Real tandoori chicken is cooked hanging inside a clay oven at temperatures your kitchen will never see. We can’t give you the tandoor. We can give you the next best thing: a serious paste, a yoghurt marinade, and an oven pushed as hot as it will go.

Keating & Co tandoori paste is the shortcut that doesn’t taste like one — deep spice, honest chilli warmth, none of the neon-red food-colouring routine. The yoghurt keeps the thighs juicy while the edges catch and char, and twenty minutes later the kitchen smells like the good kind of takeaway.

What you need

8 chicken thigh fillets (about 1 kg)
3 heaped tbsp tandoori paste
150 g Greek yoghurt, plus extra to serve
1 lemon
Steamed basmati rice, to serve
Half a cucumber, grated, and a few mint leaves, for a quick raita
Half a red onion, finely sliced

Method

Heat the oven to 220 °C — as hot as it goes — with a rack set over a lined tray.
Mix the tandoori paste through the yoghurt, then coat the chicken thoroughly. Ten minutes of marinating while the oven heats is enough; overnight is even better if you thought ahead.
Roast on the rack for 18–20 minutes, until cooked through and properly charred at the edges. A barbecue on high with the hood down does the same job.
While it cooks, stir the grated cucumber and torn mint into the extra yoghurt with a pinch of salt — that’s your raita.
Rest the chicken for 5 minutes, squeeze the lemon over generously, and serve on rice with the raita and red onion.

Leftovers are the quiet win here: cold tandoori chicken sliced through a wrap with the last of the raita is tomorrow’s lunch, sorted. The marinade formula — one part paste to two parts yoghurt — works just as well on lamb cutlets or a whole butterflied chicken for the weekend version. And if you like more burn, add an extra half-tablespoon of paste; the yoghurt keeps things civilised.

Finish it properly: a pot of Taste of India masala chai simmered on the stove is exactly how this meal wants to end, and the rest of our organic tea shelf is there when you’re ready to branch out.