Chicken Pakoda

A crispy crunch of the Chicken Pakoda, and it always feels like the world is a better place. The spicy, batter-fried non-vegetarian snack has long been one of India’s favourite munchie. From high-end restaurants to the roadside shacks, this crispy delectable is a common presence. The concept of Pakodas also came to being as a best practice used by many chefs to economise their wastage. Fully prepared and cooked meat, when unused, would often be double fried and served up for a fresh batch of customers the next day. The additional coating of oil would seal the deliciousness in, while at the same time lend a tasty, crackling outer layer to the dish.

The origin of Chicken Pakoda seems to be at the heart of India—Delhi. The seat of Mughlai inventions and Persian delights, Delhi was where the iconic Tandoori Chicken (pre-marinated chicken roasted in Indian ovens called tandoors) was first born. In the city’s esteemed Moti Mahal, the restaurant credited with Tandoori Chicken’s recipe, Kundal Lal Gujral thought of sprucing up his daily menu one day. In the 1930s, Gujral owned a chain of restaurants across India and Pakistan.

The advent of Tandoori Chicken promised jam packed eateries and thus, his business flourished. Gujral thought to revamp his menu in the Peshawar branch and add a few snack items to the list. So instead of placing the marinated chicken in the tandoor, he mixed the chicken (married with a paste of ghee and tandoori masala) with batter, and deep fried the whole thing. As a result, the proverbial Chicken Pakoda was born. However, this original recipe has undergone significant reformations. Now, the chicken is partially cooked in a tandoor before it is lathered in the batter mix, to ensure that the fried version can still reveal a perfectly cooked, succulent and aromatic piece of chicken within.

Although the idea of deep frying meats was not a typically Indian culinary custom, it's understandable that the subcontinent picked up this method of cooking non-vegetarian foods from its neighbours China and Tibet. The concept of preparing meats in hot oil was first invented in the Chinese province of Sichuan, where pork or even beef was pre-spiced and then mixed with vegetables and chilly oil over a hot wok (pan). The high temperatures and oil consistency perfectly crisped the outer coating of the meat while also cooking it sufficiently within. The fact that it was not allowed to sit on the wok for long and was continuously ‘tossed’ around (to prevent burning) gave rise to the culinary suffix ‘wok tossed’, a common term found on Chinese restaurant menus these days.