Chicken Pakora Recipe (Chicken Pakoda)

Make crispy crunchy Chicken Pakora under 25 minutes. These golden fried Chicken Pakora are the ultimate winner anytime!! They are perfectly crispy and crunchy on the outside while remaining incredibly tender & juicy inside. Bite into these Chicken Pakora and be amazed at the flavors!

We usually serve them with Chai. Actually these Chicken Pakora are so good that you don’t need any sides & can be eaten on their own.

But they go well with these sides – Spicy Garlic chutney, Kabab Mint Chutney, Cilantro Chutney or Green Chutney.

Pakora are an all-time classic favorite in the Indian-Subcontinent. Numerous variations exist from the most popular Onion Pakoda, Bread pakora, Paneer Pakora, Chicken Pakoda to the lesser known Fish Pakora.

About Chicken Pakora

Chicken Pakora are a popular street food and an appetizer where chunks of tender chicken is batter fried to perfection, until golden and crisp.

There are different ways to make these. Here I share my Mom’s Andhra Style recipe to make the crispiest Chicken Pakora. The North Indian style pakoras are usually made by dipping the chicken in a thick batter before deep frying.

But My Mom’s version is made in a different way, where we sprinkle all the ingredients over the chicken and coat well. Minimum amount of liquid like egg white, Indian buttermilk or yogurt are added to bind the dry ingredients.

This kind of Chicken Pakora are fantastic – crispy & crunchy on the outside, tender & juicy from inside.

More Chicken Recipes,
Chilli Chicken
Chicken 65
Crispy Chicken Nuggets
Chicken Patties
Popcorn Chicken

Photo Guide

How to make Chicken Pakora (Stepwise Photos)

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.

2. 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

3. Chop 250 grams (½ lb) boneless chicken to uniform bite sized pieces. Add it here.

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

5. 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.

8. After a minute or 2, stir and fry them until golden and crisp.

9. Once done remove the chicken pakora to a steel colander or cooling rack. Fry the entire chicken in batches following the same method. Ensure the oil is hot enough before frying a new batch of chicken.

Each piece of chicken takes a different time to fry. So it is best to monitor each one of them and remove when they are done.

Serve chicken pakora hot with a cup of masala chai. Sprinkle some chaat masala if you like.

Serving Suggestions

These chicken pakora are so good on their own and don’t need any accompaniment. A cup of hot masala tea is what we all love with these. My kids go with a generous sprinkle of chaat masala.

In restaurants you can find a variety of condiments served with these like green chutney, ketchup or even kabab mint chutney.

You can just go ahead and serve these plain just like the way we do. I am sure you will enjoy every bit of them.

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.

Ginger garlic onion: Avoid using too much onion as it begins to release lots of moisture and your pakoras won’t be as crispy.

More tips

Egg white: I use an egg white to help lock the chicken juices. It prevents the chicken from turning dry, hard & chewy. However you can skip the egg if using brined chicken or young bird.

Egg substitute: Just add 4 tablespoons of yogurt to ½ cup of water and whisk it. Add the chicken bites to it and allow to rest for 2 hours to overnight in the fridge. Drain the chicken completely and use in the recipe. Other substitute to egg is to just add 3 tablespoons of yogurt to the pakora mixture.

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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Chicken Pakora Recipe first published in January 2013. Updated in April 2023.