The tandoor

A large clay oven, sunk into a work surface, burning charcoal or wood at the bottom and running at something like 400°C. A third of a typical restaurant menu comes out of it.

How it works

• 🏺The clay stores enormous heat and radiates it from all sides — so food cooks fast, from every direction at once.
• 🍢Meat goes in on long skewers, hung vertically. Fat drips onto the coals and the smoke rises back over the food. That is where the flavour comes from.
• 🫓Bread is slapped onto the inside wall and peeled off with a hook a minute later — which is why naan has one blistered side and one smooth one.
• 🍶Yoghurt marinades do the work beforehand: yoghurt, ginger, garlic, chilli, and often lemon. The acid tenderises and the yoghurt clings through the heat.

What comes out of it

Tikka	Boneless pieces, marinated and skewered. Chicken tikka, paneer tikka, fish tikka
Tandoori chicken	On the bone, marinated twice, the red colour traditionally from chilli and turmeric rather than dye
Seekh kebab	Minced meat pressed onto a skewer with herbs and spices
Breads	Naan, tandoori roti, kulcha — see the bread list

Why home cooking tastes different

Almost no home has a tandoor. Domestic ovens and grills get you a good marinade and a decent char, but not the radiant heat or the fat-onto-coals smoke — which is genuinely why tandoori food is something people go out for. The home equivalents live in kitchen equipment.

Restaurants differ enormously — by region, by owner and by country. This describes what is common enough to expect, not a rule every kitchen follows.

See also: bread list · desi kitchen equipment worth owning · indian restaurant menu, decoded

Last updated: 2026-08-12