Tandoori Chicken Tacos With Pineapple Mint Salsa

Tandoori chicken is one of the worlds most popular dishes. If you’ve had it you won’t be surprised why. It’s delightful. Years ago some friends and I were meandering through a small jungle in Thailand and we came across a little bamboo hut of a restaurant that was on the path. They had Tandoori chicken that for some reason took 45 minutes to make, even with no other customers. But it was worth the wait. It was probably the best eat with your hands chicken I’ve ever had and I’ve been semi-obsessed with it ever since. Here we’re adding a pineapple mint salsa and a red onion tzatziki and putting it on a tortilla. Cuz tacos.

For the chicken-

• 1 ¼ cups plain yogurt

• ½ onion, finely chopped 

• 2 clove garlic, minced

• 2 tsp grated ginger

• 2 tsp garam masala

• 2 tsp kashmiri chili powder (or cayenne pepper)

• 1 tsp yellow food coloring

• 1 tsp red food coloring

• 2 tsp finely chopped cilantro

• 1 tbsp lemon juice

• 2 lbs boneless chicken legs

For the red onion tzatziki -

• 1 cup plain yogurt

• 1 tbsp lemon juice

• 1/4 red onion, diced very small (I like red onion in place of cucumber because it tastes better)

• 1 1/4 tbsp olive oil

• 1 tbsp dill

• 1 tsp garlic powder

For the pineapple mint salsa

• 1 cup diced pineapple

• 1/4 cup chopped mint

• 1/4 cup chopped onion

Start by making the marinade for the chicken. Add all of the ingredients under “for the chicken” into a bowl and mix. Once mixed pour it over the chicken into a ziplock bag or some other container you can keep in the fridge overnight. Make sure all of the chicken is sufficiently covered in marinade. Let it sit for 24 hours.

For the tzatziki and the salsa you just mix the ingredients together in separate bowls after you’ve taken your knife to the parts that require it. You can do this the night before or right before you start the grill.

After 24 hours it’s time to get your grill on. Get that sucker up to high heat and put the chicken on. If you don’t have a grill and you’re using your stovetop you’ll need to remove the marinade from the chicken first. Otherwise you’ll basically end up boiling the chicken in the marinade. That’s not what we want here. Boneless legs cook pretty quick on the grill, just a few minutes per side. When they’re done, warm up some tortillas, top with the tzatziki and salsa, and grub away.

If I haven’t mentioned it before don’t heat up your tortillas in the microwave. Do it on the stovetop or on the grill. They will be pliable but firm if you do it the correct way. In the microwave they come out pliable, but not as firm. Then they fall apart as you eat them and you get mad and spill your rum. Then your anger increases because not only did you just spill rum (don’t ever spill rum), but while you were cleaning it up you missed some big drama on Below Deck and because you can only afford Sling you can’t go back and watch it. All that because you were lazy and tried to nuke your tortillas.