How to Make Tandoori Dishes Without a Tandoor

 Several breads and meals native to North Indian cuisine are baked in tandoor ovens. Paratha, naan, kulcha, roti, and other enticing breads; tandoori lamb chops, chicken tikka, tandoori chicken, seekh kabab, tandoori prawns, reshmi kabab, and many other meals; all prepared in a traditional clay oven. While many would love to have their own tandoor, these days only a select few can actually afford one. Several options for making tandoori-style meals are discussed in this article.

The architecture of the clay oven used to cook tandoori food results in a distinct smoky flavour. Lighted coals at the bottom of the oven provide the heat source for a tandoor (which has a similar shape to a pot-belly stove). Juices from the food being cooked within the tandoor drip down onto the hot coals, flavouring the smoke and making it distinctive.

Tandoors are notoriously hard to replicate, but we do have some choices. Some of the best barbecues come from those prepared over a grill that allows fat and fluids from the meal to drip directly onto the heat source, whether that be a grill, burners, or coals. The result isn't quite the same as in a tandoor, but the flavour is close enough for most purposes.

To prepare 'tandoori' food, you could use a regular oven. Both the oven and the tandoor are enclosed spaces where heat is contained, but the oven cannot replicate the distinctive smoky flavour of authentic tandoori cooking. If you can't get your hands on a tandoor, you may still enjoy delicious tandoori breads like naan, roti, kulcha, etc. by cooking them in this manner; the bread will be cooked evenly all around.

While the notion of grill cooking is essentially the inverse of tandoori cooking, a grill can be used to prepare dishes like lamb chops or chicken tikka. The food on a grill is heated by components suspended above the cooking surface. In any case, it is still possible to prepare delicious food. When time is of the essence, use the grill (ie when the barbecue is not an option).

When you want to prepare North Indian food, a coal-fueled grill is the best alternative to a tandoor. Nonetheless, tandoors are now much simpler to get in the West, therefore including tandoori-style food on the menu frequently may justify the expense.