Tandoori chicken is a popular Pakistani dish where chicken is marinated in a specific kind of spice mix and then grilled in or cooked in a tandoor, a traditional cylindrical clay oven. The marinade in which chicken is marinated helps to add spices in chicken, make chicken juicy and flavor up the chicken. Sources say that tandoori chicken dates back to Mughal period in India and other says it was invented before partition in Peshawar. Now a days finding tandoor for making tandoori chicken is not possible for every one so any kind of heat source is good enough to grill or roast the chicken, an oven, stove top, air fryer or direct fire. You can get the smoky flavor of tandoor by smoking with a red hot wood coal or even you may skip the smokiness and just enjoy the flavors and spices of tandoori chicken.
Here I am sharing recipe of tandoori chicken pockets for kids lunch or you can use it as a perfect weeknight meal. These tandoori chicken pockets are a twist to the egg rolls recipe. I used bread slices in this recipe to make pockets but you can use egg roll wraps as well and then shape them into square pockets.
Heat a pan over high flame and add cooking oil in it.
Add chopped onion, ginger garlic paste in it and fry for 2 minutes.
Add salt and chicken in it, cook till the chicken changes it color.
Add yogurt along with red chili powder, garam masala powder, chaat masala, cumin powder, turmeric and red food color. Turn the flame to medium high and mix well.
Cover the pan and turn the flame to medium low, let the chicken cook for 5-6 minutes.
After chicken is cooked turn off the flame, add chopped fresh coriander and let the chicken cool down completely.
On the other side take bread slices and cut the brown edges and flatten it with a rolling pin. Then cut the slices from middle to make a rectangle bread piece. Do the same with all bread slices.
In all purpose flour gradually add water in it and make a thick slurry. We will use this for sealing the pockets.
Separate about 2 tablespoon of this slurry in another bowl and add corn flour in it. Again gradually add 1/4 cup of water and make a semi thick slurry with it.
Add red chili flakes in this mixture and mix well. We will use this as coating for our tandoori chicken pockets.
Add the prepared tandoori chicken filling on one half of bread slice, spread some all purpose flour slurry on the sides, cover the filling with the other half of bread and seal the sides. Do the same process with all bread slices
Heat the cooking oil in a pan over medium heat.
One by one dip the prepared tandoori chicken pockets in the corn flour batter then coat with bread crumbs and add in the heated oil.
Let the pockets cook for 4 minutes over medium flame from one side, then flip and give 2 minutes more from the other side.
Put these on a paper towel to remove excess oil.
Crispy kids special tandoori chicken pockets are ready to enjoy with yogurt and mint dip or any other dip of your choice.
______________ Note: You may freeze these chicken pockets after coating with bread crumbs or even when these are half cooked for later use.
.jpg)