Hi All

on another thread I asked about whether I should marinate chicken in spices first then yogurt marinade or just marinade all together in yogurt & spices?

...well this was because I've been looking into making chicken tikka, which I love and yes realise can not reproduce without tandoori oven but nevertheless I still wanted a go...

...so here I am wanting to do a chicken tikka or tandoori chicken or my own version of it...it really doesn't matter so much on exact spices but Heston's program 'In Search Of Perfection..' which I only watched half of... really interested me when he went to a University to carry out research to see how the marinade of the chicken tikka masala he was making was penetrating the chicken meat...

...because I only watched half a show once I had to wait for his book to fully read his research into his perfect Chicken Tikka...interesting read by the way..he goes to the restaurant in India where they used the First Tandoori Oven...

It was here in fact in this restaurant he saw the men marinating the chicken in fresh ginger & garlic first for hours then marinating the chicken with yogurt & more spices and then cooking in tandoori...

I had seen on different program the practice of marinating chicken in spices first then yogurt afterwards so this really interested me...

...the results from the University MRI scanner showed the chicken that had been marinated in ginger had penetrated into the meat where's the chicken marinated in just garlic didn't...they also saw a penetration of the yogurt marinade one too...

I've only read it through once but will have to go over it again when I've concluded my research...there's a lot of info to get through.

TODAY'S 1st Trial

Yesterday I marinated chicken breast two different ways...

1st batch I marinated in ginger & garlic overnight first then second night in yogurt with spices

2nd batch I marinated all together, ginger, garlic and yogurt with spices

I made sure I used the same masala mixture same tub of yogurt etc

Today I grilled both chickens on identical trays so when i came to eating I couldn't be pre-disposed to bias and OH and I had both chickens on our plate..

we both could taste a difference side by side but of course neither of us could tell which was which...but I can not say taste wise on their own one was superior that was worth the extra marinade....BUT one was much tender...we just don't know which...so for texture I would love to know which gave the tender results..

I'll be making this again and likely for a third time making note which is which and see which comes out tender...

interesting isn't it? Food always surprises you doesn't it?

I cant believe you went to all that trouble and then finally mix them up at the end so you couldnt tell which was which?

p.s. at a guess I would say the most tender one is the one marinaded in garlic/ginger one night and then yogurt/spice the second night i.e. the one marinaded over two nights.

Cheers

Steve

Interesting! As Steve says, it was a shame that you got the two mixed up at the end after such a long process, but thanks for sharing your experiment with us nevertheless. Do come back and tell us when you have tried the whole thing again.

Oh Azelia! After all that hard work - at least it was a genuine experiment in that it was a real 'blind' tasting in neither of you genuinely didn't know which was which. Perhaps next time get some friends round to increase the number of tasters and make sure only you know which was marinated in what!

My guess is the other way round, that it would have been the chicken marinated all the time in yoghurt would have been the tenderer.

Winton

to make the test even more fair, I would take a whole chicken, and take the breasts from that one, assuming they are both as tender as each other. Controlling all the variables is the way to go, sometimes its not so easy. Well done!

Lapis - that's a good point with the same chicken....I have to use breasts because that's only what OH will eat but what I will do is cut a breast in half and use half in each marinade that way it's not down to batch of chicken....:-)

That is a good point Lapis, thought just like a scientiset :-). I wonder if there were any variables in Heston's research, since I did not watch the programme! It is surprising how little things can give false result, like using a different yoghurt/lime/set of spices, type of bowls (which may conduct temperature differently to the food).

When you feed back your resulta Azelia, please give us all the details you put in place.

Mamta

yes, you would think it was easy designing experiments, but it is not. One wants an answer to a question, most times all one gets is more questions. And not to mention when experiments are badly designed, one gets odd (unexpected results). The clever scientists see the results for what they are, a kind of 'thinking outside the box', as most scientists are very much 'in the box' thinkers. So I never admonish people for making (little) mistakes, just recognise what you have, works for me.

I agree. Each researcher working on the same topic is likely to get different results. Same people working on the same project at different times get different results, mostly due to variables. It is quite good that we manage to get pretty consistent results in our cooking, when most of us do not measure things exactly or follow steps exactly every time! I don?t even measure ingredients for a loaf of bread anymore, once I have got to know the hows and the confidence of recognizing what looks right.