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?
I think another commenter made a similar point, but I would think yogurt actually helps with browning the chicken. It’s less fatty than mayo, but I’m thinking of mayo slathers that people put on chickens where the fat actually browns more effectively than the straight chicken. If your marinade is super runny, you might have a watery yogurt and can try straining it before making the marinade.