A tandoor is a cylindrical clay oven used in Punjab northern India and Pakistan in which food is cooked over a hot charcoal fire. Temperatures in a tandoor can approach 480°C (900°F). It is common for tandoor ovens to remain lit for long periods of time to maintain the high cooking temperature.

The oldest example of a tandoor was found in the Harappa and Mohenjo Daro settlements of the ancient Indus Valley Civilization. In Sanskrit, the tandoor was referred to as kandu. The word tandoor comes from the Urdu words tandūr and tannūr; these derive from the Persian tanūr, which comes from the Arabic word tannūr, from which Turkish word Tandır (which has the same meaning as explained in the article) originates. It is used for cooking certain types of Indian and Pakistani food, such as tandoori chicken(pronounced tayne-doo-rye chicken) and bread varieties like tandoori and naan. (The word tandoori is the adjective form.) It is also known as a tonir in Armenian which is a widely used method of cooking barbeque and lavash bread.

The tandoor is currently a very important fixture in many Indian restaurants around the world. Food cooked in a tandoor retains all the juices and taste inside and hence is considered very healthy.