Tandoori Chicken Pizza
Tandoori chicken was invented by a man named Kundan Lal Gujral. He was also the mastermind behind the widely popular dish Butter Chicken, which is eaten internationally. Today, his legacy lives on through recipes like this one, which take a classic Indian food and make it something new and possibly even better, so it can be enjoyed by even more people around the world.
Our Tandoori Chicken Pizza can either be thought of as a pizza or a flatbread, whichever you want, since the sauce used is not tomato and is instead the same kind of marinade you put the chicken in overnight. There is a lot of debate over what makes a pizza a pizza and a flatbread a flatbread, but it’s truly just semantics and personal opinion.
Jeff made homemade naan bread for this recipe, but the store-bought kind is good for this sort of thing, too. He used our Tandoori Spice for the chicken marinade, but if you don’t have this blend on hand, you can substitute it for 2 tablespoons of ginger, 1 tablespoon of paprika, 2 teaspoons of ground cumin, 2 tablespoons of garam masala, and a half teaspoon of cayenne pepper. Before the marinade sauce was spread, Jeff coated the naan with ghee, chives, parsley, and mint.
The chicken, mango, and onion flavors really work well together. This recipe was well received, and our test kitchen was fluttering with people coming in to grab a taste. Most of the taste testers said it was extremely delicious, and one said she was unsure if she would like tandoori chicken by itself, but as a pizza topping it was excellent. Another said she could have eaten the whole thing in one sitting if no one else wanted any or they looked away long enough for her to nab it all. It was certainly a hit.
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt, plus more to top
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more for brushing
- 4 cloves garlic
- 2 Tablespoons Tandoori Spice
- 2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into bite size pieces
- 2 Tablespoons tomato paste
- 3 pieces of naan
- 1/2 red onion, sliced thin
- 1 cup mango, sliced thin
- 1 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded
- Cilantro to garnish
- Combine the yogurt, lemon, oil, garlic and Tandoori in a food processor and process until smooth. Season chicken with salt and coat the chicken in half the marinade and marinate for at least an hour, maximum overnight.
- Preheat grill to medium-high. Grill chicken about 5 minutes per side.
- Brush the naan with oil. Mix the reserved marinade with tomato paste. Thin mixture with yogurt if necessary. Spread the mixture onto the naan. Top with red onion, chicken, mango, and mozzarella.
- Bake pizzas- 2 methods. You can grill these. Turn down heat on grill to low, and place pizzas on rack, or on the rack above the grill. Close lid and grill until the cheese is melted. You can also bake these. We used a pizza stone, but its not a necessity. Preheat oven, and pizza stone if using one to 400F. Place pizzas in oven and bake until cheese is melted and is crispy.
- Serve with cilantro and yogurt.
