Tandoor Style Indian Chicken Wings and a Buffet for Early Years Friends…

Hello BBCs (Beautiful Blog Checkers!), BBC1 here. You may have noticed that I have been posting ‘off piste’ recently and including re-posts from others about issues concerning Early Years here in England.

I realise many will not have expected, be interested in, or have signed up for this, but it is an issue close to my heart. As a former manager and inspector of Early Years in England I am deeply concerned about recent developments and future proposals for our children. To see what other former colleagues were thinking recently I enticed them to a buffet lunch to see if food would get them talking.

It certainly did, and I hope to share links to notes on our discussions in the future. For the time being though, here is the first of the dishes that was on offer.

Ingredients:
Approximately 20 chicken wings – you can take the wing tips off prior to marinating and use these for stock in another dish. I didn’t this time, but think I will in future.

Marinade:
1 ground Kashmiri chilli (or more to taste)
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp mild curry powder
3 green cardamom pods – seeds only
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground fenugreek
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp of sea salt
2 heaped tsp of gram flour
1 tsp of Demerara sugar
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 tbs tomato purée
1 cup of plain or Greek yoghurt
4 garlic cloves, minced or grated
1 inch of fresh root ginger, minced or grated
3 tbs vegetable oil

Method:
Mix all of your marinade ingredients into a large non-metallic bowl thoroughly until completely combined. Wash and pat dry your chicken wings and remove wing tips, if wanted. Add wings to the marinade and mix completely to ensure all are thoroughly coated in the mixture.

Marinate overnight, or for at least two to three hours in a refrigerator, stirring occasionally if possible. Remove from the fridge at least thirty minutes before cooking, stir, and allow to come to room temperature.

Pre-heat your oven to 180c fan. To save on washing up, line a large baking pan or two, with tin foil, and place a rack into this to put the wings on. Place wings on the rack ‘upside down’, and then using more tin foil make a ‘tent’ over the top of them. You don’t want this to come in contact with wings preferably, because you are creating a ‘sealed oven’ within the oven.

Place the baking pan into the preheated oven for thirty minutes. After thirty minutes, remove from the oven and turn it up to 200c. Take off the tin foil ‘tent’ and return the wings to the oven for ten to fifteen minutes. After that, turn them over and replace in the oven for another ten to fifteen minutes.

You can of course grill/broil or barbecue the marinated chicken. Just ensure it is completely cooked through.

Great served with raita and napkins, and excellent for a party. I believe my American relatives would like these as an alternative to buffalo wings for Super Bowl! These wings are delicious hot or cold. They are not too spicy for children, or the timid, and they have a layered depth of flavour.

The rest of the buffet included: a tuna pasta salad; honey and mustard glazed sausages; a tomato and red onion salad; a raita; what we like to call a pedorf salad; and some French bread. Will post recipes for these later as they are so simple. Also BBC2 made an absolutely scrummy banana and coconut frangipane tart. Which we had with some of his gorgeous morello cherry ice cream! Am nagging him about writing this up as I type, it was that good!

The photos shown are actually from the day after our lunch…we were so busy we forgot to take any on the day!

Hi BBC2 here: I think that BBC1 did really well with these chicken wings, the blend of spices gave them a good depth of flavour and the young people I sat with seemed to agree, well their plates were clean and they went back for more! I will say that BBC1 will be making these again, if only for me, well done!