Posted on
by Sowmya Venkatachalam
Categories:
- All Recipes
- Snacks
4.18 from 39 votes
Thattai is a South Indian snack traditionally made during Krishna Jeyanthi, Diwali and also for Karthigai Deepam. If we have rice flour and urad dal flour, then we can make this thattai very easily and quickly. A great tea time snack too! Learn here how to make this thattai with step by step pictures, video and instructions.
Prep Time 10 minutes minutes
Cook Time 1 hour hour
Total Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes
Jump to Recipe Jump to Video Print Recipe
Thattai is an authentic and traditional SouthIndian crispy snack. We make thattai for many festivals like Krishna Jayanthi or even for a regular evening snack. This can be with just Rice flour and Urad dal flour well within 30 minutes.
Tips for making Thattai:
1. Rice Flour :
- Homemade Rice flour is the most recommended option. Home made rice flour will yield better texture and taste than store bought.
- We can use store bought plain rice flour for making thattai. We can also use idiappam or kozhukattai flour too.
- Being homemade or store bought, the rice has to be roasted till warm. The consistency is called “Kolamavu padham” in tamil. If you take a pinch of rice flour and try to draw a line or rangoli, you should be able to do. If that is achieved then we can stop roasting rice flour.
2. Urad Dal Flour:
- Store bought urad dal flour cannot be used for thattai or any bakshanam. Store bought urad dal flour is not roasted flour. So will not work properly
- To prepare urad dal flour, dry roast urad dal till it’s very hot to handle. We don’t need to roast till red/golden color.
- Grind urad dal to smooth powder. Sieve the flour twice to get rid off any lumps or coarse flour. We need perfectly smooth flour.
- We fried 1/4 cup of urad dal but we just need 1/2 tbsp of urad dal flour for 1 cup of rice flour. We can’t grind very small quantity in mixer grinder so take atleast 1/4 cup of urad dal so that we will get a smooth urad dal flour.
- Store the rest of the urad flour in an air-tight container and use it whenever you are planning to some snacks like thenkuzhal, seedai, thattai etc
3. Butter:
- For 1 cup of rice flour, we can use 1 tbsp of butter. Butter should be soften at room temperature. Do not use chilled butter.
- We can also use ghee instead of butter, but ghee gives a dark color to the thattai.
- Do not increase the butter quantity as it will make the thattai brittle or soggy sometimes.
4. Crunchy bits
- I have used roasted gram to the rice flour to get a nice crunch when we take a bite of thattai.
- Instead of roasted gram, we can soak chana dal (Kadala Paruppu) for about 30 mins. Then drain the water and add the soaked dal to the rice flour.
- We can also add white sesame seeds to the rice flour.
- Also we can finely chop the coconut and add the coconut bits to the rice flour.
5. Dough Consistency:
- The thattai dough consistency should be soft and smooth. If the dough is very stiff, when we shape thattai, there will be lots of cracks. So always knead it to smooth dough.
- Always keep the dough covered. When you are taking a gooseberry size dough and flattening it to make thattai cover the rest of the dough with a damp cloth or with a lid.
- If the dough becomes dry, sprinkle water and knead the dough again.
6. Deep Frying:
- Test the hotness of the oil before dropping the shaped thattai in oil. If the oil is not hot enough, then the thattai will absorb more oil.
- Drop a pinch of dough and check if the dough raises immediately, then the oil is ready.
- Add 2-3 thattai in one batch. If you are deep frying in a broad heavy bottomed pan with more oil then you can add 4-5.
- Do not over crowd the thattai in oil. Give them space to get fried.
- Deep fry in low flame till its golden brown on both the sides and the bubbles ceases completely.
7. Storing
- Allow the fried thattai to cool off completely.
- Also place the fried thattai in an air-tight container to have longer shelf life.
