Chakli
Preparation Time
24 minutes
Cooking Time
22 minutes
Difficulty Level
moderate
Meal Type
Evening Snack
Serves 6
Key Ingredients
- Rice flour (from sona masoori rice, ground at home)
About This Recipe
Chakli is the spiral snack of Maharashtra and Gujarat, a coil of spiced rice-and-besan dough pressed through a star plate and fried until it shatters between the teeth. It is made in big batches for Diwali, and in small ones through the year to eat with tea.
This version grinds its own rice flour from plain sona masoori rice in a dry grinder, because fine, fresh flour is what gives a chakli its crunch; store-bought rice flour varies from brand to brand and can go damp in the cupboard. Besan supplies the structure and the savoury nuttiness, cumin and sesame the classic bite, and a spoon of hot oil poured into the flour is the old trick that keeps the fried coil light and crisp.
The colour is the test: pale gold means the inside is dry and crisp, deep brown means the oil was too hot and the middle stayed soft. Swap a teaspoon of sesame for a pinch of chilli powder for a hotter coil, or use store-bought rice flour if it is fine, fresh and without lumps. The dough must be soft and pliable, not sticky; a dry dough cracks as it is pressed, and a wet one soaks up oil.
Ingredient List
Serving Size:
1x
2x
3x
Flours
- Rice flour (from sona masoori rice, ground at home) — 2 cups
- Besan (bengal gram flour) — 1 cup
Dough
- Cumin Seeds — 1 tsp
- Sesame seeds — 1 tbsp
- Salt — 1 tsp
- Groundnut oil, for the dough — 2 tbsp
- Warm water — 3/4 cup
Frying
- Groundnut oil for deep frying — 500 ml
- Groundnut oil absorbed while frying — 4 tbsp
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Serving Suggestions
Serve chakli as an evening snack with hot chai, or pack a few in the lunchbox for a mid-morning crunch. They go well with green coriander chutney or a tangy tamarind one, and need no accompaniment at all once cool. Keep them in an airtight tin only after they have cooled completely, or the trapped steam softens them.
Tips for Cooking Chakli
The dough should feel like soft chapati dough; knead in the warm water a spoon at a time. Fry on medium-low heat: a pinch of dough dropped in should rise slowly, not race to the top. Fry only until the hissing stops and the coils turn pale gold, then lift them out and drain on kitchen paper. Cool completely before storing, and do not press too many coils ahead of the oil.
Chef’s Note
Colour tells you everything: a pale gold coil is dry and crisp through, while a brown one fried too fast and kept its soft heart. Freshly ground rice flour and the hot oil in the dough both help keep the coil crisp. A serving of three to four chaklis, a sixth of the batch, comes to about 362 kcal with 8 g of protein from the flours, and most of the fat from the frying oil.
Per serving (approx.): 362 kcal, protein 8 g, carbs 43 g, fat 17 g, fibre 3.6 g. Computed from IFCT 2017 / USDA values for the listed quantities. Measures: 1 cup = 240 ml, 1 tbsp = 15 ml, 1 tsp = 5 ml.
Happy Cooking
!!
ByCOWBERRY
Jun 16, 2026
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