From The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014)
Tandoori Chicken
Reconstructed
Serve when
Serve it the night Maison Mumbai throws open its doors across the road — music, spice, and colour blasting straight at the silent two-star restaurant opposite.
In the movie
Theatrical
- The Kadam family's restaurant, Maison Mumbai, brings loud, fragrant Indian cooking to a quiet French village — tandoori and curries served across a hundred feet of road from Madame Mallory's Michelin dining room, to her open horror.
Ingredients
Steps
- Rub the slashed chicken with the lemon juice and a little salt; let it sit 20 minutes.
- Whisk the yogurt with the ginger-garlic paste and all the spices into a thick marinade. Coat the chicken well, working it into the slashes, and marinate at least 4 hours (or overnight).
- Roast in a very hot oven (475°F) or grill over high heat, turning and basting with ghee, until charred at the edges and cooked through, about 25–30 minutes.
- Finish under a broiler or over open flame for a few minutes to get the smoky tandoor char.
- Serve hot with red onion rings, lemon wedges, and mint chutney — loud and generous, exactly as the Kadams intend it.
In the movie
The heart of the film is the collision — and eventual embrace — of two food cultures a hundred feet apart. The Kadam family's tandoori and curries are everything Madame Mallory's restaurant is not: bright, spiced, communal, unafraid. The movie's whole journey is toward the moment those two kitchens realize they make each other better.