Tips on How to Bake Chicken
I want to thank my Instagram community for all their great advice on baking chicken. I love crispy baked chicken but also realize that in Pakistan, we frequently marinade the chicken with yogurt, which makes it really difficult to get that perfect crispy skin. Here I have created the effect of crispy skin thanks to my friend Anita’s advice of putting the chicken on broil on high heat for the last 10 minutes. Here are some of the other great tips shared by Pakistan Eats friends:
- Shahla from the fabulous blog, My Berkeley Kitchen, and my friend Ragini, both advocate for crisping the skin on high heat in a pan before putting it in the oven.
- Shahla also recommends patting the skin dry to remove excess moisture. See Helen Rosner’s pro-tip of using a hair dryer to make roast chicken.
- Another reader recommends avoiding yogurt altogether and instead adding lemon for tanginess, and a little bit of cream or mayonnaise for softness.
- Kiran, behind the amazing Pakistani food blog, Mirchi Tales, says that when she does add yogurt, she strains it to make it thicker and reduce the water content.
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoon red chilli powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon garam masala powder
- 1 tablespoon white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon crushed ginger
- 1 tablespoon crushed garlic
- ½ cup whole milk yogurt
- 6 drumsticks
Instructions
- Stir chili powder, salt, garam masala powder, vinegar, crushed ginger and garlic in yogurt and mix well.
- Make diagonal slits in the drumsticks and coat in yogurt marinade. Cover and refrigerate for six hours or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 450°F with a rack in middle. Place drumsticks in ovenproof dish, cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes.
- Remove cover and let the chicken bake for another 15 minutes.
- Increase heat to 500°F and bring oven to broil. Broil chicken for 8 – 10 minutes.
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