Paneer pakora is a popular evening snack from North Indian cuisine. It is made by batter frying Indian cottage cheese aka paneer. These turn out delicious and mildly spicy. Paneer pakora are usually served with green chutney or red chilli chutney.
Recipe Snapshot
- Prep time: 3 minutes
- Cook time: 12 minutes
- Total time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 4
- Category: Snack
- Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients
- 200 grams paneer (cut to desired sizes)
- ¼ tsp red chili powder (or pepper powder as needed)
- ½ tsp chaat masala
- ½ tsp garam masala
- Oil for deep frying
- ½ cup besan (or gram flour)
- 2 tbsps rice flour (or corn starch or corn flour (to make crispy, optional))
- ¼ tsp red chili powder (or pepper powder as needed)
- Salt as needed
- ¾ to 1 tsp ajwain (or carom seeds)
- 1 tsp ginger green chilli paste (Or crushed ginger & 1 green chilli paste)
- Water as needed (to make the batter)
Method
Preparation
- Cut paneer to desired sizes.
- Sprinkle red chilli powder, garam masala and chaat masala.
- Toss them well in the bowl. Set this aside.
How to Make Paneer Pakora
- Heat oil in a deep kadai on a medium heat.
- Add besan, rice flour, salt, ajwain, red chilli powder, ginger chilli paste to a bowl.
- Pour water just enough to make a thick but free flowing batter.
- When the oil is hot enough, dip each paneer piece in the batter, swipe off the excess dripping batter.
- Gently slide to the hot oil. You can use your fingers or a table spoon to do this.
- Do not disturb them for about a minute.
- Gently keep stirring & flipping to fry evenly until they turn golden.
- Drain them to a colander. Sprinkle some chaat masala.
- Serve paneer pakora hot with chutney or a cup of tea.
Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note
Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.