Chakkuli / Chakli / Chakri, as it is called by different people is a very common snack dish specially during the festivities like Sri Krishna Janmashtami, Dusshera and Deepavali.
As the dish is called differently by different people, so does its preparation method and style varieties from people to people and region to region.
Few use raw rice and raw urad dal to prepare this dish whereas few prepare the same using flour. Few keep it bland, whereas few make a spicy variation of the same by using a variety of spices.
As always, I am not very keen to spend hours together in the kitchen with a certain dish. I love to cook simple, yet tasty and healthy dishes. Somehow, I always felt that Chakkuli was difficult to prepare and hence, stayed away from it until last year Janmashtami. I checked with my mom, if there is a simplified version of Chakkuli preparation, keeping my proficiency level in mind. She gave me an idea about this and said, “this might work, but haven’t tried it myself” I thought she was sharing a tried and tested recipe, but as it sounded pretty easy, I thought why not do it myself and share the experience and reviews with her, this time.
So, here is the recipe. It is a very simple recipe for the traditional snack, which is hassle free and easy to make.
What are we waiting for? Gear up for the festivities with some home made Chakkulis.
Total time: 40 minutes
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
Servings: 60
Ingredients:
Urad Dal: 1 cup
Rice flour: 4 to 5 cups (Depending upon the water used while grinding urad dal)
Ghee/Butter: 7 to 8 tsp.
Sesame seeds: Little
Salt to taste
Oil for frying
Water: 2.5 cups (approximately)
Method:
- Wash and pressure cook urad dal with water (enough to soak dal completely) till the dal becomes tender
- Once cooked, grind urad dal with little water to a smooth paste
- To this paste, add rice flour in installments to make dough a little softer than a chapathi dough
- While kneading, add the remaining ingredients like ghee / butter, sesame seeds and salt
- Once the dough is ready, grease the Chakkuli mould with ghee and make spiral shapes onto a greased butter paper / baking sheet. You may even use cleaned plastic cover if need be, like the milk wrapper, etc.
- In a deep bottomed pan, heat oil. Once the oil is hot enough, carefully add the spirals to it and fry it in medium flame (So that it is cooked evenly) till golden brown. Remove the excess oil using tissues and let it cool. Crispy Chakkuli is ready to munch
- Repeat the above steps with the remaining dough.
- Once cooled, transfer the Chakkuli to an air tight container.
- Chakkuli can be preserved easily for upto 3 to 4 weeks.
Chakkuli stories:
I always loved the crispy Chakkuli… They gel so well with your tea / coffee. After Krishna Janmashtami, as a tradition, we used to exchange all the sweets and savouries with cousins, neighbours and friends… But I used to tell my mom not to give away all the Chakkuli and the ground nut unde (which used to be my favourites). Also, it was never easy to finish / eat the Chakkuli we would get, as part of the exchange program!!! Few used to be so hard that we would dip and soak them in sambar so that they softened up before we ate.
The recipe shared above, is tried and tested by me on several occasions in the last 2 years. My father-in-law, who usually resists himself from all the deep fried items and sweets, couldn’t really stop at one Chakkuli this time around. And believe it or not, a box full of Chakkuli got over in no time!!!
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