Aloo tikki is a popular Indian Street food. Infact Tikki chaat is something that you’ll see in every city of India, how ever big or small.
Indian street food is huge. It has so much to offer. Samosa, vada-pav, pav-bhaji, chole-bhature, chaat, tikki; the list is almost unending. And among all these amazing Indian Street food, the favorite of all is, I guess, Chaat. Now, chaat refers to quite a wide variety of items. Papdi chaat, Aloo tikki chaat, palak patta chaat, dahi bhalla chaat, sev puri chaat ; wow…I am drooling just by the mention of these names!! 😀
What is Aloo tikki?
Aloo tikki is boiled and mashed, spiced potato patties, eaten with a variety of chutneys or dips. It can be made as a party snack or as a aloo tikki chaat. The main ingredient, as quite evident is aloo (potato).
Aloo tikki chaat is made in many different ways across the country. In some places, you’ll find just the humble, boiled potatoes, made into a crispy aloo tikki, and at some other places you’ll find it stuffed with paneer (Indian cottage cheese), dal (lentils), like chana dal (split chickpeas) or dhuli moong dal (split mung bean dal).
Whatever be the ingredient in Aloo tikki, there’s one thing common among this street food, wherever you eat it, and that’s the crunchy outer cover. This is a kind of trade mark of a proper street style Aloo tikki. And to get this crispness on tikkis at home, is just so difficult. That’s why most poeple, including me, love to eat these aloo tikkis from a street stall rather than making at home. But for me not anymore!!
As we all know, that these street food stalls are not hygienic, so I had to try making these at home. It was all the more important for me because Aloo tikki is my favorite street food. Even my kids have now started liking chaat and tikkis, so I just couldn’t let them have it from such food stalls, all the time. And hence, I started my trials to make absolutely crispy Aloo tikki at home. And boy, I have never been so happy to say that ,”yay, I did make a super crispy aloo tikki at home”.
Important Tips for crispy Aloo Tikki
There are a few points to keep in mind, to make a perfect, super crunchy, street style Aloo tikki.
POTATO – When we boil potatoes, take them out of the hot water as soon as you can. This will prevent them from absorbing any water. Also make sure they are cooled down properly, before you start mashing them. Any heat in potatoes will make them release moisture and thus make tikki very soggy and not crunchy at all.
POHA AND CORN STARCH – Poha (beaten/flattened rice) and corn starch (corn flour) are simply great things to be added to the boiled potatoes to make a wonderful dough for aloo tikki. Poha and corn flour helps in reducing the moisture content from the boiled potatoes and thus makes the potato dough stiff and dry.
SALT – Some poeple do not add salt in the potato dough mixture, as it might make potatoes release moisture. But I do add some salt in the dough made of boiled, mashed potatoes, soaked poha and corn starch. The important thing to note here is , when to add salt. Now, as I mentioned above, that potatoes need to be completely cooled down, before you mash them. Because, if we mash still hot potatoes and then add salt to it, immediately the potatoes will get a lot of moisture, which is not at all good for a crispy aloo tikki. So do add the salt, making sure the potatoes have completely cooled down and do not contain any moisture.
FILLING – Aloo tikki can be made in two ways; with or without any filling. I made aloo tikki with the filling of par-boiled and spiced chana dal (split chickpeas).
FRYING – Aloo tikkis can be deep fried or shallow fried in Ghee or oil. I have shallow fried them in ghee. The tikkis are first fried over a low to medium heat, just to form a crust on the outer side. After this stage, you can keep the tikkis separately until you have to serve them. Later, just before serving they are fried again and this time on a high flame. I do this when I have to serve them for parties, but for making them at home, I do not fry them twice. Instead, I first fry them on a low medium flame and then on a high flame to get super crunchy aloo tikki.
Some other interesting recipes;
- Crunchy, market style, Samosa recipe
- Best Pav Bhaji recipe
- Delicious Soya Kebab recipe
- Pani puri recipe
- Dhokla (easy and spongy)recipe
- Mint chutney (3 ways mint dips)
Filling for Aloo Tikki
For the filling of Aloo tikki, I have used chana dal (split chickpeas). To prepare the filling,
- Par-boil the chana dal(split chickpeas). For this, I have pressure cooked the dal till 2-3 whistles. Do not boil the dal completely or else the water content in it will spoil the tikki. After boiling them, do not leave the dal in the cooker. Drain it immediately.
- Let the dal cool down completely. Then press with hands only and crush it coarsely.
