If you love traditional buffalo wings and the rich flavors of tandoori chicken, try these wings that combine these favorites into one mouth-watering dish. They are perfect fusion, ideal for a Superbowl party or any gathering. I like to serve these wings with a class cumin-cilantro yogurt dipping sauce.
Why this Recipe
These wings are incredibly easy to prepare. Just marinate them with the spices and yogurt, and bake. The result is juicy, flavorful wings with a gorgeous red hue.
They are baked and not fried. Plus, they’re colored naturally with grated beet, avoiding artificial food coloring.
If you prefer, you can easily adapt these wings to the air fryer, see this guide to chicken wings for times tips and cook time.
Ingredients
- Chicken wings use bone-in party wings for this classic dish.
- Yogurt is the base of the tandoori marinade.
- Tandoori Spices you can use tandoori masala or garam masala.
- Beet (optional) for natural coloring. Traditional tandoori chicken uses food coloring, but beet works without the need for artificial ingredients and does not alter the flavor.
About the Cumin Yogurt Dip
The cumin yogurt dip is a raita-like dip that complements the spices of the tandoori chicken. This is a classic Indian dip that offers a cooling effect to contrast with the heat of the tandoori chicken. Here I am using mint for a fresh herb taste, you can just as easily use cilantro if you prefer, or even a mix of both.
Baked Tandoori Chicken Wings with Cumin Yogurt Dip
Ingredients
For the Tandoori Chicken Wings
- 1 lb chicken wings
- ¼ cup yogurt
- 2 tsp tandoori masala or garam masala
- 1 tbsp kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves), optional
- ½ tbsp ginger-garlic paste
- ½ tsp turmeric
- ½ tsp Kashmiri chili powder or paprika
- 2 tbsp cilantro chopped
- 2 tbsp beet grated
- 1 tsp sea salt or to taste
For the Cumin Yogurt Dip
- ½ cup yogurt
- ½ tsp cumin powder
- ¼ tsp Kashmiri chili powder
- ¼ tsp sea salt to taste
- 1 tsp mint leaves finely chopped
Instructions
For the Tandoori Chicken Wings
- Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C).
- Grate the beet using a micro-plane or a fine grater. Add the ginger paste, or if you don't have it, grate equal parts ginger and garlic.
- Combine all the ingredients except the chicken in a medium bowl. Taste the marinade and adjust the seasoning.
- Toss in the chicken. Make sure the yogurt marinade evenly coats each wing. At this point, you can optionally let the chicken marinate in the fridge for 2 hours, or overnight.
- 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 bake in the oven for about 40 to 50 minutes. Flip them over about halfway through baking.
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.