Chicken pakora is bite-size boneless chicken tossed in ginger-garlic, lemon and ground spices, coated in a thick gram flour (besan) batter and deep-fried over medium heat until craggy, deep golden and cooked through. For 500 g of chicken you need about 90 g of gram flour, 4 tablespoons of rice flour and a quarter teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. It serves four as a starter and takes about 25 minutes.
The one thing that decides whether it works is the batter. It should be thick enough to cling to every piece with no dry flour left, and never so loose that it pools in the bottom of the bowl. Get that right and the rest is heat control.
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Recipe
Chicken Pakora Recipe (Crispy Spiced Chicken Fritters)
Ingredients
Chicken and seasoning
Batter
To fry and serve
Method
- Cut the chicken into bite-size pieces about 2.5 cm (1 inch) across and pat them dry with kitchen paper.
- Put the chicken in a bowl with the ginger-garlic paste, lemon juice, chilli powder, chilli flakes, cumin, coriander, garam masala, turmeric, kasoori methi, salt, green chillies and fresh coriander. Mix until every piece is coated. Carry on straight away, or cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes for a deeper flavour.
- Sprinkle the gram flour, rice flour and bicarbonate of soda over the chicken and mix. Add the cold water one tablespoon at a time, just until there is no dry flour left and a thick batter clings to each piece. It should not pool in the bowl.
- Heat the oil in a karahi, wok or heavy pan over medium heat. Drop in a little batter: it should rise and bubble steadily, not brown in seconds.
- Lower the pieces in one at a time without crowding the pan. Fry for 4 to 8 minutes, turning, until deep golden and crisp and the chicken reaches 74°C (165°F) in the thickest piece. Fry the rest in batches.
- Lift the pakoras onto a wire rack or kitchen paper, sprinkle with chaat masala and serve hot with lemon wedges and green chutney.
What is chicken pakora?
Chicken pakora is a fritter: small pieces of chicken in a spiced chickpea-flour batter, deep-fried and eaten hot as a snack or starter. It is cooked across Pakistan and India, and the recipes that rank for it agree on the basic method.
It is not the same as a vegetable pakora. With onion or spinach pakora the batter is the body of the fritter. Here the batter is a crust, and the chicken is the point.
Chicken pakora, step by step
Cut the chicken into bite-size pieces.- Coat the chicken in the paste, lemon and spices.
- Add the flours and just enough water to cling.
- Test the oil with a drop of batter.
- Fry in batches until deep golden.
- Drain on a rack and finish with chaat masala.
The step most people get wrong: the batter
The batter goes wrong in one direction far more often than the other: too much water. Wet chicken, lemon juice and ginger-garlic paste already bring moisture, so the flours need only a few tablespoons of water on top.
Add the water one tablespoon at a time and stop as soon as there is no dry flour left. When it is right, a piece lifted on a spoon stays fully coated and the batter sits on it in rough peaks. When it is too thin, it slides off in the oil, the pieces stick together, and the crust comes out flat and pale instead of craggy.
If you overshoot, sprinkle in a little more gram flour rather than starting again.
Why each batter ingredient is there
- Gram flour (besan) gives the flavour and the golden colour. It is the base of every pakora.
- Rice flour or cornflour keeps the crust crisp as it cools. The recipes checked for this page use one or the other, and either works.
- Bicarbonate of soda, only a quarter teaspoon, lightens the batter so it puffs into ridges. More than that and it tastes soapy.
- Lemon juice seasons the chicken and loosens the batter at the same time, which is why so little water is needed.
- Kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves) adds the faintly bitter, savoury note that makes this taste like a Pakistani pakora rather than plain fried chicken. Crush it between your palms before adding it.
How the quantities on the card were chosen
Every number on the card comes from published recipes, cross-checked: at least two independent recipes had to agree before a quantity went on the card. Most did. The chicken (500 g), lemon juice (2 tablespoons), bicarbonate of soda (¼ teaspoon), gram flour (about 90 g) and rice flour (4 tablespoons) all matched across two or three sources once scaled to the same weight of chicken.
Two spices did not agree. For ground cumin and ground coriander, Fatima Cooks uses 1½ teaspoons of each, Kitchen Sanctuary 1 teaspoon of each, and other recipes less. The card follows Kitchen Sanctuary at 1 teaspoon each, the middle of that spread. Go up to 1½ teaspoons if you like the spices forward.
Chilli heat is given as a range, 1 to 2 teaspoons of red chilli powder, with 1 teaspoon as the default. That default is what three of the recipes use; the upper end comes from the hotter version on Swasthi’s Recipes.
