It was in 1975 Mumbai restaurateur Nelson Wang, an Indian Chinese invented chicken manchurian , keeping in mind local preferences. He covered the chicken in corn flour, deep fried it, tossed in ginger garlic, soy sauce and some other condiments. What he got at the end could have been described as a spicy corn flour covered chicken pakoda. To give it a Chinese name he called it ‘chicken manchurian’ but it had nothing to do with the region of China called Manchuria.

Manchuria is a remote part of China inhabited by the Manchus. It is bordered by Mongolia and North Korea and the inhabitants where considered by majority Han Chinese as putting it politely ‘provincial’ or ‘junglee’. Since the dish was to spicy and hot to suit the taste of Chinese, Nelson Wang called it manchurian or junglee chicken.