lovely, satisfying dinner.
I, too, added more cardamom, cumin and coriander, about twice as much as called for. I cut off all the skin (can't eat the fat) and cooked the chicken in an iron skillet on top of the stove. I had neither garam masala nor some of the other spices (clove, mace, fennel), but have to say the chicken was delicious! Yum!
As Jason Carey said, under-spiced. I mostly agree with doubling everything except mace and cloves, but the garam masala is redundant. I grilled it on aluminum foil over charcoal with some wet maple saw dust added for extra smoke flavor. I also increased the yogurt by 50%. After putting the chicken on the grill, I made a simmered sauce with the excess marinade. Great on rice! Additionally, I cut the backbone and ribs out of a whole chicken so I could cook it flat; it cooks evenly that way.
Absolutely delicious, but like many other comments, I doubled the spices for both the rub and the yogurt marinade (except for mace, cayenne, and salt). It works fine with separate drumsticks and thighs, and even breasts if that’s your preference.
I followed the suggestions to use more spice (to double it) because I like certain kinds of heat - but found it too hot - especially the skin. I loved the aroma and flavor - just not the heat. (For comparison - I LOVE Clarke’s chicken with spicy cilantro sauce that uses two kinds of aji - but instead of 3, I use only 1 jalapeno). I should have known -I guess I am one of those with “American tastes”:-)
Outstanding recipe! Searing the chicken before serving is essential, as is the previous contributor's advice to increase the cracked spice component. We served this fiery delight with basmati rice cooked with caraway seeds...an old Austro-Hungarian trick for adding flavor to white rice
A keeper of a recipe. Roasted the chicken in the oven at 425 for 25 minutes and came out perfect, with a delicious crispy skin.
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