The spiced fritter known as pakora, or [pka], is a native of the Indian subcontinent. In South Asia and the UK, street vendors sell them and serve them in dining establishments. It consists of objects, frequently vegetables like potatoes and onions, that are deep-fried after being covered with seasoned gramme flour batter.

Other spellings of the pakora include pikora, pakoda, and pakodi, as well as local names like bhaji, bhajiya, bora, ponako, and chop. In order to make pakoras, ingredients, mostly vegetables, are covered in a seasoned batter and deep-fried.

Onion, chicken, arbi root and leaves, eggplant, potato, chilli pepper, spinach, paneer, cauliflower, mint, plantain, or baby corn are common ingredients in pakora variants.

The batter is most frequently made with gramme flour or a combination of gramme flour and rice flour, but other flours, like buckwheat flour, can be used in variations. The choice of the cook's spices for the batter may be influenced by regional custom or availability; frequently, fresh and dried spices like coriander, fenugreek, and chillies are used.

According to Monish, Kundan Lal created the chicken pakora in Peshawar in the 1930s. He had the notion to batter-fry a chicken that had been marinated in tandoori chicken spices and serve it as a chicken pakora because his Peshawar restaurant's menu lacked any fried snacks.