Aloo tikki is one of commonly known name in Northern India. These fried potato patties topped with uniquely made chickpea curry and assorted chutneys offers a mouth watering dish, that is difficult to resist from eating. If you been to North of India or even places like Mumbai, you can notice that this tikki chaat or aloo tikki chaat, being sold by Indian road side hand cart vendors (thela). This aloo tikki chaat recipe is sam as how you will find in Delhi.
What is Aloo Tikki
Aloo = Potato in Hindi and Tikki = Patty in hindi. Literal translation of aloo tikki means potato patty. However, it is much more than just potato. In aloo patty, you need to add few other spices in the mashed potato. Subsequently, you need to shallow fry this potato tikki, and top it with special chole (chick pea curry), along with sweet and spicy chutney. The taste of the final product is something which is near impossible to resist.
It is also sometimes referred as ragda patties, especially in Mumbai and Gujrat area of India. Ragda patties and potato tikki chaat are close, but not precisely same.
Ragda Patties vs Aloo Tikki Chaat
Both of these use aloo patties, but then there are differences. Aloo tikki uses chickpea curry, ragda patties can use chickpea curry or dried white pea curry. Ragda patties has sev sprinkled on it, aloo tikki does not have it.
I will still recall my days from childhood, when every outing meant we as family will eat potato tikki or pani puri from road side vendors selling these. Potato tikki and pani puri were and still are the most common street food of India. Potato tikki is not costly to make and hence is very much in reach of a common man in India. Think aloo tikki as “fish and chips” of UK. As much as UK is crazy for fish and chips, North of India is crazy for aloo tikki chaat.
My mum has been a reasonable good cook and this potato aloo tikki chaat recipe is adaptation of her recipe. The very thought of crispy aloo tikki chaat is salivating. If you touring India, especially north, you must not miss this, of course you can give a go to this recipe to get the authentic tikki chaat taste.
Aloo tikki chaat is dream food of a potato lover, especially who loves street food. The crisp layer formed on the potato by frying, topped with yogurt, and combination of sweet as well as spicy chutney is devine!
Ingredients
- Potato : As the name suggests “aloo tikki”, aloo aka potato got to be the key ingredient. To be precise, we need boiled potato here as the idea is to mash the potato and give a patty shape.
- Yogurt : To get the creamy texture and mellow down spice levels.
- Chickpea curry : We need to have boiled chickpeas and make a simply curry from it. This chickpea curry does not need to be like proper chole.
- Cilantro chutney : A spicy green chutney of mint and cilantro to get the tanginess.
- Date Tamarind Chutney : This sweet chutney takes away the spiciness.
- Spices : Spices such as chaat masala, coriander powder, chilli powder, cumin powder, etc adds to the flavours of tikki chaat. Cumin powder also helps in digestion.
Method
As much as I love pani puri, Kapil loves aloo tikki chaat (its my second favourite after pani puri), hence I make this tikki chaat so very often at home. The method to make this chaat is simple though it involves few steps.
For making chole – chickpea curry
- Heat a kadai / pan on medium heat and add asafoetida and cumin seeds. Once they crackle, add chopped onion and sauté till golden brown. Now add all the spices and sauté again for a minute and add chopped tomatoes. Cook them till it starts leaving oil.
- Add boiled chickpeas to the cooked masala and add 1 cup of water. Put the lid on and let it boil on high heat. Once you get the first boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer for 8-10 minutes. Switch off the heat once the Chole gets to thicken. Keep aside and let them cool. Your Chole is ready.
To make aloo tikki / patty
- In a mixing bowl, take mashed potatoes and add all the spices. Mix the potatoes mixture well and divide the mixture into 12 equal portions and make patty out of it.
- Heat an iron tava or skillet on high heat and add oil. Put the tikki gently in the oil. Cook till bottom side is brown and crispy. Once cooked, flip the tikki using spatula and let it get brown other side as well. Shift tikki to the edge of tava so that they remain hot. In case you using a small pan, take them out in a plate and reheat them once again just before serving. Repeat this process for rest of tikki.
For Assembly / Plating
- Place two aloo tikki in a plate and pour 2 tablespoon chole. Spread 2 tablespoon of yogurt and then pour 1 tablespoon each of mint coriander chutney and date tamarind / Imli chutney. Garnish with a sprinkle of chaat Masala and roasted cumin powder.
Pro Tips for Best Aloo Tikki Chaat
- Crispy Tikki – A good aloo tikki needs to have good crispy tikki. You can add corn flour or poha to make aloo tikki crispy. I have not used it. If adding flour or poha, add only a little bit, as you do not want to alter the taste of tikki.
- Art of making tikki – Though tikki is mainly mashed potato, the way you shallow fry them will make them crispy. Do not use low heat, as it will make tikki soak all the oil. Fry on medium to high heat and once tried, more the tikkis to outer edge of the skillet (where low heat) to keep the tikki hot.
