- Dipesh Shinde, head chef at Kanyakumari in NYC, shared his tips for making Indian fried chicken.
- He said selecting the right cut of chicken and marinating the meat twice is vital.
- In this recipe, traditional white flour is replaced by crunchy and coarse rice flour.
Raised in the embrace of the Arabian Sea in Mandad, a tiny coastal village about three hours from Mumbai, chef Dipesh Shinde’s love for seafood was practically woven into his childhood.
“Every Sunday, my friends and I would go fishing together, then come back and cook what we caught,” said Shinde, now the head chef at two popular Indian restaurants in New York City: Kebab aur Sharab and, more recently, Kanyakumari.
Shinde crafted a menu inspired by his travels along India’s vast western coastline to share his passion for the country’s coastal cuisine, a style still waiting for recognition on the global stage.
“On my journey, I made several stops in cities along the coast, eating at hyperlocal, beloved joints,” Shinde told Business Insider.
“Those experiences, from tiny pockets of India, are what I hope[d] to bring back to New York’s vibrant dining scene,” he added.
One such item on Kanyakumari’s menu is Hira Anna’s fried chicken.
In the US, fried chicken often falls into a handful of recognizable categories: Southern-style, where buttermilk-marinated pieces are dipped in seasoned flour and fried; Korean-style, known for its thin, ultra-crisp coating and a signature sticky glaze; and Japanese karaage.
But in India, there are further, diverse approaches to fried chicken.
There’s the halal fried chicken that’s sometimes cooked whole and found at tiny street-side stalls in Delhi. In Mumbai and Kolkata, cubes of chicken are dipped in chickpea-flour batter and fried into irregular, crispy chunks to make pakoras, while chicken 65, chili chicken, and chicken lollipops remain beloved staples of Indian-Chinese cuisine.
Ultimately, Indian-style fried chicken focuses on spices and textures that set Hira Anna’s fried chicken apart from other offerings in New York City.
Visually it’s different, too: Instead of large pieces, this fried chicken is served as thin, rusty golden, two-bite-sized strips strewn with bits of fried garlic, slices of beet, and crispy curry leaves.
Business Insider spoke to Shinde to ask for advice on recreating his fried chicken at home. The interview was conducted, via video call, in Hindi and has been translated.
Here are his top 10 tips for making the perfect Indian fried chicken.
