Aloo Tikki Chaat Recipe is hard to give a miss if you are on a tour to devour Indian Street Food. These simple burger patty like fritters are prepared with mashed potato and subtle seasoning of spices. But when served with flavoured yoghurt and vibrant chutney each bite of aloo tikki is bursting with delectable savour.
Over the years, Chaat has become emblematic of Indian Cuisine. The tour of narrow, hustling bustling bylanes of India, to taste the true flavours served by local food carts is not considered concluded until you dig into a delectable platter of aloo tikki chaat. The plate full of deep fried snacks laced with vivacious colour condiments, some sweet while others spicy, is one of the must try Indian street food fare.
On routine visits to Chaat stall, the colossal and spacious pan of Chaat wala always fascinated me. The hot oil sputtering in that wide pan while he with skilled precision shallow fry so many aloo patties at a time, is always a fascinating watch. As the evening progresses into night, the mob of hungry goblins starts gathering around the Chaat cart. Each gluttonous pair of eyes staring at the sizzling potato patty swimming in the hot oil, waiting zealously for their plate of decked up aloo tikki chaat.
The surface of his aloo ki tikki is perfectly crisp, crunchy, deep golden in colour while the inside layer is a mouth melting mashed potato. But over the years neither admiringly staring at the Chaat vendor’s pan nor gulping plates full aloo tikki chaat helped in replicating the quintessential dish at home. Till one day, when in a hush-hush tone I asked him the secret mantra to make enchanting potato patties at home. Without any apprehensions, with uttermost simplicity, he shared the recipe with me. While he shared the recipe, I was wondering why it took me so many years to have a word with this humble gentleman.
Post the conversation with the Chaat wala, I could not resist from rushing back home and try one’s hand at making crisp aloo ki tikki following his recipe, which I memorized word by word. The end result was way beyond satisfactory. These are so far one of the best aloo tikki I have made at home and trust me, I am not bragging. They are too good to be true! Serve homemade aloo tikki with sweetening yoghurt (dahi), mint chutney, tamarind chutney and a sprinkle of spices.
But that does not mean my visits to his food cart to hog on a plate full of Chaat, are cut down. The pleasure of relishing flavorful Chaat standing by the side of steamy hot griddle on a cold winter evening has its own old fashion charm to it.
TIPS TO MAKE PERFECT ALOO TIKKI:
- Boil potato few hours beforehand or previous day and keep in the fridge. This way you get the perfectly moisture free boiled potatoes to make patties. This trick works for cutlets as well.
- It is always best to grate the boiled potatoes rather than simply mashing. This will help to get a smooth texture of the tikki.
- To handle the potato mixture while shaping the patties dip your fingers in lukewarm water to smoothen the edges and avoid stickiness of the dough.
- While shallow frying does not flip patties again and again. Once crisp and golden brown from one side, flip and cook from the other side. Patience is the key to get perfectly crisp patties. And never ever fry tikki on high heat, a medium-high flame is good enough to cook the aloo patties.
Other Indian Chaat Recipes You Might Like To Try:
How To Make Aloo Tikki Chaat In Few Simple Steps:
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Aloo Tikki Chaat is one of the most popular Indian food recipes. Learn how to make perfect aloo patties at home in few simple steps.
- 4 - 5 medium - size boiled potato
- 1/2 Cup dried white peas (safed matar)
- 1/4 Cup chana dal
- 1 tablespoon cornflour (corn starch)
- Salt to taste
- 1 teaspoon red chili powder
- 1 teaspoon mango powder (amchur)
- 1 teaspoon cumin powder
- a pinch of asafoetida (hing)
- half a bunch of coriander leaves
- Oil for shallow frying
- 1 Cup yoghurt (dahi)
- 1/4 Cup coriander chutney see recipe here
- 1/4 Cup sweet tamarind chutney
- 1 tablespoon bhujia sev
- a pinch of red chili powder
- a pinch of cumin powder (jeera powder)
- a pinch of chaat masala
To prepare the Aloo Tikki Chaat, soak the white peas overnight and next day cook in a pressure cooker along with chana dal and 1 Cup water.
- Transfer cooked peas in a colander to drain excess liquid.
- Meanwhile boil the potato, peel and grate them.
- Mix cornflour in the grated potato, mix to combine and keep in the fridge.
- Next heat a teaspoon of oil in a saute pan. Add asafetida followed by cooked peas, dal, chili powder, mango powder, salt, cumin powder. Stir to combine and fry to next few minutes for flavors to develop well.
- Make sure no excess liquid remain in the mixture. Turn off the heat.
- Let the pea mixture cool down a bit. Once cooled down, pulse it in the food processor or mixer to get a coarse powder. Transfer to a bowl, add chopped coriander leaves and set aside.
- Now to prepare the tikki, heat oil in a frying pan ( buy it here ) over medium heat.
To shape the tikki, take a small portion of mashed potato in between your palms. Roll it and gently flatten it using fingers. If the potato mixture seems sticky, moisten your fingers with water.
- Make a well in the center of the potato ball, fill in half a teaspoon of pea stuffing. Close the edges.
- Gently flatten the tikki once again to get the thickness of an inch or so. Shallow fry in hot oil over medium heat till crisp and golden from both sides.
- While shallow frying keep on gently pressing the tikki to evenly cook from all sides.
- Once cooked transfer to a plate lined with the paper napkin.
To serve Aloo Tikki Chaat, arrange tikki in a plate, add yoghurt, chutney, spices over it.
- Sprinkle bhujia sev, chopped coriander and serve immediately.
Equipment Used: Frying Pan ( buy it here )
3 comments
Those Aloo Tikki’s look delicious! I was looking for more ways to use my dhaniya chutney and imli chutney recipes and I think I will have to give this a try! Your photographs are beautiful by the way! =)
Wow, it seems like you are going to have Chaat party 🙂
Wow…mind boggling description. What is more attactive is the gallery