Chicken Pakora

 

Preparation

1. Add the following ingredients to a large mixing bowl:

• 6 tablespoon besan (gram flour) (¼ cup + 2 tbsps)
• 3 tablespoon rice flour or cornstarch
• ⅓ teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
• ¼ teaspoon turmeric (haldi)
• ¾ to 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder (reduce for kids)
• ¾ to 1 teaspoon garam masala
• ¾ tablespoon ginger garlic paste or crushed

Mix well and taste test. Add more salt and spice as required. It should taste slightly salty.

Next add the following

• ¾ tablespoon ginger garlic paste or crushed ginger garlic
• 1 to 2 green chilies chopped (optional)
• 2 sprigs curry leaves or 2 tbsps mint leaves or coriander leaves chopped
• ¼ cup onion (optional) fine chopped/sliced very thin

Chop 250 grams (½ lb) boneless chicken to uniform bite sized pieces. Add it here. After a good rinse I drained the water completely and added it.

4. Pour 1 egg white. (read pro-tips below for egg substitute)

Begin to mix adding water only as needed. I add about 3 tbsps water. This may vary depending on the chicken and the size of egg.

6. Towards the end of this step, chicken should be well coated with the pakora mixture. The mixture has to be stiff – dough like and not like batter. Too mush moisture in the pakora mixture can make your chicken pakora soft and not crunchy.

Fix : You can add few tablespoons of flour in the same ratios to fix the excess moisture.

Fry Chicken Pakora

7. Heat oil in a deep pan/ kadai. Check if the temperature is right by sliding in little dough. It has to sizzle and rise to the surface without browning quickly. This is the right temperature.

Slide the chicken bites gently to the hot oil one after the other. Regulate the flame to medium to medium high.

It is very normal for the chicken pieces to stick up to each other in the mixing bowl. Just remove each piece of chicken and coat it well with the pakora mixture and slide them to the oil.

Pro-Tips

Chicken: Chop the chicken to bite sized pieces – 1 by ¾ inch size. Keep them as uniform as possible. This helps to fry the chicken evenly.

Flour: Rice flour or corn flour is the key to make these chicken pakora crisp. Do not skip it. If you do not use both then just go ahead using millet flour.

This recipe will give you crisp pakora, altering the ratio of besan to rice flour or corn flour may not give the same texture.

Herbs: We love these chicken pakora with lots of curry leaves & pudina. Both these flavor up the chicken pakora a lot. If you do not have both then use coriander leaves.

Moisture: Egg white and water are used to bind the dry ingredients with chicken. Please note that too much moisture can make your chicken pakora soft and not crunchy.

By any chance if the mixture turns soggy then add little flour and fix it. Do not fry the soggy mixture as the pakora turn too soft.

Frying: Always fry chicken pakora in moderately hot oil on a medium flame.

Frying them in extremely hot or smoking oil will brown them too quickly from outside without cooking inside. Next frying them on a low flame will make the chicken pakora hard, chewy and rubbery.

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Veggie Pakora Ingredients

• ▢ ½ cup besan (gram flour, more if needed)
• ▢ ¼ cup rice flour (or 2 tablespoons corn starch, use more if needed proportionally with besan)
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt
• ▢ 3 green chili peppers chopped or ½ to 1 teaspoon red chilli flakes (adjust to taste)
• ▢ 2 tablespoons mint leaves or coriander leaves or dill leaves chopped
• ▢ 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste or crushed ginger
• ▢ ¼ to ½ teaspoon garam masala powder (optional)
• ▢ ½ teaspoons carom seeds (ajwain, optional)
• ▢ oil for deep frying as needed

Mixed veggies julienned 2.5 to 3 cups

• ▢ 1 medium carrot (¾ cup julienned)
• ▢ ¼ cup capsicum (bell peppers)
• ▢ 1 cup cabbage (shredded)
• ▢ 1 medium onion (thinly sliced)
• ▢ 6 french beans (julienned)
• ▢ 1 cup spinach chopped (optional)