Tandoor is currently one of the most important menus in the Indian restaurants around the world.The word Tandoor means a cylindrical oven used for baking and cooking. Traditionally the fuel used in Tandoor is charcoal or firewood. Modern Tandoor ovens uses cooking gas and electricity also instead of charcoal. The charcoal or firewood burns inside the tandoor oven itself exposing the cooked item exposure to live-fire and hot air from it. The temperature inside the Tandoor is kept near to 480 degrees Celsius. The food cooked in the Tandoor oven is known as Tandoori.The radiant heat and convection cooking technique from the Tandoor,allowing the fat and juices from the cooked dish drip into the fuel,thereby making it extremely delicious and adorably flavoured.
A variety of non-vegetarian dishes as well as different types of flatbreads like Tandoori Roti,Tandoori Naan,Tandoori Laccha Paratha and many more can be prepared by the Tandoor way. Tandoor style of cooking is used by people of a vast geographical area and so many variants like Punjabi style,Afghan style, Armenian style etc are very popular.
Tandoori Chicken
From time immemorial, man searched for newer tastes and varieties in his food. Tandoor dishes are inevitable in the menus of food lovers of today. Among these, Tandoori Chicken is the most demanded item. There are many attributes to this popularity. First is, as everyone knows, the enchanting taste of this dish. Second is the growing knowledge of its health benefits. Preparation of tandoori chicken involves marinating the meat in yogurt and then then seasoning it with the spice mixture. This spice mixture, known as tandoori masala is different for each individual item. The color, smell and taste of an item heavily depends on these ingredients. This procedure is believed to completely eliminate the action of harmful chemicals present in the meat. The most important aspect of Tandoor is the cutting down of fats in the meat. The excess fats drip off while cooking. This helps to avoid the unhealthy substances entering our body and thereby making sure we eat fewer calories. When cooked in Tandoor, a major portion of the micronutrients and minerals are conserved, while most of them are lost in other cooking methods. Meat cooked over fire retains more riboflavin and thiamin. Both of these nutrients are very essential in a healthy diet because they play a very important role in body’s metabolism.