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Fried Chicken

Recipes: The Best Snacks To Make For Weekend Bingeing

Fried chicken may look like a single dish, but it’s a whole category of crunchy, crispy goodness. From spicy delights like the Chicken 65 recipe to the glazed goodness of Korean Fried Chicken, the smooth mouthfeel of chicken nuggets, and the crunchiest of them all, chicken popcorn, fried chicken recipes are a medley of flavours. Add weekend and that indescribable need for fried food in monsoons to the mix, and the cravings are almost expected! Here are fried chicken snack recipes that you can try making at home. 

An OG in the space of fried Indian snacks (and popular across South Asia, from Nepal to Bangladesh), the Chicken Pakora recipe is easy enough to follow and guarantees goodness. Simply marinate chicken pieces with ginger-garlic paste, chilli powder, salt, and a little lemon juice. Coat with gram flour and rice flour, then deep-fry until crisp and golden. Sprinkle chaat masala on top for extra flavour and serve hot with mint chutney.

A quintessentially Indian dish that was created in Chennai (Hotel Buhari, to be exact), Chicken 65 is on the spicier side, so keep your glass of cola or iced tea ready when you munch into these. The chicken 65 recipe asks for boneless chicken. Marinate it with yoghurt, ginger-garlic paste, red chilli powder, and spices. Coat lightly with cornflour and fry until crispy. Toss with curry leaves (which gives it the signature flavour and aroma associated with other South Indian dishes) and green chillies before serving.

You can’t talk about fried chicken recipes and not include nuggets in the list. Without a doubt, one of the most popular American fast food dishes, the chicken nuggets recipe, has also made its way to Indian homes. To make it from scratch, combine minced chicken with seasonings and shape into bite-sized nuggets. Then coat them in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs, and deep-fry until crisp outside and cooked through inside. For a quicker fix, you can even use frozen chicken nuggets. They’re just as crunchy and get ready in minutes! 

Now, first things first, the chicken lollipop recipe can be a little trickier than the nuggets and pakoras because it requires a little extra prep. Essentially, chicken lollipops are chicken wings that have been shaped to resemble a large lollipop, with the meat gathered at one end of the bone. The shaping takes considerably more skill than the frying. But once you’ve got that sorted, the rest is standard. Marinate chicken lollipops with ginger-garlic paste, chilli powder, pepper, and salt. Coat with flour and cornflour batter, then deep-fry until golden and crunchy. Serve them while they’re hot, ideally with a sweet and spicy dip.

A classic Indo-Chinese snack, the Chicken Spring Roll recipe is for those who need veggies in their fried chicken (it’s okay, no judgment here!). For this, you first need to cook the filling (a savoury, spiced chicken and vegetable filling made with minced or finely shredded chicken and sliced vegetables) in aromatics. Let it cook before adding a small amount to a spring roll sheet. Roll tightly, seal the edges with a flour-and-water paste, and deep-fry in neutral oil until golden brown.

The most beginner-friendly option on the list, the chicken popcorn recipe is also the fastest way to get your hands on fried chicken. The chicken is cut into small pieces, which cook quickly, and the recipe doesn't require shaping, wrapping, or preparing a separate sauce. Once marinated with spices and coated with seasoned flour or breadcrumbs, the pieces can be fried in just a few minutes. Alternatively, you can keep a bag of frozen chicken popcorn in the freezer and just fry them before serving. This is especially handy if you’ve got a big crowd and need variety, or guests drop in at the last minute. 

At one point, K K K… in India led to Kiran (IYKYK). Today, it leads to K-drama, K-pop, and Korean Fried Chicken! What sets it apart from the others on this list is its signature crunch and glossy sauce coating. The recipe typically involves coating chicken pieces in a light flour or starch mixture and frying them twice for extra crispiness. The chicken is then tossed in a sweet-spicy sauce made with gochujang, garlic, soy sauce, and honey. The result is crispy, sticky, sweet, spicy, and completely addictive.

Probably the heartiest dish on the list, the chicken cutlet recipe is a classic. Unlike nuggets or popcorn chicken, cutlets combine chicken with other ingredients to create a softer interior and a crisp outer shell. To make them, mix shredded cooked chicken with mashed potatoes, onions, herbs, and spices. Shape the mixture into patties, coat with breadcrumbs, and shallow- or deep-fry until golden brown on both sides. Serve them with a simple salad, ketchup, and mayo dip.

Did you know the oldest documented cases of fried food date back to Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia between 2500 BCE and 3500 BCE? Clearly, the hankering for fried food is almost biological at this point. And if that fried food includes fried chicken recipes, then, in the words of 2000s’ iconic pop star Hilary Duff, “this is what dreams are made of!”