Crispy & Spicy Chicken 65 at Home (Dry Version)
This crispy and spicy south indian chicken appetizer is made with bite size chicken marinated in yogurt and spices and deep fried to perfection before tempering with crisped curry leaves and garlic.
Ingredients
For Marinating Chicken
- 1.1 lb (500g) boneless skinless chicken thighs fat trimmed and cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1.5 tablespoon ginger garlic paste
- 3 tablespoon plain whole yogurt
- 3 tablespoon fine rice flour unsweetened
- 2 tablespoon cornstarch (cornflour)
- Oil for deep frying
Ground Spices for chicken marination
- 2 teaspoon kashmiri chili powder
- ¾ teaspoon red chili powder (hot) adjust to taste substitue with cayenne pepper powder
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon cumin powder
- ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon garam masala powder
For Sauteing
- 2 tablespoon oil
- ¼ teaspoon black mustard seeds
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- 3-5 indian or thai green chilies slit in half
- 1.5 tablespoon chopped garlic
- 12-15 curry leaves
- ½ tablespoon Ching's red sauce) or sriracha, adjust to taste
- ½-1 teaspoon vinegar or lime juice
- ¼ teaspoon sugar
- chopped cilantro to garnish
- Lemon wedges, sliced onions to serve
Instructions
Marinate the Chicken
- Add chicken to a large bowl. Add all the ground spices, yogurt and salt. Mix well to coat. Cover and marinate for atleast 2 hours. If you have time, marinating chicken for 18-24 hours gives better flavor and texture.
- If you refrigerated the chicken, pull it out next morning 20-30 minutes beofre frying so as to not shock it in hot oil.
- Set the oil for deep frying to heat up on medium stove.
- Sprinkle the rice flour and cornstarch on the marinated chicken. Use your hands to mix and coat the chicken. It will be slightly difficult to mix at first but will come together. Don't add water.
- Check the oil by dropping a tiny piece of chicken. It should slowly float to the surface of oil while sizzling. If so, the temperature of oil is right.
- Deep fry the chicken in small batches on medium high heat. Don't over crowd else the chicken will stick to each other and start steaming.
- Fry all the chicken in batches and drain on a paper towel.
Air Fryer Chicken 65
- You could air fry the chicken in case you aren't inclined to deep fry. Layer the chicken in the air fryer basket and add generous sprays/drizzle of oil. Cook in a preheated fryer at 400 F for 8-10 minutes. These cook up quickly as they are small in size. Fry in batches.
Tempering The Fried Chicken
- Heat up oil in a wok on high heat. You can use oil that you deep fried in.
- Crackle the mustard seeds and cumin seeds in hot oil. Add the garlic, curry leaves and green chilies next. Fry for about 20 seconds on high heat till leaves crisp up a bit. Taking care that the garlic doesnt burn.
- Add the fried chicken, add srirach (or chilli garlic sauce) on top along with add vinegar & sugar. Toss everything quickly for couple minutes so that the fried chicken is coated nicely. Serve right away with lemons and sliced onions!
Storage and Reheating
- Store leftovers for 1 day refrigerated in an air tight container. You can heat up in microwave.
Video
Notes
- Don't add very sour or too watery yogurt else the marinade will be runny and you will have to add a lot of rice + corn flour, this takes away the actual taste of the dish.
- If desired, you can add few finely chopped curry leaves while marinating.
- While frying, don't add a large quantity of oil since you cannot re use the oil. It gets flavored with spices by the end of deep frying chicken and you simply have to discard it.
Nutrition
Calories: 531kcalCarbohydrates: 14gProtein: 26gFat: 41gSaturated Fat: 4gPolyunsaturated Fat: 11gMonounsaturated Fat: 24gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 121mgSodium: 862mgPotassium: 381mgFiber: 2gSugar: 2gVitamin A: 532IUVitamin C: 66mgCalcium: 56mgIron: 1mg
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