In most renditions of bhatti da murgh (Punjabi grilled chicken) , the spices are something you taste but do not feel. Ground into a powder and mixed into the marinade, they slip quietly onto your tongue, almost without warning, before bursting into a fireball of musky, tangy, smoky flavors — the more pungent, the better.

This is not the case at Adda Indian Canteen in Long Island City, Queens. There, the chef Chintan Pandya takes the spicing one step further, coating the marinated chicken legs in a thick blanket of cracked whole cumin and coriander seeds before searing them in the tandoor. The whole spices add a nubby, brittle crunch to the chicken skin, which sizzles and crisps in the oven’s high heat. Bold, complex and tantalizingly tongue-singeing, those chicken legs were the first thing that disappeared from our crowded table, and the last thing I thought about before drifting to sleep that night.