Tandoori-ish Chicken

I thought I’d never include a chicken breast recipe – my least-favourite part of the bird – but here goes… This ersatz Indian marinade adds plenty of flavour and should prevent the meat drying out, solving my usual qualms.

• 4 plump chicken breasts

• 5 cm finger of ginger, peeled and chopped finely
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped finaely
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 tablespoon chili flakes – or chili powder if you’re after a redder marinade; use red food colouring too if you want the luridly authentic look
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 3 tablespoons yogurt

Use the back of a big knife to mash the chopped ginger, garlic and salt together on a chopping board. The salt acts as an abrasive. You could alsways use a garlic press, or grater if you prefer. Mix with the spices and yogurt and smear all over the chicken breasts in a plastic bag or a bowl. If you can wait for a few hours, with the chicken marinating in the fridge, so much the better.

Get your barbecue up to medium heat, say 200°C, or cool enough to be able to hold your hand over the grill for a few seconds. Preferably, leave a cooler spot to one side too. There’s no need for oil. Start grilling the chicken over the coals (or gas burner) to get some colour and then once you can see it has lost any raw look on that side, flip the chicken over. If you’ve been patient enough, you should be able to do that without it sticking much. Once the other side is also bronzed, move the breasts to the cooler area and put the lid down to cook then through. It should only take a few minutes in all and you don’t want to overcook them; so prod, or cut into them to check that the pink inside has almost disappeared. Residual heat will finish the cooking as you rest the meat for 5-10 minutes, leaving you with well cooked, juicy meat.

I like to grill the cut face of a halved lemon or lime on the BBQ to squeeze over the sliced chicken – it seems to double the juice you can squeeze and looks and tastes good too.