Chaat Tikki

Chaat Tikki aka Chole Tikki Chaat is a popular street food from North India. It’s a delicious snack-meal loaded with plenty of flavors and textures. If you are a Indian food lover, you got to taste this at least once!

Chaat Tikki consists of super tasty flavored chole (chickpeas), served with crisp pan-fried potato patties, tamarind chutney and green chutney. It is garnished with grated radish, pomegranate arils, onions & coriander leaves. This makes a perfect party snack and a filling meal.

There are 3 main components in this recipe. First one is making the chole, second is making the tikkis and the last one is assembling the chole tikki chaat with the chutneys.

About Chaat Tikki

I have shown a one pot chole that can be made in a pressure cooker or in a pot. Street style chole/ chickpeas that’s served with a chaat like this one or the samosa chaat usually does not use onions or tomatoes. So that makes this simpler. You will only cook the chickpeas with spices and finish with tamarind or tamarind chutney.

Next is to boil the potatoes perfectly without overcooking them. Grate or mash them & mix with spices to form the patties. Pan-fry or air fry them until crisp. I have the instructions for both.

Lastly you will assemble the yummy meal. The street style vendors usually lay down the tikkis in the serving plate and spoon the chole over them, followed by the coriander chutney and tamarind chutney. However if you are like us who prefer to retain the crispness of the tikkis, you may place them over the chole and garnish before you dig into it.

Grated daikon/radish is used as one of the toppings along with raw onions, chaat masala and roasted cumin powder. However I used sev and pomegranate arils because my family is not a fan of raw daikon. But these are completely optional. I have not used yogurt but if you want you may use while plating.

If you are making this for a party, you can make the chole 2 to 3 days ahead and reheat it well until very hot. You can also make the tamarind chutney ahead and refrigerate it for a few months. I prefer to make the green chutney on the day of serving because it will oxidize and discolor.

But you can make it one to 2 days ahead and stir in a bit of yogurt before serving. This brightens it a bit.

Photo Guide

Step by step instructions

Preparation

1. To cook the chickpeas/chole, you need the following:

• 1¼ cup chole (chana/ dry chickpeas soaked overnight or use canned)
• 1 tablespoon ghee or oil, 1 Indian bay leaf, 1 black cardamom
• 1 inch ginger grated or minced
• 2 to 3 large garlic cloves minced or pressed to make 1 tablespoon
• 1 green chili chopped (omit for low heat/ for kids)
• ¾ teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 tablespoon coriander powder
• ¾ teaspoon cumin powder
• ¾ teaspoon fennel seeds (crushed coarsely or use fennel powder)
• ½ teaspoon sea salt (adjust to taste)
• ¾ teaspoon black salt (kala namak)
• 1 tablespoon tamarind paste (or use sweet tamarind chutney as required)
• 1 tablespoon jaggery (omit if using tamarind chutney)
• 1 tablespoon kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves)

2. Heat ghee or oil in the pressure cooker or pot. Add the whole spices – bay leaf and black cardamom to one side of the pot. Add ginger garlic and green chili to the other side.

3. Saute for 1 min without burning. Add the soaked chickpeas, red chili powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric, crushed fennel and salt.

4. Pour 1 cup water and mix well. Secure the instant pot with the lid and position the steam valve to sealing. Pressure cook for 18 mins.

To cook in a regular pot: Drain the liquid from the canned chickpeas and rinse them well. Add the chickpeas and 3/4 cup water. Bring to a rolling boil, reduce to medium flame and simmer for 10 mins.

5. When the pressure drops (about 10 to 15 mins), open the lid and take 1/4 cup chickpeas to a small bowl and mash them very well until smooth with a masher or a fork. Add the mash to the chickpeas along with tamarind paste & jaggery or tamarind chutney and black salt.

6. If you find your pot is too dry, add little water. Mix and cook on saute mode for 3 to 4 mins until you have a thick masala. Add kasuri methi and coriander leaves. Taste test and adjust salt, garam masala and tamarind at this stage.

