Simple and Spicy

• If you want to keep things simple, to make regular masaledar murghi -- spicy baked chicken -- just mix ground cumin, paprika, cayenne pepper, turmeric, freshly ground pepper and salt, along with mashed garlic and lemon juice, in a bowl. Rub chicken pieces with the mixture and let them rest in a shallow baking tray in the refrigerator for three hours or more. Baked in a 400-F oven for 45 minutes, turned once and basted with vegetable oil, the chicken turns out with a reddish color and a flavor that harmonizes with rice or split lentils.

Faux Tandoor

• To approximate the results of the tandoor, an ancient clay oven shaped like a vase or amphora, you can preheat your home oven for an hour to its maximum heat. Meanwhile, marinade the tandoori chicken a full day ahead of time. Instead of using a whole chicken, as is feasible in a tandoor, cut a roasting chicken into pieces and skin it. Or, you can use legs or breasts only, if you prefer. Cut slits in the meat, careful not to hit any bone, and apply a marinade consisting of a paste of yogurt, garlic, ginger, green chili, garam masala (mixed spices) and onion. Bake at your oven’s maximum heat for 25 minutes, until the pieces are just done, with no pink in the juices that run out when pricked with a fork.

The Real Deal

• In modern India, “the clay oven -- the tandoor -- is used for baking bread, and in northern India cooking in a tandoor oven is a specialty,” notes Joan Peterson, author of “Eat Smart in India.” Flatbreads stick to the porous clay on the interior of the tandoor long enough for a minute of cooking time, and whole chickens on vertical skewers cook in just 10 minutes. And it’s not out of the question for you to set up a tandoor in your backyard, fully capable of hitting 800 to 900 F. You can purchase units adapted to the U.S. restaurant trade, with the clay oven clad in stainless steel, or construct your own out of firebricks and terracotta pots.

The Butter Variation

• Whether you stick with your in-kitchen oven or set up a tandoor in the yard, there’s another famous dish you can create with your tandoor chicken -- if you don’t want to serve it luscious, as is -- and that’s butter chicken, or makkhani murghi. You mix tomato paste, water, ginger, garam masala, cream, green chili, cayenne, cilantro and lemon juice, along with salt and sugar. This stirred liquid goes into melted butter. After a minute, you add the tandoori chicken pieces, carefully so as not to add their juices as well. Stir and present the dish to the table.