Recipe Card to make Thattai
Pin Recipe
Thattai Recipe | How to make Thattai
Course: Snacks
Cuisine: Indian, Tamil Brahmin, Tamil Nadu Recipes, Tamilnadu
Equipments Needed
Heavy Bottomed Pan
Mixer Grinder
Mixing Bowl
Prep Time: 10 minutes minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour hour
Total Time: 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes
Servings: 15 thattai
Calories: 100kcal
Author: Sowmya Venkatachalam
Thattai is a South Indian snack traditionally made during Krishna Jeyanthi, Diwali and also for Karthigai Deepam. If we have rice flour and urad dal flour, then we can make this thattai very easily and quickly. A great tea time snack too! Learn here how to make this thattai with step by step pictures, video and instructions.
Print Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup Rice Flour
- ½ tbsp Urad Dal Flour
- 1 tsp Red Chili Powder
- ¼ tsp Asafoetida (Asafetida / Hing)
- ¾ tsp Salt As Needed
- 2 tbsp Roasted Gram Dal (Pottukadalai / Dhaliya)
- Few Curry Leaves
- 3 Cups Oil For Frying
- 1 tbsp Butter
Instructions
Preparing Urad Dal Flour
Dry roast urad dal till the dal is hot. If we touch the dal, we should feel very much heat and drop the dal immediately. That is the right stage to swtich off the flame. We don't need to fry dal till it changes color.
Take the roasted urad dal in a mixer. Grind it to smooth powder.
Add the urad dal flour in a sieve. Sieve thorougly to get rid of any lumps or coarse flour. Set this urad dal flour aside.
Dry Roasting Rice Flour
Add 1 cup of rice flour in a heavy bottomed pan. Dry roast rice flour till its warm. If you take a pinch of rice flour you should be able to draw a line. Thats the right consistency.
Dough Preparation
Take a pan, add rice flour, 1/2 tbsp of ground urad dal flour, salt, red chilli powder, hing, curry leaves, roasted gram, butter and mix it well. Sprinkle water and mix all these ingredients to make it a thick dough.
Making of Thattai
Take a zipper paper, spread oil in the paper, make small ball of the flour, and keep it in paper. Grease the palm with oil and press the ball to flatten it. Make the patties really thin and prick each thattai with a fork or a tooth pick in many places. Pricking makes the oil penetrates to the inner portion of the thattai and cooks the inner portion well. If the inner portion of thattai is now cooked, then the thattai will be chewy. Also if you miss the pricking, then sometimes, the thattai will become like a poori. So pricking is an important step.
We can also use a bowl and press the dough ball to make a thin equal size thattai.
Deep Frying Process
Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Slowly turn the zipper over your palm. The greased plastic will enable flattened thattai to slip on your hands easily. Gently drop 2-3 flattened thattai in oil.
Keep the flame low and allow the thattai to get fried.
Turn them to cook evenly until golden yellow/ deep brown. Allow the thattai to cook till all the bubbles ceases and also keep the flame in medium till the thattai is cooked completely. Drop them on a paper towel to drain excess oil. Once cooled, store them in an air tight container.
Serving Time
The delicious Thattai is ready for neivedhyam and for serving.
Video
Notes
- Instead of Roasted Gram Dal (Pottukadalai / Dhaliya) you can also use Channa Dal. Soak Channa Dal for about 2 hours and then add it to the thattai.
Nutritional Info
Nutrition Facts
Thattai Recipe | How to make Thattai
Amount Per Serving (1 Thattai)
Calories 100Calories from Fat 45
% Daily Value*
Fat 5g8%
Carbohydrates 10g3%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
Tried this recipe?Mention @subbuskitchen or tag #subbuskitchen!
Subscribe to our YouTube ChannelSubscribe! to get Latest Subbuskitchen Video Recipes
Good PracticeAll the Images and videos are Copyright Protected. So please do not copy the content or images. If you want to use, please ask for it
INSTRUCTIONS WITH STEP BY STEP PICTURES:
PREPARING URAD DAL FLOUR
- Dry roast urad dal till the dal is hot. If we touch the dal, the dal should be fry hot to handle. That is the right stage to swtich off the flame. We don’t need to fry dal till it changes color.
