A Pakora is usually a vegetable dish but myself and my husband have spent ages trying to perfect the best fried chicken, and this is an off-shoot of those experiments. I thought I'd stir up some Indian flavours into the batter to see what happened, and the results were so good that this has now become a family favourite.
Ingredients
5 chicken thigh fillets, trimmed & chopped into bite-sized pieces
2 cloves garlic
3cm piece fresh ginger, chopped roughly
2 green chillies, chopped
Juice from ½ lemon
1 tsp salt
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp cumin seeds (crushed)
1 tsp red chilli powder
2 tsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi)
100g gram flour
Handful of coriander, chopped
Water (if required)
Rapeseed oil for deep frying
Method
- Place the garlic, ginger, green chillies, lemon juice, garam masala, cumin seeds, chilli powder, dried fenugreek leaves into a pestle and mortar and blend to a rough paste.
- Place chicken in a bowl and add the paste, mix to marinade and leave for at least 20 minutes - the longer the better.
- Heat up the oil in a karahi or wok to a medium heat.
- Into the marinated chicken sprinkle in the freshly chopped coriander and then sieve in the gram flour. Mix together using your hand.
- Add a small amount of water if required to ensure the chicken is coated in a thick batter.
- Test your oil is hot enough by dropping in a little batter into the oil. If it browns and rises immediately then it is ready. Very carefully place the pieces of chicken into the oil one at a time and fry until crisp and golden brown.
- Using a slotted spoon move the pakora around, be careful not to overcrowd the karahi.
- Once golden brown and crisp remove from the oil and set on some kitchen paper.