Chicken Pakora
Bite-size pieces of chicken coated in a spiced gram flour batter and deep-fried until crisp and golden.
Photograph credit: On the way back from Glasgow University, picked up acheecky wee chicken pakora for late… by Graham Steel · Public Domain Mark 1.0 · Flickr
How to Make Chicken Pakora
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Mix the chicken with the ginger and garlic paste, lemon juice and the first 1/2 tsp salt. Leave for 15 minutes.
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Whisk the gram flour, rice flour, cumin, chilli powder, turmeric, ajwain and second 1/2 tsp salt with enough water to make a thick batter. Stir in the chicken.
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Heat the oil in a small, deep pan to 180°C / 355°F; it should be about 3 cm deep.
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Fry the chicken in batches, 5 to 6 minutes per batch, until deep golden and cooked through.
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Drain on kitchen paper and serve hot with lemon wedges.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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Tips for Making Chicken Pakora
- Add water to the batter gradually; it is easy to thin but hard to thicken.
- Keep the finished batches warm in a low oven while you fry the rest.
- Cut the largest piece open to check it is cooked before you serve.
If You're Missing Something
- If you only have ground ginger, a quarter-teaspoon for each tablespoon of fresh is the ratio usually given; it tastes warmer and less bright than the fresh root.
- An eighth of a teaspoon of garlic powder per clove is the stand-in usually given when you are out of fresh garlic; it will not brown the same way, and it burns easily, so add it with the liquid.
What Goes With Chicken Pakora
- Mint chutney
- Tamarind chutney
- Sliced onion
- Lemon wedges
Keeping and Reheating
Best eaten at once. Keeps in the fridge for 1 day and crisps up again in a hot oven.
Chicken Pakora FAQ: Common Questions
How long does Chicken Pakora take to make?
15 minutes of preparation and 15 minutes of cooking, plus 15 minutes of standing, so allow 45 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 4.
The Numbers per Serving
No nutrition figures are given for this recipe: they cannot be worked out reliably from its ingredient list (how much frying oil the food takes up cannot be known from the recipe). Why some recipes have none.
Your notes on this recipe
Cooked this? Keep a note for next time
Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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