Papri Chat or Papri Chaat is a famous North Indian street food. Papri are flaky crackers that you can serve with yogurt, green chutney, red chutney, spiced potatoes and few other elements. It's a delicious dish that is little sweet, little spicy and have different textures.
What is Chaat ?
Chaat or Chat is a family of savory snacks that is originated in India. There are various different kinds of chaat you can find in India. There is always one base ingredients like flaky crackers, chickpea, potatoes, etc. You add yogurt along with green and red chutney for the sweet and savory taste.
Everything combined with few other ingredients like raw onion, sev, cucumber, pomegranate etc. makes every bite moreish and finger licking good.
In India, you can find chaat on road side stalls, and small restaurants. Some big restaurants have now started to serve chaat in gourmet style too.
Papri Chaat Ingredient Notes:
Papri - Savory flaky crackers prepared with all purpose flour. It is easy to make at home but also available in Indian store in snack sections.
Substitute: if you absolutely cannot find these savory crackers, try the same dish using tortilla chips or any savory flaky crackers.
Boiled Potatoes: You can either roughly mash the boiled potatoes or slice into bite size and seasoned with chaat masala, chili powder and salt. You can use boiled chickpeas too.
Yogurt: You season yogurt with cumin powder, salt and sugar.
Green Chutney and Red Chutney: These two chutneys are a must in every chaat. Green chutney is prepared with a mix of fresh mint and fresh cilantro leaves. Red Chutney is prepared with tamarind and dates.
Raw Onion, Cucumber, Tomatoes, pomegranate: You add these on top for refreshing crunchy bites. In this recipe, I added onion, cucumber and pomegranate, but you can add tomatoes too.
Sev: Sev is another famous snack that is prepared with chickpea flour. Sev are tiny stands of noodles, and you can find various different ones in the store. For chaat, I like to use the very thin variety.
Spices: Cumin Powder, Chili Powder, Chaat Masala
Steps to prepare Papri Chat
You can serve Papri Chaat is two different ways. You can either serve the elements separately and let people top everything on the papri. Or layer the different elements in a serving plate and then use it as a dip with papri.
I prefer the dip serving, as that way, you can even spoon the layers dips straight on the papri individually.
1: In a serving plate add the thick plain yogurt along with cumin powder, salt and sugar. Whisk and spread it evenly on the plate.
2: Drizzle the green and red chutney on top.
3: Top it with mashed or bite size boiled potatoes seasoned with chaat masala, salt and chili powder.
4. Add chopped cucumber, onion. You can add tomatoes too.
5: Sprinkle chaat masala, pomegranate seeds and sev.
6: Serve it as a dip.
7. Serve in individual papris.
Recipe Video:
Variations to add:
Finding papri can be difficult if you don't have any Indian store nearby. A good variations would be to use crunchy tortilla chips, or any savory crackers.
You can add boiled chickpeas instead of boiled potatoes.
Couple keynotes:
If you are using cucumber and tomato, make sure it doesn't have seeds, as that will release water, spoiling the creamy texture of the yogurt potato dip.
If you are making this in advance, make sure you add the sev just before serving.
FAQs
Papri is made of all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, seasoned with carom seeds and cumin seeds. The dough is kept tight and flaky by adding oil or ghee. Then it's rolled and deep fried.
Papri Chat tastes best when made fresh. You can make a few hours in advance, but wouldn't recommend making it a day in advance, as the yogurt and chopped veggies will release water with time. You can prep all the elements a day in advance and store in the fridge.
If you eat in small portion and don't indulge very regularly, then it's fine. The crackers are deep fried, but you can make at home and air fry. Instead of adding potatoes you can add boiled chickpeas, you can reduce the carb intake.
Here are few Indian street food to try:
Recipe inspired from The Global Vegetarian
Papri Chaat
Ingredients
- 2 large size potatoes
- 3 cups thick plain yogurt
- papris
- 1 small onion (finely chopped)
- 1 small cucumber (finely chopped)
- green chutney and red chutney (recipe link in notes below)
- sev to drizzle on top
- pomegranate
- 3 tablespoon chaat masala powder
- 1 tablespoon cumin powder
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ½ tablespoon chili powder
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Boil or steam the potatoes and once cooled, roughly mash the potatoes or slice into small bite size. Sprinkle 2 tablespoons chaat masala, salt and chili powder and mix it around.
- In a serving bowl, add the yogurt, cumin powder, sugar and salt to taste. Whisk and layer it on the serving plate.
- Drizzle the green and red chutney on top.
- Scatter the seasoned potatoes on top, followed by chopped onion and chopped cucumber.
- Sprinkle a bit more chaat masala on top, pomegranate seeds and crunchy sev.
- Enjoy with papris.
Sanjeeta kk
Wonderful job, Kankana! Love the presentation and the recipe.
Kiran @ KiranTarun.com
Love love love papri chaat. You know, my first taste of chaat was after my marriage. Not joking 😉
Neha
Hi...First time on your blog....Papri chaat looks awesome...Very nice clicks...Happy to join you dear...Do visit me at https://www.whiskaffair.com/
Cheers
Neha
Pia
Just hopped over from shulie's to say just how wonderful this post is! It's full of the colours and flavours of Indian streets, which I miss very much. Loved the from-scratch recipe, and love your blog. It's a beautiful space.
sally
Yummy! I'm ready for some papri chat and it is only breakfast time here.
Joanne
I love discovering new street foods from around the world! these look like such tasty little bites!
Spandana
What lovely clicks...they look so tempting....i am drooling over the pics 🙂
Sissi
Congratulations on your guest post and congratulations on the Papri Chat! I admit I have just discovered their existence while reading your post, but they look so yummy I am sure they were perfect. Now off to Shulie's blog to se the details and discover a new great blog!
Sweet Artichoke
Oh my! It is breakfast time here and I now crave for chaat papri! They look absolutely perfect. The close-up pic is awesome!
P.S. Glad to know another person doing the happy dance after successfully preparing food!! LOL
khushi
lovely recipe...do visit the ongoing event and send us some beautiful recipes of yours 🙂
A Girl's Diary
Event:
What's On Your Kebab Platter
Rosa
A great guest post and recipe! I loved them.
Cheers,
Rosa
Shinta
Wow, my mouth is watering just looking at the pictures. Missing all the street food back home, so this is a great option to try out. I'm bookmarking your recipe right away!
Ana Eugenio
Hi Kankana 🙂 what an amazing blog! and you say you're not professional!!? the photos are yummy 🙂 congrats
peachkins
I love the different sauces!
Reem
Kankana this recipe reminds me of home....endless papris and pani puris.... Your post is making me drool girl. Love it.. it's pretty late in night and I'm hungry again.
Vimitha
Anything chaat is me and mom's favie. urs look so inviting. Will try it out soon
Roxana GreenGirl
I have never heard of papri chaat before but I'm so happy you two decided to feature these delicious street treats today. Sounds like a delicious go-to snack.
I can only imagine how happy you must have been with a success after a couple of failures. I know I would.
Thanks for sharing.
Nami | Just One Cookbook
I have never heard of Papri Chaat and I already know that I'm missing out something really delicious! I'm going to check out Shulie's website now. Kankana, I can imagine how happy you were when you tried many times and finally succeeded it. Congrats on finishing this recipe with perfection! 🙂
Manu
Oh my!!! I love papri chaat!!! What mouth watering pictures you have here! I am off to check out the recipe... can't wait!!! 🙂
foodwanderings
Kankana, so happe to have you guest for me on my site you did such a fantastic job with this papro chaat recipe and photogrpahy. The honor is entirely mine!! You are so humble and that is what I love about you!