In this delectable recipe for Tandoori Chicken thighs, rich aromas from a tandoori-style marinade are enhanced by the natural wood charcoal burning in your Big Green Egg. We enjoy browsing the Big Green Egg website for meal plan inspiration and their recipe for grilled Tandoori Chicken Thighs sounded perfect for the lentil, cauliflower curry I was wanting to make.
Tandoori Marinade
Start early, the thighs need to marinade for eight hours. To make it the perfect weeknight meal, prepare the marinade at night, add the chicken thighs in the morning and grill them after work.
For the tandoori marinade, combine:
1 1⁄2 cups plain yogurt, 2 TBS milk, 2 TBS lemon juice, 1 1⁄2 TBS garam masala, 1 TBS onion powder, 1 TBS garlic powder, 1 TBS paprika, 1 tsp ground cumin, 1⁄2 tsp cayenne pepper, 1⁄4 tsp ground cloves
Add the skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs (the recipe calls for eight) to a large zip lock bag. Pour the tandoori marinade over the chicken thighs, ensure everything is covered, and place them in the refrigerator for at least eight hours.
Grilling Chicken Thighs on The Big Green Egg
After (or close to) 8 hours of marinating time, EGGnite your Big Green Egg. You’ll want to set up your Egg for indirect heat with the ConvEGGtor feet facing up and the grate on top of it. Preheat the Big Green Egg to 400F.
Once everything is ready to go, take the chicken thighs out of the marinade and place them skin side down on the grill. Grill them for 10 minutes, then flip and grill for another 30 to 35 minutes.
Use an instant read meat thermometer to ensure the chicken has an internal temperature of at least 165F. Our chicken thighs must have been a little on the small side because the temperate was in the high 170s. Whoops! But thanks to the long amount of marinating, grilling the skin side first and the fact that we’re using dark meat here, these still tasted perfect and were very juicy.
