Chicken pakora is a popular Indian appetizer made with chicken, gram flour batter, and spices. See the tips to make the pakoras crispy. Make this easy chicken pakora within 30 minutes.
Prep Time15 minutesmins
Cook Time15 minutesmins
Total Time30 minutesmins
Course: Appetizer, Snack, Starter
Cuisine: Indian
Servings: 4people
Calories: 280kcal
Author: Preeti
Equipment
Mixing bowl
Deep bottom pan/Wok
Ingredients
Marinate the chicken
300gramchickenboneless, cut into small bite-size pieces
salt to taste
¼teaspoonturmeric powder
1tablespoonginger-garlic paste
½teaspoonblack pepper powder
½teaspoonbaking soda(optional)
1teaspoonKashmiri red chili powder(optional)
½teaspoonspicy red chili powder(add as per taste)
½teaspooncumin powder
1teaspoontandoori masala powder(substitue with garam masala powder)
2tablespoonchopped coriander leaves
1tablespoonchopped curry leaves(optional)
2tablespooncurd(substitute with 2 tablespoon of egg white)
Dab the chicken breast with clean kitchen tissue to dry it.
Cut the chicken pieces in uniform size so that the chicken gets fried evenly.
In a small bowl, combine the chicken with all the ingredients mentioned under 'marinate the chicken'.
Cover and keep it in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
Making chicken pakoda
After 2 hours, add besan (gram flour), rice flour, vinegar and 1 tablespoon of water. Combine it well.
Make sure the mixture is thick and not watery. If needed, you can add one more tablespoon of water. Do not make the mixture runny or else the pakoras will not be crispy.
Finally, add 2 tablespoon of oil and combine. Set this aside for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat oil in a deep bottom pan or Wok.
When the oil is medium hot, start frying the chicken. Do not overcrowd the pan. Fry chicken in small batches.
Do not stir immediately. Let it fry for a minute.
Gently stir and fry it until golden and crisp. Remove it on a plate lined with kitchen tissue.
Chicken pakoda is ready to serve.
Sprinkle some chaat masala on top. Serve hot with your favorite dip.
Video
Notes
Marinate the chicken for at least 2 hours or overnight. When you will fry, the chicken pieces will not be dry. They will be juicy inside and crisp outside. Also, the chicken will absorb all the delicious flavor of the spices and becomes more flavorful.
The addition of rice flour is important to make pakoda crispy.
Make a thick pakora mixture using less water. If the pakora mixture is thin or runny, the pakoras will not be crispy.
If the pakora batter is thin or runny then add some more rice flour to it.
You can substitute curd with egg white in the same quantity. So, if the recipe says 2 tablespoon of curd then replace it with 2 tablespoon of egg white.
The addition of either curd or egg white is important. They keep the chicken nice and moist inside after frying.
The temperature of the oil to fry pakoras should be perfect. It should not be too hot or cold. To check, drop some batter in hot oil. If it comes up quickly without getting brown quickly the oil is perfect to fry.
Fry the pakoras in medium hot oil. If the oil is very hot then it will get fried quickly outside but will remain uncooked from inside.
Add some chopped green chilies to make it spicy. I have skipped this step for kids.