What You’ll Need for The Marinade
Marinating chicken before cooking is non-negotiable in my books. Most of my marinades follow a simple formula: acid, yogurt, and spices. Aside from making sure flavor gets into every crevice of the chicken, marinating also improves the overall texture and flavor of the chicken! Here are some key components of the marinade and why I like to include them.
- Lemon Juice: Marinating chicken in an acidic component is key for tenderizing the meat and making the texture more pleasant. It doesn’t need to be that long – 10 minutes is enough! I love to add some lemon juice and salt to the chicken and let it sit while I grab the spices for the marinade.
- Greek Yogurt or Curd: You’ll often see many Indian and South Asian chicken recipes call for yogurt in the marinades and there’s a good reason. Yogurt is a gentler tenderizer and therefore protects your chicken from getting too tough while cooking. It also makes it so that meat that is easy to break apart but still retain it’s shape.
- Good Spices: For this recipe, you’ll need ground coriander, paprika, red chili powder, ground cumin, garam masala, salt, and turmeric. Whenever possible, you want to use high quality spices and fresh spices because the flavor just shines so much more!
