Tandoori Momos

Any new dish or menu that I really like always invariably results in getting prepared in my kitchen. Do any of you readers share this habit of mine? Today’s recipe is one such new dish that I happened to taste this year.

I have already mentioned how Momos (click on it to see the momos post) happen to be a favorite dish in my household. And have also shared the fond memories of eating steaming hot momos in candle light, because their was a power outage, at the humble homely restaurant in Nagarkot during our Nepal tour in 2011, in that previous post. Do click on the link to read about that.

Now coming back to this post, I came across this word Tandoori momos in February of this year, and was quite intrigued and wondered what and how they must be. And just the following weekend I saw the name mentioned in a takeaway menu card of a local restaurant and immediately ordered them. They were the most amazing spicy momos I ever tasted. Momos, until then, that I always made at home were with no chili or spicy and just used herbs to season the meat or vegetables used. But the tandoori momos are The dish to eat if you like tandoori style cooking, I have simply fallen in love with this dish. I highly recommend it if you have not yet tasted them.

The tandoori food like- tandoori chicken or fish etc sold in restaurants or eateries use the orange food color, but I do not use any color in my recipes and hence the color is not the typical orangy reddish that is so typical of tandoori chicken, but then homemade is always the best, with the freshest ingredients and always freshly made.

Today I share with you my recipe of the month –Tandoori Momos, I have made it per my taste preference. This might differ from any original tandoori recipe, but I am sharing here ashstyle cooking!! So here you go-Chicken Momo recipe, Tandoori style.

TANDOORI MOMOS (CHICKEN)

INGREDIENTS:

Boneless Chicken: 350 gm

GingerGarlic paste: 1 Tbsp

Green Chili paste: 1 Tsp or Red Chili Flakes: 1Tbsp

Chopped Green Coriander & Mint: 1 Tbsp

Salt: To taste

Refined Flour: 350 gm

Garam Masala: 1 Tbsp

Tandoori Masala: 1 Tbsp

Chaat Masala: 1 Tbsp

Cooking Oil: 2 Tbsp

METHOD:

Grind the chicken flesh with the ginger & garlic and green chili pastes. Or one can directly add the whole chili, ginger and garlic (2 small cloves of garlic, 1-2 green chili and small piece of ginger can be used) to the chicken and grind together. Add the salt and chopped coriander and mint leaves and mix well. Our momo filling is ready for use.

Make a medium soft dough of the refined flour. We are not adding any salt to the flour, as we will be using the spices to coat. Make even-sized small balls of the dough and roll out a small circular puri.

Fill the chicken stuffing and close the ends as shown in the picture. Make all the momos and keep ready. Do not forget to apply oil to the steaming bowl/plate in which the momos are to be steamed. This prevents the steamed momos from sticking to the bowl or one another after they are steamed.

(ashuskitchen) Chicken momos kept in steam basket

Steam the momos for 10 minutes in a steamer. If you are using a pressure cooker for steaming purpose, then do not keep the whistle.

Take a small bowl and mix the garam masala, tandoori masala and chaat masala with oil. Apply this spice paste on each steamed momos and place them on a lined baking tray.

(ashuskitchen)Tandoori momos-The spice coated steamed momos

Preheat the oven to 200 deg C, with the oven & grill setting, and then bake/grill the momos for 25-30 mins or until they are baked. Over grilling might burn the outside coating, and hence do check them and use own discretion for oven time and remove once they look baked and grilled.

Do not keep the baking tray very close to near the grill as the intense heat from the grill might burn the top cover and the momo might be still half baked. Keep the tray in the middle shelf of the oven.

Vegetables and momos ready for baking/Grilling

I also made tandoori vegetables to go with this dish, our dinner menu that night in the last month, March month.

The spicy outer coat and the mildly seasoned chicken filling compliment each other and we get a taste that is the best and makes us reach out for more momos. We had a great dinner time in my household when I made these, though a couple of them did get a bit over grilled, resulting in a hard outer coat, but nevertheless it was a good meal time, all were finished, even the slightly burnt ones too 😁.

Ashuskitchen's Tandoori Vegetables — Ashuskitchen’s Tandoori Vegetables

Hope you all must have enjoyed the pictures and maybe you might like to give them a try. Do let me know what you think of the recipe in the form of your comments. Have happy mealtimes, and a great Sunday ahead.

Enjoy!

ashu.