Chicken pakora makes a good starter or main. Here’s how it’s made at the best curry houses.
This is a chicken pakora recipe from my cookbook ‘The Curry Guy’ and it’s so good. You can make this at home in less than 30 minutes!
About this chicken pakora recipe
Chicken pakora is served in so many different ways at restaurants across the UK. The chicken breast meat can be cut into long strips or simple bite-sized cubes that are perfect served as finger food. Often, the meat is dyed bright red to make it look spicy hot, although usually it’s not very spicy at all.
In this chicken pakora, only a tsp of chilli powder is added which gives the pakoras a good spicy flavour but it doesn’t take away from the other delicious spices used.
The chicken pakoras in the accompanying photo were made by cutting the chicken into very small cubes and then squeezing them together in the batter. These really went down a treat at the photo shoot once the photo was taken.
Working ahead
There isn’t a lot to do in this easy chicken pakora recipe. You could, however cut the chicken a couple of days ahead of cooking.
You could also prepare the marinade but don’t add the chickpea (gram) flour until you are ready to cook.
Can you easily upscale this recipe?
Yes! Just scale it up as you like. This chicken pakora recipe serve 2 to 4 but you could easily scale it up to serve many more
Make this chicken pakora recipe your own.
As with all of my recipes, this chicken pakora recipe should be used as a guide. I can assure you that if you make it exactly as written, you will love those chicken pakoras!
That said, feel free to add more garlic, chilli powder or whatever you like.
What do you serve with chicken pakaras
These quick and easy chicken pakoras are amazing simply served on their own. You might, however to make your pakoras as part of a delicious feast. Why not serve them with Basmati rice or mushroom fried rice?
The pakoras are also amazing wrapped up into hot homemade naans or chapatis. You will find some excellent recipes for both on this blog. Try Instant naans, Peshwari naans, stove top naans, keema naans, garlic naans, tandoor naans (if you have a tandoor oven), or if you’re cooking outdoors, karahi naans. If you want to make things even easier, try these homemade chapatis.
You might also like to serve this with a good and easy tarka dal or slowly simmered dal makhani.
Chicken pakoras are usually served as a starter. Why not serve them with fried shop bought poppadoms or if you’re feeling ambitious, make your own poppadoms from scratch and serve them with coriander chutney, red onion chutney, and/or tamarind chutney.
Chicken Pakora
Ingredients
- 250g (11⁄2 cup) boneless chicken breast, cubed or sliced
- 1⁄2 tsp ground turmeric
- 1⁄2 tsp ajwain (carom) seeds
- 3⁄4 tsp garam masala
- 1⁄2–1 tsp chilli powder, to taste
- 1 tsp garlic and ginger paste
- 2 tbsp finely chopped coriander (cilantro)
- White of 1 small egg
- 65g (1⁄2 cup) chickpea (gram) flour
- Sparkling water
- Rapeseed oil, for deep-frying
- Salt to taste
- Lemon wedges, onion rings
- and lettuce, to serve
Instructions
- Place the chicken in a large bowl and mix with the turmeric, ajwain, garam masala, chilli powder and a little salt so that the meat is evenly coated. Let this sit for about 20 minutes.
- Stir in the garlic and ginger paste, coriander (cilantro) and the egg white. Now start adding the chickpea (gram) flour a little at a time, coating the meat, adding a splash of sparkling water from time to time. Continue until all the flour is used up and
it has the consistency of ketchup. - Heat enough oil for deep-frying in a deep, heavy-based pan or deep-fat fryer, to between 170 and 180°C (338–356°F).
- Using a wire mesh spoon, slowly lower the pakora into the hot oil. You may need to fry in batches and cooking times will of depend on the size of your chicken chunks, but it should only take a few minutes to cook through.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 367Total Fat: 20gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 15gCholesterol: 61mgSodium: 715mgCarbohydrates: 33gFiber: 3gSugar: 4gProtein: 15g