Important: I always feel mashing/grinding little chickpeas, adding little water and simmering them gave better results and prevented the chole from being too dry (at the time of serving). This way you will have some wet masala coated over the chickpeas (see the pic below).

Make the Tikki

7. For the tikkis, you will boil 1 pound (450 grams) potatoes (like Russet or Yukon gold) in 3 to 4 cups water, until fork tender, not mushy. It should take about 20 mins, depending on the size. Cool down after that. I pressure cooked my potatoes whole in a 3 qt Instant pot for 10 mins. The timings may vary depending on the size of your potatoes. I also made the tamarind chutney at the same time in the instant pot.

8. While the potatoes boil, prep up the following to assemble your tikki chaat.

• ½ cup onions fine chopped
• ½ cup coriander leaves chopped
• ¾ cup tamarind chutney
• ½ cup coriander chutney (or green chutney)
• ¼ cup grated radish (I used nylon sev)
• 1 teaspoon chaat masala (optional) & ½ cup pomegranate arils (optional)

Taste test your chutneys to adjust salt and spice before plating.

9. Grate the potatoes once they cool down and add the following ingredients:

• ¾ teaspoon garam masala (omit if you don’t like)
• 1 teaspoon chaat masala
• ½ to ¾ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 green chili chopped or ½ teaspoon red chili flakes
• ¾ to 1 tablespoon ginger (grated or 1 teaspoon paste)
• 2 tablespoons coriander leaves
• You may need about ½ cup bread crumbs or powdered poha. Start with ¼ cup and add more as needed while you mix. I had to use up half cup powdered poha. You may need less if your boiled potatoes are dry (depends on the kind of potatoes). Or/ Alternately use 2 tablespoons corn starch & ¼ cup bread crumbs if you want to deep fry.

10. Mix well and taste test to adjust the spices. Divide the mixture to 8 portions and roll to balls. Place them on a parchment paper, placed over the kitchen counter. Flatten them slightly to make thick or thin patties. I made mine thin (about 3 inches in diameter). If you are deep/shallow frying you may flatten them on your palms.

11. Option 1 – Pan- fry: Heat 2 tablespoon oil in a non stick pan. When the oil is hot, place each tikkis and let fry on a medium high heat, until golden. Turn them to the other side. If your pan is dry, add more oil and fry until crisp. (Takes about 5 mins on each side). You may fry them in batches.

12. Option 2 – To air fry, brush each tikki generously with ghee or oil. Air fry them at 180 C (350 F) for 10 mins. Turn them to the other side and repeat for another 8 minutes. Adjust the timings depending on the model/ brand of air fryer.

Assemble Chaat Tikki

13. Mix the chole well and divide among 4 serving plates. Place 2 tikkis over the chickpeas. (If you want you can also do it vice versa, like the street style)

Pour 1 to 2 tablespoons tamarind chutney and 1 to 2 tablespoon green chutney all over the chole and the tikki. Top with onions, coriander leaves, grated radish or sev. I also used some pomegranate arils. Sprinkle with chaat masala. Serve Chaat Tikki immediately.

Expert Tips

• Avoid using new potatoes. Yukon gold or russet potatoes are best for making tikkis else you may end up with sticky and gooey texture inside.
• For best results, boil potatoes whole. Diced and peeled potatoes often overcook and get waterlogged which are not good to make patties.
• The version I have shared in the pictures and recipe is for pan frying and air frying the tikkis. If you want to deep fry them, it is essential to use corn starch or a combination of starch and bread crumbs else they will disintegrate in the oil.
• I prefer to use powered organic poha. Powder half cup poha in a grinder to a fine powder. It soaks up moisture better than bread crumbs and helps in binding. Start with lesser amounts and add more as you mix. Adding too much can make the mixture too dry.
• If you want you may substitute all the ground spices with chole masala.

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