This rustic Indian style fried chicken is my go-to chicken fry recipe when I crave for flavors of my root and trust me, it can give any version of chicken fry a run for its money!
How about some chicken fry with all super-addictive spicy flavors of Indian cuisine? Sounds tempting? I bet it is! This Indian style fried chicken screams super flavor in its every bite and if you are as fond of Indian food as I am, I can guarantee that this Indian style fried chicken will top your list of favorite fried chicken beating every other style of chicken fry pretty badly and would retain its position for a long time to come! This chicken fry is every spice-lovers’ dream. For a good fried chicken, a good marinate is very essential and I will talk about it in a minute. Before that let me tell you the best part of this Indian spiced fried chicken – it has a very crispy outer coating which, at the very first bite, signals your brain that your taste buds are gonna experience something immensely delicious. By the time you are done enjoying the crispiness of the chicken fry, you will be graciously hit by the superbly flavored succulent meat inside and will be in complete awe of this mind-blowing experience! All this is my first-hand experience and I am not even exaggerating a bit! If you don’t try this Indian style fried chicken, you have no idea what you are missing out on in life!
A good fried chicken will always have somewhat long marinating hours and this one is no exception too if you want all the flavors to penetrate deep into the meat. If you don’t let the chicken rest in the marinade, the spices will not get enough time to infuse the chicken pieces with all their goodness. So, I recommend you to provision for the marinating time when you are planning to make this Indian style fried chicken. This recipe is also a great one to include in your menu when you are hosting a party at home; all chicken lovers will accolade you for such a unique as well as delish fried chicken which is not easily available in restaurants. If making for a party, you can keep the chicken pieces completely marinated after which letting them chill in refrigerator overnight. Just fry them up before serving and serve the hot and crispy Indian style fried chicken as soon as your guests starts pouring in. Just to add a quick note, using drumsticks is not mandatory for this recipe, you can use bone-in chicken thighs or wings too; only try to avoid chicken breasts as they tend to turn very dry.
This Indian style fried chicken is loaded with Indian spices which makes it so close to my heart as I am a loyal devotee of Indian food. I love everything about Indian cooking, may be because I have been brought up solely on Indian food; whereas at the same time may also be because Indian cuisine provides me countless opportunities to play around with flavors and combinations. Now this Indian style fried chicken has few elements to it which are worth taking note of. Firstly, brining; let’s talk about it. Brining means basically leaving the chicken in highly salted water at room temperature. The water should also be at room temperature, neither hot nor cold. With its inherent property, salt starts breaking into the fibers of chicken meat and penetrates inside; this technique ensures that even the meatiest portion of the chicken drumsticks become well-seasoned upto deep inside. Once the chicken pieces are brined properly, you will need to rinse them thoroughly to remove any excess salt. Now they are prepared for actual spicy marinate.
The very first aromatics that hit the chicken drumsticks are ginger and garlic. When you massage raw chicken with ginger and garlic paste, it works wonder to the final taste. I always do this for any Indian style chicken curry too. If you skip this step, you will kill half of the flavors in this amazing Indian style fried chicken. You may choose to skip the brining step but not this one. After the ginger-garlic step, comes the final loading of spices. This Indian chicken fry is dominantly spiced with coriander i.e. dhania powder, cumin i.e. jeera powder, garam masala, Kashmiri chili powder and finally a hint of kasoori methi. To bind everything together, you will need little curd and to soften things up you will have to add an egg. Finally, for the crispy outer coating on the fried chicken, the addition of corn flour and all-purpose flour i.e. maida will do their magic. So, you see, every ingredient in this recipe of Indian style fried chicken has a specific purpose of its own and they all contribute collectively to make that fantastic and addictive chicken fry which you can never have enough! Enjoy!
- Chicken drumsticks – 6
- Water – 1 liter or more, at room temperature
- Salt – 1 tbsp
- Ginger paste – 1 & ½ tbsp
- Garlic paste – 2 tbsp
- Salt – 1 tsp or as per taste
- Lemon – 1
- Red chili powder – 1 tsp
- Coriander powder – 1 tbsp
- Cumin powder – 1 tsp
- Kashmiri red chili powder – 3 tsp
- Black pepper powder – ½ tsp or more as per taste
- Garam masala – ½ tsp
- Kasoori methi – 1 tsp
- Hung curd – 2 tbsp
- Egg – 1
- Corn flour – ¼ cup
- Maida/all-purpose flour – ⅛ cup
- Oil for deep frying
- Wash and pat dry the chicken drumsticks. then using a sharp knife, make multiple deep gashes on the meaty portion of the drumsticks. Now they are ready for the brining.
- For brining, take enough water in a large bowl so that all chicken pieces remain inside the water. Then add 1 tablespoon of salt to it and all the drumsticks into the bowl. Leave the bowl inside refrigerator for couple of hours. If you are in real rush, you can skip this step.
- Once the brining is done, take the chicken pieces out from salted water and wash them thoroughly to remove excess salt. Discard the brining water.
- Then put the drumsticks in a clean large bowl and add the ingredients listed under first marinate – ginger & garlic paste, salt and juice of one lemon. Massage them well into the cuts of each drumstick and cover & leave them for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
- After about 1 hour or so, it’s time to do the second marination of chicken. Add all the ingredients listed under second marinate to the chicken pieces which are already coated with ginger-garlic paste and salt.
- Massage all the spice powders, curd and flours all over the chicken covering all cuts as deeply as possible. This will ensure most flavorful and succulent chicken at the end. Leave the final marinated chicken for 30 minutes to rest so that the drumsticks could absorb as much flavors as possible.
- Take a deep pot for deep frying the chicken and add enough oil for frying. Let the oil become hot.
- Once the oil is hot, reduce temperature to low and drop the chicken drumstick one at a time into the hot oil. Let as much marinate as possible cling to the chicken. If it starts to splatter, cover and let the chicken fry on medium-low heat for 6 to 8 minutes.
- After about 8 minutes, uncover the pan and flip the chicken for even cooking. Let the other side cook for 6 to 8 minutes more. Then take them out and put on a plate.
- Now crank up the heat and let the oil become super-hot. Once the oil is very hot, reduce the heat to medium and return the fried chicken drumsticks to the hot oil and let them fry just for 1 more minute. This second fry will make the outer coating of the chicken super crispy while retaining the succulent juicy meat inside.
- Finally take the Indian style fried chicken out from the hot oil after 1 minutes and let them cool down a bit before serving.
- Sprinkle some chat masala on top and serve the delicious Indian style fried chicken with mint chutney and onion rings on the side. Enjoy!
wonderful.absolutely loved your content.
Thanks For Sharing this Amazing Recipe. My Family Loved It. I will be sharing this Recipe with my Friends. Hope They will like it.
Thank you so much for trying! Happy to know you liked it!