Topic: Chicken Pakora and Sauce

[Jeera]

Try this recipe. It is a fantastic replica of red chicken pakora you typically get in BIRs (especially in the Glasgow area). I found it on the web from a poster called 'Scottish Chef', so I can't claim any kudos.

Chicken Pakora

1. I Kg of chicken fillet sliced into 2 - 3 inch long strips.
2. 300 - 400g of Gram Flour
3. Two heaped tablespoons of Patak's tandoori paste.
4. 1.5 Tsp. of salt.
5. Level Tblsp of sugar - caster is best.
6. Heaped Tsp. of chilli powder .
7. Heaped Tsp. Of Garam Masala
8. Heaped Tblsp of curry powder. I make this from equal parts Corriander Powder, Turmeric, Garam Masala and Hot Madras Curry
9. Level Tblsp of red or orange food colour powder.
10. 5 - 600ml of water.
11. 2 Tblsp of lemon juice.
12. Enough cooking oil to fill a pan to 4 - 5 inches deep.

Method

1. Mix the chilli, garam masala, salt, sugar, food colour, curry powder, lemon juice and tandoori paste together until you have a thick, deep purple paste.
2. Add the water a little at a time and mix thoroughly until you have a thinnish liquid.
3. Add the Gram flour stirring consistently until you have a thick batter like consistency. This needs to be stirred a lot to avoid unblended lumps.
4. Add the chicken strips and mix them until you have them completely coated and leave this to marinate for at least 4 hours. Overnight in the fridge is best of all.
5. Heat the oil to 300F.
6. Drop the coated strips of chicken into the fat one at a time (no more than 6 or seven in a batch) and fry for three minutes. This will result in a firm coating and the chicken will be very moist. You can cook it longer if you prefer a crunchier pakora.


Simple Pakora dipping sauce.

1. 250ml of good tomato ketchup
2. 250ml of water
3. Tsp. of salt
4. Tsp. of sugar
5. Tsp. of mint sauce.
6. Tblsp of lemon juice
7. Level Tsp. of chilli powder.

Just mix them all together and serve in a small bowl.

[Cory Ander]

Thanks for this recipe Jeera,

Just on point of clarification please?  Do you really mean 1 TABLESPOON of powdered food colouring! 

Phewwwwie!  Talk about glow in the dark!  ;D

[Jeera]

errr.... yes... go on, you only live once

remember that's for a kilo of chicken.

[Cory Ander]

Haha, it probably weighs nearly as much as the chicken!

.....but it is for a batter I see.....

.....I think I'm gonna have to try this one! 

[Yellow Fingers]

Hey Jeera

I just made these for lunch and mmm, mmm, mmmmmm! They were delish.

I had to scale things down a bit because I was only using one piece of chicken. I wasn't patient enough to leave them for long, they only got about four hours in the marinade. I can't say I've ever had this type of pakora at a restaurant, but I'll be looking out for them in future. Only one negative point, they didn't come out as crispy as I would have liked and I must have fried them for eight minutes or more.

I didn't add any extra colouring because the pataks paste was coulour enough for my liking. I wish I had a camera, I would have liked to have posted a pic, they looked superb.

I squeezed a little bit of lemon juice over them and I made the sauce as well. I have to say I was dubious about this one, but it turned out nice. I didn't add any extra water as it seemed thin enough and just the right consistency without. Again I had to severely reduce the overall quantity and so had to guess at the reduced quantities. I really think it complemented the pakoras nicely. My impression is that this sauce is a cheapskate way to produce a tamarind like sauce. But, what ever, it was just great.

Thanks for finding this one and thanks to the unknown original author, wherever you may be.

YF

[Jeera]

I'll need to make these again now my mouth is watering. Yes YF a squeeze of lemon is perfect over pakoras.

fyi, The red sauce is very common in the Glasgow area.

Another favourite up here is Spiced Onions - you get this as a starter served with popadoms.
You slice a couple of onions and mix with the pakora sauce ingredients (omit the water), mix, leave in the fridge for an hour and you are ready to go. They are addictive.

[Domi]

Thanks for the recipe Jeera  ;D I'll be making a batch later this week I'll post up the results once done

It's only an hour since I had a delish curry and all the trimmings and my mouth is watering already 

[Domi]

sorry for the late get-back lol

Very nice recipe Jeera   I made fish pakoras instead of chicken and they tasted great ;D I'm making up a batch of chicken pakoras for after the match today 

Thanks again

[aminsha]

Hey,

Tried this recipe, the other day. The pakora didn't come out crispy at all and it was a very dark red can someone please tell me why this is. It looked kinda black and the chicken wasn't cooked.

any help would be appreciated.

[Cory Ander]

Hi Aminsha and welcome to cr0 

Until Jeera replies, maybe this will help:

The pakora didn't come out crispy at all....and the chicken wasn't cooked

Try frying them in hotter oil.  A piece of stale bread (about 1 cm cubed) should sink, and almost immediately float to the surface, and should take about 1 minute to brown (not burn) when the oil is hot enough (about 180 degrees).

If the oil is too cold, the batter will not be crispy
If the oil is too hot, the outside will be cooked but the inside won't be cooked

So it sounds like your oil may not have been hot enough (not crispy) and you didn't cook them for long enough (uncooked inside)

You need to adjust the temperature of the oil until the outside is cooked and crispy and the inside is also cooked.  Cooking time will be about 5 to 10 minutes depending upon the size of the pakoras.

You can also partially fry them and refry them before you eat them if you wish.

and it was a very dark red can someone please tell me why this is

1 tablespoon is a heck of a lot of food colouring!  I'd suggest reducing it to 1/4 of a teaspoon, or less, or omit it altogether.

Hope this helps?