Papdi Chaat Recipe (Papri Chaat)

Papdi Chaat is a popular Indian chaat snack made with crisp fried puris, sweet sour and spicy chutneys, yogurt and sev. Make your favorite street style yummy chaat at home with my easy recipe! Papdi Chaat is a no cook snack where small crisp fried dics known as papdis are topped with boiled potatoes, thick yogurt, boiled chickpeas or sprouts, delicious green chutney and tamarind chutney. Lastly they are garnished with lots of sev, chaat masala and coriander leaves.

About Papdi Chaat

You will find different versions of papdi chaat, I am sharing the simplest and easy one for making at home. To make papdi chaat, papri/ puri is the main ingredient which can be made at home or store bought. There are so many kinds of papdis available in the market like baked, fried, frozen and ready to fry or bake.

These are either made with plain flour or whole wheat flour/atta. Since making these is a bit of work, I decided to use the store bought ones which were quite good as they were vacuum sealed.

It is mainly the assembling part which I am showing in this post. If you have all the ingredients ready, assembling doesn’t take much time.

If you plan papdi chaat for a party or a get together then all you need is just assemble them. Making any chaat at home is easy, hygienic, healthy and can be made to suit our taste.

More Chaats and street foods
Masala Puri
Sev Puri
Ragda Patties
Misal Pav
Aloo Tikki

Photo Guide

How to Make Papdi Chaat (Stepwise Photos)

Prepare Chutneys

1. To make green chutney, add coriander, mint, garlic, ginger, chili, cumin, salt and lemon juice to a mixer jar along with fried gram. Add water as needed and blend to a fine chutney. You can find the detailed post on green chutney here.

2. To make tamarind chutney, soak tamarind, jaggery and dates if using in hot water. Boil until they soften. Add chili powder, cumin, coriander powder, salt, red chili or powder. Cool this and blend well. If needed add more water. Pass through a strainer. If you have not used dates you can skip blending and just pass through the strainer. You can add more or less jaggery as needed.

3. If you do not prefer garlic chilli chutney, then sprinkle some red chili powder over the potatoes. But garlic chili chutney adds a punch to the papdi chaat. To make garlic chilli chutney – pour hot water to red chilies and soak them until they soften. Blend them along with garlic & very little sugar to reduce pungent taste. Use water as needed and blend to a thick paste.

Prepare Dahi (Yogurt)

3. We need thick & fresh dahi for making this. Add little sugar to mildly sweeten it. You can also use powdered sugar.

4. Beat well until the curd turns smooth.

Assemble Dahi Papdi Chaat

5. Place the papdis in individual serving plates. If you are using large papdis or making for kids, you can break each of them to 2 or 3 as well.

6. Place chopped or mashed boiled potatoes. Do not use refrigerated boiled potatoes, it is unhealthy. I boiled them in a pot of water until just done. Make sure they do not turn mushy. Slice or chop them.

7. Add moong sprouts, these are optional. I steamed them in a pot.

8. Add a good amount of garlic chili chutney. You can add water to all the 3 chutneys and bring to a slightly thick but pouring consistency. We prefer it thick since the chutney will turn runny after adding yogurt to the serving plate.

9. Add freshly chopped onions.

10. Add dahi as desired.

11. Add green chutney as desired. I added a generous amount of lemon juice while making the chutney. Even then the chutney discolored I guess it is the mint/ pudina. You can add water to your green chutney to make it runny. Here again I added it thick.

12. Add tamarind dates chutney.

13. Sprinkle cumin / jeera powder and chaat masala.

14. Sprinkle generous amount of nylon sev and then chopped coriander leaves.

Serve papdi chaat right away after assembling.

Pro Tips

1. Make use of good quality crunchy papdis & sev. Avoid rancid smelling or soft ones.
2. Use all other ingredients fresh like boiled potatoes, steamed sprouts, boiled chickpeas, chopped onions and coriander. Fresh ingredients make a lot of difference in the flavors and taste.
3. Make fresh green chutney and garlic chili chutney preferably the same day. Dates tamarind chutney can be made ahead and refrigerated. The key to good chaat is in using fresh chutneys especially the green chutney.
4. Make sure dahi/ curd is thick, fresh and not sour. You can make this the previous day and refrigerate. If you are new to making curd at home, you can check this post on how to make curd at home. If dahi / curd is not thick strain it a bit by adding it to a muslin cloth and squeezing of excess whey.
5. Keep the consistency of all the chutneys slightly thick If making for a party, as it prevents the papri chaat turning soggy quickly. This keeps the chaat crunchy for some time – about 20 to 30 mins. Set aside 3 bowls of slightly runny chutneys so that your guests can add more as desired.

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