Tandoori Chicken with Potatoes

Ethnic cuisine is a great place to go finding GFCF recipes! Years ago I was given an Indian cookbook, which I thought was pretty neat right up until I discovered that the recipes all called for ingredients I had never heard of. I could handle picking up a few unusual spices, but what was this nonsense called “gram flour?” I tried substituting regular flour, and nothing came out right, so the book ultimately ended up collecting dust on the shelf.

Fast forward to the beginning of our GFCF adventure, and I learned some very important equivalencies: gram flour = chickpea flour = garbanzo bean flour = the main ingredient in Bob’s Red Mill All-Purpose Gluten Free Flour Blend. All of a sudden, this whole book of recipes was useful again!

Confession time: that whole introduction was a bit disingenuous, because this recipe did not in fact come from the Indian cookbook in question. But it is an Indian recipe, so I stand by the moral of my story. I’m an “ends justify the means” kind of gal.

Anyway, here we have a can of coconut milk, which is in general an excellent milk substitute. Pour one cup of the liquid into a bowl, which should be about half the can. (Save the other half for later in the week, when you are compelled to make this recipe again because it was just so dang good.) Make sure you stir the contents of the can thoroughly before pouring, because coconut milk has a tendency to separate.

Then add 1 1/2 Tablespoons of McCormick curry powder. Because curry is a spice blend rather than an herb in and of itself (there is no curry plant,) you must be extra careful about buying a brand without gluten. Manufacturers will often add flour to spice blends to help keep things from clumping. Not all McCormick spice blends are safe, but the company has committed to always clearly labeling the presence of gluten on their spice jars. [As always, the brands I use were GFCF at the time of posting, but manufacturers can change ingredients without warning. Always check your labels!]

Then add 2 teaspoons of paprika, and 3/4 teaspoon of salt.

3 Tablespoons of lemon juice…

1 1/2 Tablespoons of minced ginger (I’d show you how to mince it, but I get mine out of a jar. Life’s too short, you know?)

And 2 cloves of minced garlic (or 1 teaspoon of the jarred kind.)

Now dice up a medium onion, and get out 6-8 boneless chicken thighs, or a couple pounds of whatever kind of boneless chicken parts you prefer. Always make sure your chicken is all-natural and not injected with broth.

Throw the chicken, sauce, and onions all together in a giant Ziplock bag, and punch it around until everything’s mixed.

Seal it up and let it marinate in the refrigerator for several hours, or however much time you can spare.

Later, when you’re gearing up to actually cook the meal, peel three medium potatoes and chop them into big chunks.

Pull the chicken pieces out of the marinade bag and set them aside on a plate. Don’t worry if some of the onions stick to the chicken, it’s all going to back together in a minute. Add an extra 1/2 teaspoon of salt into the bag, and toss in the potatoes so we can get a quick coating on them.

Shake it (like a Polaroid picture, even,) then dump the whole bag into the bottom of your dutch oven. (You don’t have a dutch oven yet? For heaven’s sake, why not?) Make sure to squeeze out all the extra sauce too, like the world’s largest ketchup packet.

Lay your chicken pieces on top of the potatoes, and give the top a good sprinkling of paprika. Put on the lid, and place the whole thing in a 450-degree oven for one hour.

Look how beautiful that is! And those potatoes are perfect, I’m telling you right now. You will practically be able to hear the sitar music right there in your kitchen.

Happy Eating!

Tandoori Chicken with Potatoes

1 cup coconut milk
1 1/2 TBS McCormick curry powder
2 tsp paprika
3/4 tsp salt
3 TBS lemon juice
1 1/2 TBS minced ginger
2 cloves minced garlic

1 onion
6-8 boneless chicken thighs
3 medium potatoes
1/2 tsp salt
additional paprika for garnish