Times are the median of eight recipes: 10 minutes to prepare and 15 minutes to fry, 25 minutes in total. No nutrition figures are given, because none could be cross-checked.
Chicken thigh or breast?
Either works, and the recipes checked split between the two. Thigh stays juicier and is more forgiving if a batch fries a minute too long. Breast gives a leaner bite but dries out quickly, so cut it no larger than about 2.5 cm (1 inch) and lift it out as soon as it is cooked through.
Egg or no egg in the batter?
The card has no egg. Fatima Cooks and Kitchen Sanctuary bind the batter with lemon juice, water and bicarbonate of soda, and that gives the lighter, more ragged crust.
Several other recipes, including Swasthi’s Recipes, Whiskaffair and Food Faith Fitness, add one egg white per 250 g of chicken. The egg makes the coating smoother and more even, closer to a restaurant-style finish, and it holds better if the batter is on the thin side. If you use it, add the water only if the batter is still dry after the egg goes in.
Frying: heat and timing
Fry over medium heat, not high. Every recipe checked for this page that names a heat level says medium or medium-hot, and the reason is the chicken: the outside needs time to crisp while the inside cooks through. On high heat the crust goes dark brown while the centre is still raw.
Test with a drop of batter first. It should rise and bubble steadily. If it browns in seconds, lower the heat. If it sits on the bottom without bubbling, wait.
Lower the pieces in one at a time and do not crowd the pan, or the oil cools and the pakoras turn greasy. Each batch takes 4 to 8 minutes, depending on the size of the pieces. They are done when the crust is deep golden and firm and the chicken reaches 74°C (165°F) in the thickest piece, the USDA’s safe minimum temperature for poultry. Without a thermometer, cut the largest piece open: there should be no pink.
The shorter route, and what it costs
The card coats and fries straight away, which is how Fatima Cooks and Swasthi’s Recipes do it. Kitchen Sanctuary and The Flavours of Kitchen instead let the spiced chicken marinate in the fridge for 30 minutes before the flour goes in.
Skipping the marinade costs depth, not crispness. The seasoning sits mostly in the crust, and the chicken itself tastes milder. If you have half an hour, mix the chicken with the spices, lemon and paste first, cover and refrigerate it, then add the flours just before frying. Adding the flours early is the thing to avoid: the batter turns wet as it sits.
What to serve with chicken pakora
Serve pakora hot, straight from the rack, with a sprinkle of chaat masala, lemon wedges and a green coriander-mint chutney or sweet chilli sauce. Thin raw onion rings on the side cut through the fried crust.
As a teatime snack it goes with a cup of masala chai. As a starter it comes before a main such as chicken karahi. If you want the same spices without the frying, chicken tikka is the grilled route.
Storing and reheating
Pakora is at its best in the first few minutes, while the crust is still crackling. Refrigerate leftovers within two hours of cooking, as USDA guidance for cooked food advises, in a container lined with kitchen paper.
Reheat in a hot oven or an air fryer rather than a microwave, which turns the batter soft, and heat them until they are piping hot all the way through. Mixed batter does not keep: once the bicarbonate of soda and water are in, fry it the same day.
Questions people ask
What is chicken pakora made of?
Chicken pakora is made of bite-size boneless chicken, ginger-garlic paste, lemon juice and ground spices, coated in a batter of gram flour (besan) and rice flour or cornflour with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda, then deep-fried.
Is chicken pakora spicy?
Chicken pakora is usually medium-hot rather than fiery. The heat comes from red chilli powder, chilli flakes and green chillies. With 1 teaspoon of chilli powder it has a noticeable warmth; seed the green chillies for a milder batch, or go up to 2 teaspoons of chilli powder for more heat.
What is a pakora made of?
A pakora is a fritter made of pieces of vegetable, paneer, fish or meat coated in a spiced gram flour (chickpea flour) batter and deep-fried. Onion, potato, spinach and chicken are among the most common fillings.
Is chicken pakora a healthy food choice?
Chicken pakora is a deep-fried snack, so it is best treated as an occasional starter rather than an everyday meal. The chicken supplies protein, but the batter takes up frying oil. Frying at medium heat and draining the pakoras on a rack keeps them from turning greasy.
Why is my chicken pakora soggy?
Chicken pakora goes soggy when the batter is too thin, the pan is crowded, or the oil is not hot enough. Use only enough water to wet the flour, fry a few pieces at a time, and drain them on a wire rack instead of a plate.
Can I make chicken pakora without egg?
Yes. The recipe on this page uses no egg: lemon juice, water and bicarbonate of soda bind the gram flour batter. Some recipes add an egg white for a smoother coating, but it is optional.
