Superbowl Sunday is coming up! It is the one and only day of the year that Steve and I watch football. We usually go all out and eat all the crappy bar foods that go along with it… and lots of beer!
This year I wanted to put an Indian twist on this All-American holiday. I am such a huge fan of the buffalo wings. In fact, when I was being a strict vegetarian a few years ago, buffalo wings were one of only two things things that I ever had to fight a craving for. Tandoori chicken was the second. So I decided to combine two of my very favorite chicken dishes to make Tandoori chicken wings.
I love the red color of the tandoori chicken but hate using food coloring, that stuff is terrible for you! I added some grated boiled beet to my marinade for color. It worked out great. I didn’t taste any beet flavor and the color was perfect. It’s a great healthier alternative to traditional buffalo wings too because it’s baked and there is no additional fat added to the marinade.
If you have the ingredients on hand and a microplane or grater, tandoori chicken wings are so easy to make! They are great served with a simple cumin yogurt dip and some cucumber sticks sprinkled with black pepper. We ate them with Ballast Point Sculpin’ IPA, a local brew. IPA’s tend to go great with just about anything spicy because the powerful hops are able to cut through the spiciness and cleanse your palate between bites.
Baked Tandoori Chicken Wings with Cumin Yogurt Dip
Ingredients
For the Tandoori Chicken Wings
- ¼ cup yogurt
- 2 tsp garam masala or tandoori masala
- 1 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves optional
- 1 tbsp ginger
- 2 tsp garlic
- ½ tsp turmeric
- ½ tsp chili powder or less if you don’t like spicy
- 2 tbsp cilantro chopped
- 2 tbsp beet boiled
- 1 lb chicken wings
- Salt to taste
For the Cumin Yogurt Dip
- ½ cup yogurt
- ¼ tsp powdered cumin
- a pinch of chili powder
- salt to taste
- 1 tsp cilantro leaves chopped
Instructions
For the Tandoori Chicken Wings
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Grate the ginger, garlic and beet using a micro-plane or a fine grater. Even a small food processor or mortar and pestle work. The point is to have a paste.
- Combine all the ingredients except the chicken in a medium bowl. Taste the marinade and adjust the seasoning. I always tend to add more salt after I taste it.
- Toss in the chicken. Make sure the yogurt marinade evenly coats each wing. At this point, you can let the chicken marinate in the fridge for up to 2 hours if you want or just cook it right away if you’re like me and don’t have the patience.
- Stack a wire rack onto a rimmed cookie sheet. Doing this will give you crispy wings because the fat from the chicken wings will drain away. Arrange the chicken wings on the wire rack and cook in the oven for about 40 to 50 minutes.
For the Cumin Yogurt Dip
- Combine all the ingredients. Mix well.
Wow! Those sound and look delicious!
Thanks Annie! 🙂
Awesome recipe!! We made this for Superbowl Sunday and it was a big hit. We made 5lbs of chicken wings, but it all disappeared within minutes and made us look stingy with the portion LOL!
Hi Hui Li. Yay! I’m so glad the chicken wings were a hit! 5lbs is a lot of wings…can’t believe they disappeared! 🙂
Another lovely, powerful flavor combo 🙂 Those wings look erotic ! 🙂
I’m going to try this recipe this weekend! Do you know if a regular raised wire rack used to cool cookies (and similar baked goods) will be OK in the oven? I like my wings crispy like you!
Hi Archana. I am so excited you’re going to make the wings! Do let me know how you like them. A regular wire rack for cookies is perfect! I just don’t have one that fits into my baking sheet (mine is giant from Costco!) so had to make do with the round one.
Now that’s a chicken wing I can get behind! Screw the buffalo sauce, I want some of these!
This looks absolutely amazing!!! I think cumin is my all time favorite spice. I can’t wait to make these 🙂
Thanks! I’m going. To try this this weekend. Do you think if I add mint to the yoghurt dip, it would go well with these wings?
Sorry for such a late response! Looks like I missed your comment. But, yes I think mint would be a lovely addition.
These look great. I love how you used beetroot for the colour. Some tandoori powders come with so much food colouring that they look radioactive. Am hungry now…
I had no idea tandoori chicken has food colouring in it – makes sense but guess I never gave it much thought! Clever substitution with the beets!
Thanks, Amrita!
Oh yum!!! I’m totally going to make these for our Superbowl Party next weekend!
Although I’m not a meat person but your chicken making me hungry! Perfect golden crisp!
Thanks Sadaf!
This looks delish! I am vegetarian but will def try the cumin dip!
Oh my gosh – I went through a 14 year period where I didn’t eat chicken and the only two things I craved: buffalo wings and tandoori chicken! I’m so excited to try this! GREAT idea for the wire rack stacked on the cookie sheet. Brilliant! And I can just taste that awesome combo with the dip – yum!
im going to make this for an Indian food contest, we have points for presentation, what is in the cup? next to wings and dip. Thanks
I made these for New Years and they were amazing! I made it with half garam masala and half tandoori masala and a touch of lemon juice. Heaven.
Yay! I like the sound of mixing the two masalas.