Thattai is a popular South Indian snack made from rice flour and spices. It is a crispy and savory snack that is typically served during festivals or as a tea time snack. Thattai is often prepared by deep frying a dough made from rice flour, urad dal flour (split black gram), and spices such as red chili powder, asafoetida, and curry leaves. The dough is shaped into small discs or circles and then deep fried until golden brown and crispy. Thattai can be enjoyed on its own or with chutney or a cup of hot tea.
Thattai
6
servings10
minutes20
minutesLooking for a delicious snack? Try this crispy and flavorful recipe for homemade thattai. Made with rice flour, spices, and deep-fried to perfection!
Ingredients
Rice flour – 2 cups
Urad dhal flour – 1/4 cup
Red Chilli powder – 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida powder – ½ teaspoon
Butter or ghee – 2 tablespoons
Salt – 1 teaspoon or as per taste
Bengal gram dhal – 2 tablespoons
Oil for deep frying
Directions
- Start by soaking the Bengal gram dhal for 1 to 2 hours.
- In a large bowl, sift together rice flour and urad dhal powder. Add the soaked Bengal gram dhal, chili powder, asafetida, butter, and salt. Mix the ingredients until well combined. Slowly add water, kneading as you go, until a pliable dough forms.
- Lightly grease a sheet of plastic wrap. Take a small portion of the dough and place it on the sheet. Using your fingers or a rolling pin, flatten the dough into a thin, round shape. Use a fork to prick the dough in two or three places; this ensures it stays flat while frying and doesn’t puff up like a puri.
- Heat oil in a kadai over medium heat. Once the oil is hot, carefully slide in four or five of the prepared thattai rounds. Fry them until they turn golden brown and become crisp. Use a slotted spoon to remove the thattai, allowing any excess oil to drain off.
- Place the fried thattai on a paper towel-lined plate to cool before transferring them to an airtight container for storage.
Notes
- For a garlic flavor, you can replace red chili powder with a paste made from grinding 3 to 4 red chilies and 5 to 6 garlic flakes. Mix this into the dough.
- If you’re making a large batch, consider grinding a mixture of raw rice, pottukadalai, and lightly fried urad dhal at a flour mill. In this case, for every cup of rice, add half a cup of pottukadalai and one tablespoon of fried urad dhal.
hi aunty, i am going to try this thattai now for diwali…it is simple but i dont no how to make urad dhal flour.. so na urad dhal a varuthuto powder panikiten. like tat use panalama aunty?
Hi Dhanakshmi,
Yes. You can use the fried urad dhal flour. Happy Diwali to you and your family.
rice flour is made by me 1 week ago. is it enough for this?
aunty, please let me know how to make ukkarai (okkarai) also for this deepavali?
sudha
You can always search for recipe using the search box at the top right corner of the page. Here is the recipe for Okkarai
thanks for the receipe of okkarai…i will surely try this..
madam please tell some diet recipe for sugar patients
Hi Sangeta,
You can prepare Ragi recipes like ragi adai, ragi idli etc. Readymade flours are available in the market.
really ur site is more usefull to me,so thanks madam,i feel that my mother telling ,thanks alot mam
Thank you Sangeta.
Hi,
I tried the thattai with the same ingredients. Mine is not crunchy. it becomes soft after sometime. why is it so ? what could be the mistake?
Hi Vidya,
The reason may be it was not fried properly. You have to make uniform thin rounds and allow to dry (before frying) for few minutes so that the wetness in the thattai will be dried. Also you have to fry in medium heat. If you fry it high heat, outer portion will be fried quickly, but inner portion will not be fried that much. In such case, thattai will become soft after sometime. Please try with little quantity and let me know the result.
Hi Kamala,
I tried thattai, its not came out well, 🙁 the dough was like pootu preparation, so have used some Maida flour otherwise i was not able to make rounds, its breaks. pls clear me where i have mistaken .. I have used roasted urad dal powder (prepared myself) . When you say rice flour there are diffferent kind, i have used the one we use for iddiappam,
i must say that i have saved my thattai by adding maida and well dried each thattai between tissue papers. taste was ok but its not crispy at all 🙁
Hi Prabha,
Very sad. I think you have not added enough water to make the dough. Moreover, idiappam flour is a processed one and it may be slightly course. You have to use raw rice flour (soak the rice for one to two hours, drain the excess water and powder it like making flour for adirasam) and add enough water to make the dough like “Murukku Dough”. Moreover you have to fry in moderate heat till it is crisp.
Thank you Sheela for your feed back.
Dear Madam,
Hope things are going fine at ur end.Mam ur webiste is amazing pretty good..It gave lot of pretty information to me in cooking very very easy madam…..I have no words for u MAM keep on rocking.Thanks a lot
Hi Kamala, I made my thattai with a mild change instead of rice and urad flour, I used murukku maavu with chilli pwd, red chilli flakes, Bengal gram and 1tsp of garlic pwd which gave nice flavor and aroma. It came out good, thanks for ur recipes.
Abi
Hi Abi,
Thank you for the information. I have to try this too.
Thanks Kamala for Thatai recipe.It came out fine when I made it yesterday but today it looks like soft inside.Maybe as you said I should have dried it out before frying.Thanks for the recipe,glad I could make what my mother used to do.Your recipes are all great & I keep trying them often,Keep going & help us take interest in cooking!
Thank you Ranjini for your kind words. Sometimes, recipe may go wrong and with practice you will get perfect dishes.
Hi,
I have tried all the other recipes of making a thattai. But none came out well. But this time thanks to you, it was awesome.
Thank you Pavitra.
If you can post the method of making cheedai it would be good
Dear kamala mam,
Past 3 years I am cooking with the help of your website, it’s really simple and easy to understand. Last year and this year I referred thatti , mulllu muruku ,ribbon muruku,maysor pak( last year first 2 times I wasted it) and coconut burfi. Thanks for ur post.
mam first i thank for you your receipes are easy i.gridient and easy to make i feel you are teaching to near by me. thanks a lot