Chicken Bonda Trail Fritters
Deep-fried spiced chicken fritters, rebuilt around a canned chicken and gram flour that both keep in a pack.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 95
- protein
- 28 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 45 min
- water
- 120 ml cold
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Snack
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Dairy free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Canned chicken | 3 cans, 5 oz each | drained hard; the original uses fresh minced chicken |
|---|---|---|
| Gram flour (besan) | 1 1/4 cups | 1 cup for the batter, 1/4 cup into the filling |
| Roasted gram (pottukadalai) | 1/2 cup | ground to powder at home |
| Dried shredded coconut | 1/4 cup | |
| Dried minced onion | 3 tbsp | stands in for sambar onions |
| Garlic powder | 2 tsp | |
| Ginger powder | 1 tsp | |
| Turmeric | 1/2 tsp | |
| Red chilli powder | 1 tsp | |
| Garam masala | 1 tsp | |
| Fennel seed (saunf) | 1 tsp | crushed |
| Cracked black peppercorns | 1 tsp | |
| Dried curry leaves | 2 tbsp | crumbled |
| Dried coriander leaf | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Cooking oil | 2 cups | for shallow frying; a small bottle of neutral oil |
Method
- Tip the filling premix into a pot and add about 60 ml of cold water, a splash at a time. Stop when it presses into a ball that holds and does not slick your palm.
- Let it sit ten minutes while the dried onion and coconut soak up the rest of the moisture. Add more ground roasted gram if it stays loose.
- Roll into walnut-sized balls with damp hands. Set them on a clean bag or plate.
- Whisk the batter premix with about 60 ml of water to the thickness of pancake batter.
- Pour oil about an inch deep into the pot and heat over a moderate flame. A drop of batter should sizzle and rise, not scorch.
- Dip each ball, let the excess run off, and lower it in. Four or five at a time, no more, or the oil cools and they soak.
- Turn until evenly browned, four to five minutes. Lift out onto a paper towel or bandana.
- Fry one first and taste it. Adjust salt and chilli in the remaining filling before you shape the rest.
This started as a fried tea-time snack and it survives the move to camp because nothing in it needs a fridge. Canned chicken replaces fresh mince, dried onion and powdered aromatics replace the fresh shallot, ginger, and garlic, and the roasted gram does exactly what it did at home: it drinks up moisture and binds the filling so no egg or breadcrumb is required.
The two failure modes are both about water. Filling that is too wet slumps off the ball and into the oil; batter that is too thin slides away and leaves you frying bare chicken. Add water in splashes, not pours. Keep the oil at a steady moderate heat and fry in small batches, because a crowded pot drops the temperature and the coating turns greasy instead of crisp. This is a car-camp or basecamp job — you are carrying two cups of oil and dealing with it afterward.
Packing
Two bags. Bag one: ground roasted gram, 1/4 cup gram flour, coconut, dried onion, and all the spices and dried leaves. Bag two: 1 cup gram flour with a pinch of salt for the batter. Cans and the oil bottle ride upright.
Variations
- Skip the frying and press the filling into patties, then pan-fry them in a couple tablespoons of oil. Uses a tenth of the oil and travels better on foot.
- Foil-packet pouch chicken instead of cans saves most of the packed weight.
- A packet of coconut milk powder mixed with water makes a passable chutney to dip them in.
https://www.awesomecuisine.com/recipes/17961/chicken-bonda