- Take the roasted urad dal in a mixer. Grind it to smooth powder.
- Add the urad dal flour in a sieve. Sieve thorougly to get rid of any lumps or coarse flour. Set this urad dal flour aside.
DRY ROASTING RICE FLOUR
- Add 1 cup of rice flour in a heavy bottomed pan. Dry roast rice flour till its warm. If you take a pinch of rice flour you should be able to draw a line. Thats the right consistency.
DOUGH PREPARATION
- Take a pan, add rice flour, 1/2 tbsp of ground urad dal flour, salt, red chilli powder, hing, curry leaves, roasted gram, butter and mix it well.
- Sprinkle water and mix all these ingredients to make it a thick dough.
MAKING OF THATTAI
- Take a zipper paper, spread oil in the paper, make small ball of the flour, and keep it in paper. Grease the palm with oil and press the ball to flatten it. Make the patties really thin.
- We can also use a bowl and press the dough ball to make a thin equal size thattai.
- Prick each thattai with a fork or a tooth pick in many places. Pricking makes the oil penetrates to the inner portion of the thattai and cooks the inner portion well. If the inner portion of thattai is now cooked, then the thattai will be chewy. Also if you miss the pricking, then sometimes, the thattai will become like a poori. So pricking is an important step.
DEEP FRYING PROCESS
- Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Slowly turn the zipper over your palm. The greased plastic will enable flattened thattai to slip on your hands easily. Gently drop 2-3 flattened thattai in oil.
- Keep the flame low and allow the thattai to get fried.Turn them to cook evenly until golden yellow/ deep brown. Allow the thattai to cook till all the bubbles ceases and also keep the flame in medium till the thattai is cooked completely. Drop them on a paper towel to drain excess oil. Once cooled, store them in an air tight container.
SERVING TIME
- The delicious Thattai is ready for neivedhyam and for serving.
(Visited 46,055 times, 1 visits today)
Related Posts:
- Sevai recipe | How to make Sevai from scratch with…
- Cholam Paniyaram Recipe | Sorghum Paniyaram
- Chola Dosai | Sorghum Dosa | Jowar Dosa
- Dibba rotti recipe | Andhra Minapa Rotti
- Instant Moong Dal Halwa
- Pottukadalai Chutney | Roasted Gram dal Chutney
- Maddur Vada Recipe
- Azhagar Kovil Dosai | Black Gram Dosa
- Diwali Snacks
- Krishna Jayanthi
- popular
- Traditional Diwali Recipes
- Video Recipes
Sowmya Venkatachalam
IT Engineer turned full time Food Blogger. I ♡ FOOD. I also love food blogging. Did you make a recipe? Tag @Subbusktichen on Instagram. I WANNA SEE!
This looks awesome mami. I tried once and ended up having unevenly browned thattai, that didn't come out crisp but rather adai. What is the mistake ?
Reply
We need to flatten the thattai to thin patties and put some 2-3 small holes so that the oil enters the inner portion of thattai and cook it evenly. Also while frying thattai, we need to keep it in low flame till it is cooked and becomes crisp.
Reply
Hi aunty,
I have been a regular at your site and have impressed my brahmin husband and family with my authentic tam-bram cooking.Im a christian and it was quite a challenge for me to cook first of all 'vegetarian' dishes and that too for a brahmin household.but thanks to your awesome blog I passed with flying colors. Now coming to my problem of the day… I made everything exactly as you wrote here but, as with the previous person I have made hard puris instead of thattais.I made two batches of dough and have tried over 150 tattais trying different techniques but not even ONE was good!!! aaaaarrrghhh!!!! im terribly upset! what did I do wrong??? I read in some site that they used urad dal and not chana dal… was it a typo in your ingredients list or is chana dal the right one??
Reply
Gram dhal means pottukadalai only na mami..
Reply
the same question. dont know, what is gram dhal powder. . bit confused. pottukadalai maavu or kadalai maavu ( which we use to get from shop)
Reply
Dear Mami,
What is "Odachakadalai". NelaKadalai ya?
