Tandoori-ish chicken with lime-pickled cucumber

Making authentic tandoori chicken at home is very hard without a tandoor oven, but in my simplified version, you still get the wonderful charred edges from grilling it. The cucumber pickle shows how good a simple cucumber can be once dressed in salt, chilli and lime juice.

SERVES 4 PREP 30 mins plus overnight marinating COOK 35 mins MORE EFFORT

4 large or 8 small chicken thighs,

skin-on and bone-in 700ml full-fat natural yogurt 4 large garlic cloves, grated 1 thumb-sized piece of ginger,

peeled and grated

1 heaped tbsp tomato purée

2 tsp each ground cumin, ground

coriander and turmeric

1 tsp hot chilli powder

1½ tsp sweet smoked paprika 1 lemon, juiced pilau rice, to serve

For the lime pickle

3 limes, juiced

1 tsp sugar

1 red chilli, finely chopped

1 large cucumber, halved, seeds

removed and cut into half moons ½ small red onion, finely chopped

For the yogurt 300ml Greek yogurt

½ tsp ground cumin

1 small bunch of coriander 1 small bunch of mint pinch of sugar

1 Slash the chicken with a sharp knife. Mix the yogurt, garlic, ginger, tomato purée, spices, lemon juice and 11/2 tsp salt in a large bowl. Add the chicken, turn to coat, then cover and chill in the fridge overnight. 2 For the pickle, mix together the lime juice, sugar, chilli and 1 tsp salt, then toss with the cucumber and red onion. Chill until ready to use or up to 1 hr.

3 Blitz the yogurt, cumin and herbs with a pinch of salt until smooth. Chill until needed.

4 Shake off the excess marinade and put the chicken on a baking tray, reserving the marinade. Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4, then once at temperature, change the setting and heat the grill to high. Grill the chicken, skin-side-up, for 10-15 mins or until beginning to blacken a little. Change the setting back to an oven heat of 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Transfer the chicken to a roasting tin, then brush with the reserved marinade and cook for 20 mins. Serve with the cucumber, yogurt, lime pickle and pilau rice.

GOOD TO KNOW calcium • folate • vit c • iron • 2 of 5-a-day • gluten free

PER SERVING 466 kcals • fat 23g • saturates 9g • carbs 25g • sugars 24g • fibre 4g • protein 38g • salt 3.9g