Hi all,
Most recipes and videos I have seen online start with a yogurt based marinade for the chicken. The chicken is then “seared”, removed from the pan, rest of sauce built up and chicken returned to finish cooking.
My issue here is that you cannot really sear wet stuff in a pan. So that chicken, covered in yogurt marinade will not really sear (even if you shake off the excess). You basically get a braising conditions in the pan. This probably DOES work in a grill as the marinade simply drips into the coals and burns but not in a pan.
So the question is:
- Wouldn’t it be better to dry rub the chicken so it could be seared and simply use the yogurt (and rest of wet ingredients for the marinade) as a deglazing liquid afterwards?
The idea that you can’t brown it but can deglaze with it makes me think your yogurt is way more watery than any I’m familiar with.
When my family makes butter chicken, we use yogurt that would stick to a spoon turned upside down, let alone coat the back of one. It dries out and browns just fine.
(Disclaimer: I’m a white American who knows next to nothing about Indian food, so I could be using a very Americanized recipe or otherwise doing it wrong.)