- Planning ahead – Aloo tikki chaat, requires few things which you can plan ahead. Boil chickpeas and potatoes before hand. Get your chutneys in place in advance. Prepare chickpea curry in advance too. All that is required then is making fresh tikki and assembling it.
- Use clarified butter or ghee – For the best taste, I will recommend frying tikkis in the ghee. Ghee will make these aloo tikki taste awesome.
- Broken Aloo Tikki or imporper shape of tikki – Do not get bogged down if your aloo tikki is not precisely round or get broken. These patties will be anyways added in chaat and shape is less relevant in aloo tikki chaat.
How to make vegan tikki chaat
My recipe here is largely vegan, except for yogurt. Replace normal yogurt with vegan yogurt and you have vegan aloo tikki chaat ready.
Gluten free Aloo Tikki Chaat
My aloo tikki chaat recipe here is gluten-free, except that I have use asafoetida in chickpea curry. For gluten-free version, please check if asafoetida that you will use is marked gluten-free. You can skip adding asafoetida all together.
This Aloo Tikki Chaat is
- Authentic Delhi style chaat
- A fabulous savoury starter, which is bursting with taste, a true explosion of flavours in the mouth
- One of the best Indian street food
- Absolutely filling, as this chaat contains potatoes and chickpeas, both of these are ingredients which can make one feel full. Uou can use this chaat as a meal on its own.
Serving suggestion
Assemble the tikki chaat using hot potato tikki. This will form a great snack or starter in any event, garnish with chutneys, chaat masala, fresh coriander leaves, pomegranate seeds, beetroot juliennes etc. For the authentic feel, try to get the leaf bowls as shown in pics, that is how it used to be enjoyed in earlier days.
Leftover Tikki
If you have any leftover tikki, you can use that as a patty in the burger bun and eat it.
If you love Indian street food, you may like to try
Recipe Card
Aloo Tikki Chaat
Ingredients
For Chole (Chickpea curry)
- 1 Cup White Chickpeas Boiled
- 1 Onion Medium size, finely chopped
- 1 Tomato Large, finely chopped
- 1/4 Tsp Asafoetida
- 1/2 Tsp Cumin Seeds
- 1/2 Tsp Salt As per taste
- 1 Tsp Coriander Powder
- 1/4 Tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1/3 Tsp Red Chilli Powder
- 1 Tsp Garam Masala Powder
- 1.5 Tbsp Oil
For Aloo Tikki
- 4 Boiled Potatoes Large size, Mashed
- 1 Tsp Chaat Masala
- 1/2 Tsp Red Chilli Powder
- 1 Tsp Coriander Powder
- 1/2 Tsp Roasted cumin powder
- 1/3 Tsp Salt As per taste
- 6 Tbsp Oil
For Assembly
- 1/2 Cup Yogurt Beaten to remove lumps
- 1/2 Cup Mint Coriander Chutney
- 1/2 Cup Date Tamarind Chutney
- 1 Tbsp Chaat Masala
- 1 Tbsp Roasted cumin powder
Instructions
For making chole – chickpea curry
- Heat a kadai / pan on medium heat and add asafoetida and cumin seeds. Once they crackle, add chopped onion and sauté till golden brown. Now add all the spices and sauté again for a minute and add chopped tomatoes. Cook them till it starts leaving oil.
- Add boiled chickpeas to the cooked masala and add 1 cup of water. Put the lid on and let it boil on high heat. Once you get the first boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer for 8-10 minutes. Switch off the heat once the Chole gets to thicken. Keep aside and let them cool. Your Chole is ready. These Chole are different from the "Punjabi Chole", in how its prepared.
For making aloo tikki / patty
- In a mixing bowl, take mashed potatoes and add all the spices. Mix the potatoes mixture well and divide the mixture into 12 equal portions and make patty out of it.
- Heat an iron tava or skillet on high heat and add oil. Put the tikki gently in the oil. Cook till bottom side is brown and crispy. Once cooked, flip the tikki using spatula and let it get brown other side as well. Shift tikki to the edge of tava so that they remain hot. In case you using a small pan, take them out in a plate and reheat them once again just before serving. Repeat this process for rest of tikki.
For Assembly / Plating
- Place two aloo tikki in a plate and pour 2 tablespoon chole. Spread 2 tablespoon of yogurt and then pour 1 tablespoon each of mint coriander chutney and date tamarind / Imli chutney. Garnish with a sprinkle of chaat Masala and roasted cumin powder.
Notes
- I have not added any binding agent to the potato mixture. However if you find any problem in binding the potato mixture, add 1 tablespoon of cornflour / breadcrumbs to it.
- Do not fry aloo tikki on low heat as they will not be as crispy and soak excess oil.
- You can use non stick tava / pan in case you don’t have iron ones. This way tikki will require less amount of oil too.