Aloo Katori Chaat

Chana chaat in aloo katori’ is a typical ‘dilli wali chaat’ in a fancy crispy potato katori. In this recipe I made katoris or basket with potatoes, but there is another variation of the katori chaat. In the second version of making katori, it is made with fried white flour dough and then deep fried to crispy perfection. It is fun to devour even the ‘katori’ or edible bowl with the savoury chaat in this popular Indian chaat. For my friends who haven’t tried it yet, Chana chaat is a cold salad made with potatoes, tomatoes and chickpeas tossed with spices and topped with cold whipped yogurt, tangy tamarind sauce and refreshing green coriander-mint chutney. The tangy chana chaat is served in edible fried potato katoris or baskets. Chaat is a popular savoury dish in India typically eaten as as snack or appetiser by street food vendors. What originated as ‘Chaat’ in the state of Uttar Pradesh is now eaten across Indian subcontinent with different additions and many variations. This is what you call cultural syncretism.

The word ‘chaat’ literally means ‘to lick’ and it lives up to its name! If you have eaten it once, I bet there is Tsunami in your mouth every-time you hear the word “chaat”. At least I find myself in this situation so many times. Each state has its own special edition of chaats. The Delhi people seem to like their chaat less spicier but with a lot of textures. Delhi charts of ‘chaat’ is topped by Dahi bhalla papdi chaat, Aloo tikki chaat and Chana chaat. While Mumbai specialises in spicy bhel puri, dahi sev puri, Kolkata has its very special Puchka and Jhal muri to it’s credit. The katori chaat is delhi special. As I said I love a good spicy chaat, not just as a snack, I can make a meal of it easily :D. So you will find quite a few chaat recipes here. Other than popular dahi bhalla chaat, or Ram ladoo, you can try the whole masoor dal and paneer tikki chaat, sprouted moong chaat and aloo palak chaat. Few of them are a healthy twist to the popular chatpata street food. If you love chaat you have got to try all of them! As much as I love it, I rarely eat them outside unless it is made in a hygienic manner. I prefer to make chaat at home. The advantage of making it at home is we can customise it as per our taste. Now enough of my chaat wisdom lets get back to making aloo lachha katori for the chaat.

How to make Katori Chaat

As I said before you can make two types of katoris for this chaat. One that is made with maida dough another Delhi style Aloo katori. In this recipe I have used aloo katoris. For making them I used grated potatoes and then shaped and deep fried them to make crisp katories. You can watch step by step process of how to make katoris in the video given below. In this Aloo katori chaat recipe, I use chana chaat filling. For making chana chaat I toss boiled chana with spices and chaat masala and then top them with usual chaat toppings and serve. In this recipe I first filled the chana chaat in katori and then topped it with chutney and curd etc.

Filling For Katori Chaat

Sometimes instead of adding chana chaat I add pindi chana in the katori chaat. The other toppings remain same. Similarly you can make your own favorite filling as well. Let’s do it.. It’s slightly longish process to make katoris for chaat but the taste is totally worth it. It is the same old chaat where you mix the basics like potatoes, tomatoes, with a special star ingredient which could be chunky chickpeas (as in this one), Mixed sprouts, crispy papdi, or a samosa mixed in a sweet-tangy mix of spices and chutneys. The chutneys play an important role in any chaat recipe because of their distinct flavours. The tamarind and date chutney, I like it to be slightly sweet while you can make it less sweet and more spicy. Homemade chaat is all about your preferences. Sometimes I like to add a few pomegranate seeds to get a different texture and a pop of color. Go ahead and make this tangy and spicy North Indian Katori chaat the next time Chaat cravings hit you. Do share with me how it turned out for you.