Aloo Katori Chaat

Delicious katori chaat filled with tangy chana and topped with sweet tamarind chutney, yogurt and chaat toppings! Drooling yet! This edible Katori or tokri is made with grated aloo /potatoes and made into crunchy basket. This katori or basket is then filled with spicy chickpeas and topped with typical Indian street style chaat toppings is perfect appetizer or snack for party.

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. 

How to Make Katori Chaat ( Watch Step by Step Video)

Katori Chaat

5 from 2 votes

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Course: Appetizer

Cuisine: indian cuisine, north indian

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Servings: 4

Author: Rekha Kakkar

Ingredients

For the katori,

• 2 cups of thickly grated potatoes
• Oil for frying

Prepare Meethi Chutney,

• 1 cup Tamarind pulp/Imli pulp
• ½ cup dates soaked
• 1 teaspoon Dried ginger powder Sonth
• 1 teaspoon Red chili powder Lal mirch powder
• ½ teaspoon Red chili Lal mirch crushed
• ¼   teaspoon Salt namak or to taste

Prepare Green Chutney,

• 2-3 Green chilies Hari mirch
• 1 tablespoon Lemon juice nimbu ras
• ¼ teaspoon Salt Namak
• ½ cup Mint leaves Pudina
• ½ cup Fresh coriander Hara dhania
• 2-3 tablespoon Water Pani or as required

To prepare Chaat,

• 1 cup Chickpeas Chana boiled
• 2 medium sized Potatoes Aloo ,boiled
• 1 cup Green lentil gram Hari moong dal soaked & boiled
• 1 medium sized Onion Pyaz chopped
• 1 medium sized Tomato Tamatar deseeded
• 1-2 Green chili Hari mirch chopped
• A pinch of cumin powder jeera powder
• Salt namak to taste
• Chaat masala to taste

Instructions

For Making katori,

• Soak the grated potatoes in cold water for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Drain and wash in running water for about 5 to 7 minutes.
• Drain and pat dry using a dry absorbent cloth.
• Divide the grated potatoes into 10 equal portions.
• Place each portion of the grated potatoes on a 37 mm. (1½") diameter metal tea strainer and top with a second strainer.
• Hold firmly and deep fry in oil on a medium flame till the basket is golden brown. Remove the strainer from the oil, invert it and tap lightly to unmold the basket.
• Repeat steps 5 and 6 to make 9 more baskets. Store in an air-tight container.

For Tamarind chutney:

• In a blender jar, blend together
• In frying pan, add tamarind pulp, sugar and mix well.
• Add dried ginger powder,red chili powder,fennel seeds,red chili crushed and salt,mix well and cook for 2 minutes & set aside.

For Green chutney:

• In ginder,add green chilies,lemon juice,salt,mint leaves,fresh coriander and water,grind well & set aside.

For Chaat

• In bowl,add chickpeas,potatoes,green lentil gram, onion, tomato, green chilies, salt, chaat masala and mix well.

Assembling

• On prepared katori, add the following in order;
• First the chana chaat, followed by meethi chutney, yogurt, meethi chutney,green chutney.
• Sprinkle some red chili, chaat masala, cumin powder, thin(barik) sev & serve.

Notes

Use old potatoes to make the potato baskets / Katories crisp. It is wise to use multiple metal strainers, once you are comfortable with the recipe so that the frying gets done quicker. Use fresh cold yogurt.