Tandoori chicken and Blackstone naan experiment

caliking

Its been a while since I've posted a cook. The egg has been lit many a time, just haven't made it to actually posting a thread about many recent cooks. But today was different, so I figured I would share.

We were invited to a friend's house for lunch, and they asked me to bring tandoori chicken. I cheated and used Shan Chicken Tikka mix, with added garlic paste, ginger paste, mayo, and just a tablespoon of yoghurt. Marinaded 7 skinless leg quarters (each cut into three pieces) for about 12hours in this stuff. Dusted with a homemade tandoori rub mixed with some Kissan Chicken Tikka rub (that @canugghead kindly sent me a while back, by way of Little Steven's little hands) after placing them chicken on the grid.Fired up the LBGE to about 400°F-ish and cooked raised indirect (foil pan, no stone).  This worked better than expected, since I had a direct zone where the pan didn't make it to the edge, and so I could get some char on the pieces by finishing them in this zone before pulling.

Pulled the chicken at about 150°F and put it in a foil pan, then in the Engel dry box. Took it over to my friend's house and let it keep warm in the oven while we fiddled with the naans.

A little naan background - most of the internet recipes are bastardized pizza dough recipes. I don't think naan dough is supposed to have yeast in it, because yeast is generally not used in Southwest Asia or the Indian subcontinent. These recipes make naans that are more " bready" than they should be. Yogurt is the usual leavening agent of choice. I've been lusting after the perfect naan recipe for years, but have not able to sit down and get it right myself.

I picked a naan recipe from a book I have, which did not include yeast or yogurt, but had baking powder in it. Figured I would try it since  I could then  judge whether yeast or yogurt would be the way to go next time. I convinced my friend to buy a Blackstone pizza oven a while back, with the ulterior motive of playing with it myself when I went to visit them, besides eating some kickass homemade pies. Today was the day to try making some naans in it.

Making naans in the Blackstone is a little tricky, because you can't slap the naans on the hot stone to cook, like you would in a tandoor. We tried placing the naans on the stone directly with a pizza peel, on a screen, with the bottom stone rotating, and with the bottom stone stationary. We cooked at about 400°F dome temp on the Blackstone.

Results were decent. First the stone wasn't hot enough, so the top cooked and almost burned before the bottom was cooked. Results were somewhat better once the stone soaked up more heat, and we kept the lower stone stationary, with the naan in the back left corner, and turned the burner off after a minute or so. Lessons learned - the naans can't be too thin, let the stone soak up some heat before cooking the naans, add some yogurt to the dough next time, and try cold fermenting the dough overnight.

Overall, it was a fun day. Enjoyed a great meal with friends, experimented with making naans on the Blackstone, and had fun cooking outside. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday, eh?

DMW

Looks great! Just a tip on keeping the stone stationary. You don't want to do that too long when cooking at high temps. The direct extended heat above the burner can warp the steel plate the stone sits on. I have not experienced this myself, but have seen others that have.

One thing I've been playing with lately is "shuffling" what you are cooking with a metal peel to keep it in the zone you want while the stone is turning. You need to wait until the dough "sets" and then you can move it as it turns. A metal spatula works as well. Just don't use a wood peel.

Canugghead

Great cooks and good job getting a sucker friend to get the Blackstone! You should have saved few pieces of chicken to try in the Blackstone too 

Several weeks ago our Lowes was clearing the Blackstone online at $300, a local store had a demo unit for $160'ish with few non-essential parts missing (I'm sure the manufacturer would gladly send me those parts had I bought the unit). I literally had my finger on the trigger but did not pull it.

I wonder if the top cooked too fast because the 'pizza' was naked? Would be interesting to try with baking steel on top of the stone?

texaswig

Today I was thinking of doing some tandoori style chicken Tuesday night. I Google " bge tandoori chicken caliking" you've been in a lot of posts.what's the max on the marinade time ? I'm glad you've done all the work for it and the naan. Tandoori chicken and naan are on my list of things to master.  It's funny you said that about pizza dough. I have some friends that make pizza dough with yogurt. They use a wire pans and grill it. It's pretty good, has a nice chew. 

Canugghead

@texaswig I've heard tandoori chicken turns to mush if you marinade more than four hours.  However, I usually marinade them overnight, sometimes over-2-nights due to plan change, and they turn out fine.  Don't know, may be I don't put enough lemon and yogurt in it 

texaswig

I read caliking say he didn't marinade too long because of the mush factor. 

fljoemon

Excellent cook @caliking .. love making tandoori myself. I have tried naan on the BGE and it has turned out okay .. most of the time I get the frozen Haldiram Naans and then heat them up in the toaster oven :-)

caliking

Sorry - have been busy all morning and didn't get a chance to respond.

@DMW - thanks for the tip. When the stone was stationary for a bit, I noticed that the side of the steel ring closest to the flame was glowing red-hot! We did 't turn the stone off for very long after we noticed that, but I'll warn my friend about it . 

@Canugghead - my friends have been very happy with the Blackstone, and I have been happy because I reap the benefit and get to cook on it occasionally myself We don't eat enough pizza to buy a dedicated pizza oven, so this arrangement works out well.

@texaswig - I don't like long marinating times in yogurt because of the mush factor. This time, i added only  1 TBSP greek yogurt for 7 chicken quarters since I was marinating them overnight, and it worked out well. I'm thinking i might even skip the yogurt next time and see what happens.

Canugghead

caliking said:

...We don't eat enough pizza to buy a dedicated pizza oven...

I didn't pull the trigger on the Blackstone for the same reason.  Beside, I still want to try baking pizza on baking steel under the gas broiler.

caliking

@fljoemon - i've tried making naans many different ways and nothing is quite as good as the naans made in the tandoor

texaswig

Didn't get chance to make any chicken. Went to see the mad max movie lastnight. When I got out of the movie.  A friend of mine called his Dad made some tandoori chicken and brought me some. It was meant to be. Tonight I made some Tzatziki style sauce. I tried to do it close to calikings sauce. Yogurt, Cilantro, cucumber, mayo, lime, garlic, and a little mayo. Couldn't remember what all was in there. But this was good. Picked up some store bought naan. It hit the spot. I found out that they are getting curry spice in Dallas,so I'm pumped. 

caliking

@texaswig - I would not mind that for dinner right now. I wish I had friends like yours! 

Your sauce sounds damn tasty to me. If you're referring to the one I served in Salado, it had some mint,  Thai green chiles,  and a little sour cream too.  

texaswig

That's the one I was thinking of. I'll be sure to let you know what the curry was, when I find out.