Don't you use varutha ulunda mavu instead of Odachakadalai?
Please reply me. -Uma Raghu
Reply
in some sites it mentioned as only urad dal and not fried gram little confused…. why dnt we use urad dal alone….
Reply
Odacha kadalai is pottukadalai. Normal is urad dhal powder. Pottukadalai should work too. Again it is the the ratio makes it soft. Rice flower makes it crisp. Reduce the pottukadalai flower. Mami's ratio is 1 to 4 change it to 1 to 6 to make it crisp also make it thin. Good luck. Roasting the flower for a minute is good.
Reply
mami,tried out your recepie..thattai came out very well..made it for the first time today…
Reply
can u pl provide me with the recipe for mixture? iam regular follower of ur recipes
Reply
Hi Annalakshmi, i will post the recipe for the mixure soon. Thanks
Reply
Awesome recipe, perfect proportions, mami! They came out v well!! Thanks!!
Reply
Hi mami, can we use the rice flour which we get from shops. Or do we have to soak raw rice for about 1-2 hours, dry the water and powder it?
Reply
HI mami, can we use the ready made rice flour which we buy from shops. Or do we have to soak raw rice, dry it and make powder.. Kindly reply. Thank you !
Reply
Mam, I am Lalitha Baburaj. I was able to do Chakli,appam, Uppu and Vella cheedai, in a good manner and they were well appreciated. But for thattai which at first dis integrated when I put it in hot oil for frying. Then I thought that butter content may be more so I added some odacha kadalai mavu and tried again it came out like small pooris. I Just thought that you can prescribe a remedy for my thattai's inflammation. Thank you.
Reply
Thank you for sharing this easy-to-make thattai recipe. I'm a first timer out trying these recipes, and it came out pretty good.
Anitha
Reply
Hello Mami
I tried thattai sedai with urad dhal powder. 1 tumbler roasted rice powder to 11/2 table spoons roasted ural dhal powder. First day it was very cripsy and tasty. Next day it turned soggy (Namathu poiduthu). Not sure whether it is because of mixture or container I used to store. Container is a good tupperware dabba. Can you please advice?
Reply
Hello mami,
Can you suggest me which oil is best for murukku frying. O K oil or kadalai ennai
Reply
Hello, any refined oil should be ok.
Reply
hello mam,
whenever we say Rice flour for bakshanam, does it mean it is always raw rice soaked, shadow dried and ground to a powder?
do we also have to roast it?
Reply
Hi, Yes, when we make homemade rice flour,we should always roast it for couple of minutes and again run through the sieve to get a smooth rice flour. when we grind the rice in the mixer, the flour would be a little damp, so we need to roast it till the flour is warm. This will make the rice flour have longer shelf life. Only for Adhirasam, we use the freshly ground rice flour instead of roasting.
Reply
Hi Aunty,
i tried thattai once as ppl said in these post … everytime i try ..it came out like puri or came like its baked and not fried. Taste was so good but it was not crispy.
I made thin patties but still its not crispy … 🙁
My husband loves these kind of snacks." He loves to eat and i love to cook" pls tell me what should i do.
Reply
Hi Chamundeeswari,
We need to prick each thattai in many places which allow the oil to penetrate into the thattai and make it cook inside. If you have seen the video I have explained it. Somehow, I forgot to mention the pricking part in my instructions in text. I will add it now. Please try pricking and also fry the thattai till all the bubbles are gone then take it out and also you need to fry them in medium flame till all the bubbles stop.
Reply
I would like to know what one cup measures to mami…
Reply
Mami
can i use a ladle of idly batter instead of urad dal powder?
Reply
1 Cup = 250ml is the standard measure
Reply
Thank u mami..
Reply
Hi maami. Can I use ghee instead of butter in these recipes?
Reply
In the recipe you have mentioned Urid dal Flour and in the method you said fried gram flour. Whats the correct come to add?
