The Indian dish Tandoori Chicken is named after the special tandoor oven in which it is cooked. The tandoor is a cylindrical clay oven used for cooking and baking. Known for reaching temperatures around 900°F, the oven exposes the food to both live-fire, radiant heat cooking, and hot-air, convection cooking. Cooking Tandoori Chicken in such an oven results in juicy, slightly charred chicken.

So how do you cook it without the tandoor oven? I'll show you!

This recipe is from Cook's Illustrated magazine. The results were delish. My friend exclaimed, "This is the best f***ing chicken ever!"

The process isn't so difficult, just slightly more time consuming than your average mix and bake recipes. You have to make a marinade, massage the chicken, coat the chicken in sauce, bake it, then broil it.

Totally worth the effort though. I served the Tandoori Chicken with some mango chutney (Major Grey's) on this side and saffron yellow rice.

See that full-fat plain yogurt in the picture above? (I got the kind with "Cream Top"... extra rich.) That is very important. Make sure not to get the low-fat or fat-free plain yogurt.

Tandoori Chicken

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

5 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through garlic press (2 tablespoons)

2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger

1 tablespoon garam masala

2 teaspoons ground cumin

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt

4 tablespoons juice from 2 limes, plus 1 lime, cut into wedges

2 teaspoons table salt

3 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken parts, skin removed and trimmed of excess fat

1.  Heat oil in small skillet over medium heat until shimmering.  Add garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.  Add garam masala, cumin, and chili powder; continue to cook until fragrant, 30 to 60 seconds longer.  Transfer half of garlic-spice mixture to medium bowl; stir in yogurt and 2 tablespoons lime juice and set aside.

2.  In large bowl, combine remaining garlic-spice mixture, remaining 2 tablespoons lime juice, and salt.  Using sharp knife, lightly score skinned side of each piece of chicken, making 2 or 3 shallow cuts about 1 inch apart and about 1/8 inch deep; transfer to bowl.  Using hands, gently massage salt-spice mixture into chicken until all pieces are evenly coated; let stand at room temperate 30 minutes.

3.  Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position (about 6 inches from heating element) and heat oven to 325 degrees.  Pour yogurt mixture over chicken and toss until chicken is evenly coated with thick layer.  Arrange chicken pieces, scored-side down, on wire rack set in foil-lined, rimmed baking sheet or broiler pan.  Discard excess yogurt mixture. Bake chicken until instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of chicken registers 125 degrees for breasts and 130 for legs and thighs, 15 to 25 minutes.  (Smaller pieces may cook faster than larger pieces. Transfer chicken from pieces to plate as they reach correct temperature.)

4.  After removing chicken from oven, turn oven to broil and heat 10 minutes.  Once broiler is heated, flip chicken pieces over and broil until chicken is lightly charred in spots and instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of chicken registers 165 degrees for breasts and 15 for legs and thighs, 8 to 15 minutes.  Transfer chicken to large plate, tent loosely with foil, and rest 5 minutes.  Serve with chutney or relish, passing lime wedges separately.

Ok, so they really aren't made of compost, but they are pretty much everything but the kitchen sink.

Momofuku Milk Bar, a bakery in NYC, makes cookies called Compost Cookies which are made with potato chips, pretzels, used coffee grounds and more goodies. These crazy cookies have a cult following on food blogs everywhere. After doing some research, I decided that I must try my hand at these ridiculous cookies.

• The original Momofuku Compost Cookie. Photo courtesy of http://ggeatsnyc.blogspot.com/

The recipe I used calls for crushed Fritos, potato chips and pretzels, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and oatmeal. They certainly won't win a prize for the prettiest cookie, but man, are they pretty freakin' tasty. (I decided to skip the used coffee grounds since the idea is kind of gross and other bloggers said the taste isn't affected much by leaving them out.)

The CL staff thought these were pretty fantastic and everyone was willing to overlook the look of these ugly duckings. Five stars all around. Let's just say if food really is the key to a man's heart, I'd have a harem with these cookies.

As I busted out the bags of Fritos, chips and chocolate, I felt like I was having a junk food party for one.

Here is my final product: A pile of Compost ... Cookies.

A few of the cookies came out too flat for my liking. Could be because the extra oils from the potato chips and Fritos made the cookies spread too much during baking. Next time I'll try chilling the dough before baking it too.

Copycat Momofuku Compost Cookies (Adapted from Oatmeal CookieBlog)

Creamables

1 1/2 sticks butter

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

2 tablespoons dry, used coffee grounds

Wet Ingredients

1 egg

1 tablespoon vanilla

Dry Ingredients

1 cup oatmeal

1 cup flour

3/4 cup roughly crushed potato chips

1/2 cup roughly crushed pretzels

1/2 cup roughly crushed Fritos

1/2 cup butterscotch chips

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1 teaspoon baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 350º.

2. In your Kitchen Aid or a large mixing bowl, cream together the creamables.

3. In a small bowl, combine the wet ingredients and whisk together until smooth.

4. Add the combined wet ingredients to the creamables. Mix together until well incorporated.

5. In a large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold together until evenly distributed.

6. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the combined creamables and wet ingredients. Mix until evenly combined. (*Optional: Chill dough for 2 hrs or overnight.)

7. Shape dough into balls--about 2 tablespoons each.

8. Place dough balls about 2 inches apart on Silpat- or parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.

9. Bake at 350º for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let stand for 2 minutes. Then place cookies on wire racks to cool.