- To this, add salt, roasted jeera powder (cumin) and roasted saunf (fennel seed) powder. I like to use these two as coarsely crushed.
- You may add red chillies, chopped green chillies and garam masala. I like to keep it less spicy and add chillies in garnishing only.
Serving Options
Aloo tikki is definitely an amazing street food, but it is also a great snack that can be served in parties.
1.Aloo Tikki Chaat – You can serve aloo tikki or aloo patties with curd and a large variety of Indian dips; like pudina chutney (mint dip), coriander chutney, imli chutney (sweet and sour dip), amchoor chutney (dry mango powder dip) etc. Along with the dips, you can add chopped onions, coriander, pomegranate seeds and some sev. Some also like to eat it with choley added on the tikki. The choice is totally yours. Do write to me in the comments section if you would like to know the choley recipe for aloo tikki.
2. Aloo tikki snack – To serve aloo tikki as a snack you can make them in small size. You can choose to add the filling in them or just make them without any filling. Serve these with some interesting dips and they are good to go as finger snacks.
Recipe Video of Aloo Tikki
Ingredients
Aloo Tikki
- Potatoes – 4 medium, boiled and mashed nicely
- Poha (Beaten rice) – 1/2 cup , soaked
- Corn Flour – 4 tbsp
- Salt as per taste
- Chana dal filling – as made above
- Ghee for shallow fry
For Serving (Garnish)
- Onion – 1 medium , julienne (thinly sliced)
- Green chillies – 2, Finely chopped
- Sev – 1/2 cup or as reqd
- Curd – 1 cup, whisked, sugar and salt added
- Green Chutney – Mint or coriander chutney (dip), as reqd
- Red chutney – Sweet and sour imli chutney, as reqd
- Roasted jeera (cimun) powder – as reqd
- Chat masala – As reqd
- Red chilli powder – as reqd
- Salt as per taste
- Chopped coriander – as reqd (due to lockdown, I did not have it so not added here)
Method
1.Take boiled and mashed potatoes, soaked poha, corn flour and salt.
2. Mix everything and make a soft dough, just like we make the chapati dough.
3. You may use 1 or 2 drops of oil to make this dough, as it gets very sticky. But try to avoid using it, if you can.
4. Make equal size balls from this potato dough. Here also use a drop of oil, if the dough gets very sticky.
5. Now take one potato dough ball and flatten it carefully, by pressing it lightly using your thumb and fingers. Make some space in the center, just like we make while making stuffed parathas.
6. Stuff the chana dal filling in the center of the potato dough and close it carefully. Shape it round and flat like aloo tikki.
7. Prepare all tikkis like this and keep aside.
8. Now take 4-5 tbsp ghee in a pan and heat it. Add tikkis and shallow fry them.
9. Flip the tikkis, when the first side has formed its crust. Likewise keep flipping the tikkis and fry them till crisp from both sides.
10. Once done, take them out in a plate.
11. For serving them, break one tikki from the center.
12. Put curd, green chutney and red chutney on it.
13. Add sliced onions and chopped green chillies.
14. Sprinkle salt and spices as per your taste.
15. Again pour some curd and spices for a beautiful color on tikki. Add sev for that extra crunchiness.
16. Serve hot and enjoy.
The Aloo tikki, thus made comes out super crunchy and totally yummy. As I do not add any hot spices in tikki itself, so my kids just enjoy them as a snack. Hence, I strongly recommend not to add any hot spices or chillies in the tikkis because they can always be added later as garnish on top, while serving. This way you can customise Aloo tikki as per the requirement of your guests or family.
Try this amazing Street style Aloo tikki at home and do write to me in comments and let me know how you enjoyed it. I regularly share my culinary experiences and experiments in kitchen on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Follow me there to get my food stories, “from my palate to yours”. Also subscribe to my blog and get the free, easy and delicious recipes, delivered right in your inbox.
Thank you!
Ah ha very perfect wali aloo ki tikki serving ka style bhi super hai
thank you so much for your appreciation
Amazing will definitely try this as whenever I hv tried it always becomes soggy .
thank you so much.
Do let me know how it turned out
Hmmm really gud wali tikki ..
Street style..
Mouth watering dear😋
Cnt control 😂
Absolutely lip-smacking!!
Do try it out!
And many thanks!
Never added poha.. Nxt time will Def try it
Yes, adding Poha gives it a dry texture and hence the crispness!
Thank you!!
Looks,awesome. Will try today . any alternate to cornflour
Hi Neha,
Thank you…you can use rice flour in place of cornflour.