Reply
Sorry its a typo. Its urad dal flour not fried gram flour
Reply
can v use vanaspathi instead of butter ??
Reply
The Urad dal measurement on this page (1 tsp) varies with the measurement mentioned in the video (1 tbsp). Please clarify which one is correct. Love your website. Thanks.
Reply
Mami do we need to add warm water or water at room temperature?
Reply
I have read your blog it is very helpful for me. I want to say thanks to you. I have bookmark your site for future updates.view it now
Reply
Thank You
Reply
Can we bake the thattai instead of deep frying?
Reply
add some oil to the dough and mix well and then bake it. without oil, the baked thattai will be very hard. to be honest i have not tried with thattai. I usually bake maddur vada which is made using wheat flour. im not sure how the rice flour thatti will be baked. sorry i coudnt be sure of this baking process
Reply
Trying the recepie today… Will get back to you if it bakes well.
Reply
Came out really well today. All of us relished it
Thank you so much
Reply
Super. Glad to hear. Thanks
Reply
First attempt and it was super crisp and yummy.I was a bit apprehensive as I had added dessicated coconut and forgot to prick before frying,yet it clicked.Thanks much!
Reply
Okay. Very glad to hear your feedback.
Reply
anyone tried airfryer for thattai?
Reply
sorry i have not tried
Reply
Hi Sowmya, you mentioned in one comment above that one needs to use butter or “hot oil”. So room temperature or just melted coconut oil won’t produce as good results as hot coconut oil? Also, is using butter giving better results than using oil? (be it hot or not). Thanks for the kind information!
Reply
Thanks Priyanka. Butter should be at room temperature.Butter always give nice color and texture than hot oil. Hot oil helps to get more crispier thattai but it will make the thattai more dark red in color. We need crispy but at the same time it should melt in mouth so I would strongly recommend butter.
Reply
Thank you so much, that was very helpful guidance, Sowmya.
Also, I just want to thank your mother in-law and you from the bottom of my heart. Since my move to the US, I miss India, our rich traditions, our values, the active and dynamic atmosphere, everything, so much. I strive to create that atmosphere at home in a small way. Cooking is one way. And you both have inspired me so much. Reading your recipes, trying them out, learning the concepts of cooking — it has been an amazing journey with you two 🙂 … Even though I haven’t met you two, I feel so close in some ways. Pippali mul rasam, thattai, kozhukattais, love love love. Thank you so much for helping me feel I am still at home with you all! I am sure you get a lot of negativity in response to your hardwork of putting up these posts, the world is like that. But know that some people really really appreciate you, but at the same time, I don’t wish you to go through all that forever! Even whatever you have posted already is enough to sustain (me at least!). Anyway, sorry for the long comment. Just didn’t want to say “thanks for the reply”. Because the gratitude runs way deeper, and I wanted to express it. 🙂 … stay safe all of you!
Reply
So So happy to read your message Priyanka. You have taken your valuable time to express your heart for which i’m so grateful. Thank you Priyanka.
Reply
PS – Ghee also will not produce as good a result as butter? But better than hot oil? Any idea? 🙂 (just wondering.. I always have ghee with me, but not butter..)
Reply
Amazing taste. I tried it for the first time and it came out well. Thank you for the detailed and clear recipe instructions.
Reply
So Glad to know Sandhya. Thank you so much!!
Reply
Thank you for your recipes. Print recipe button doesnt work, ma. Can you please check?
Reply
Thank you will surely check and correct it 🙏
Reply
Thanks for the recipe, Maami.The thattais came out well.
Reply
So glad to hear! Thanks .
Reply
Hello Sowmya, thanks for the recipes. They are great. Regarding the Thattai, it came out really nicely and was flavorful. However, some of them got a bit bendy in the center, but the edges were nice and crisp. And also over time, many of them got bendy in the center. How can I avoid it? Is it the time in the oil, or the oil temperature? Also, out of curiosity, since we are adding such a small quantity of urad dhal flour, what is it’s role?
Reply
