Khichu
Preparation Time
19 minutes
Cooking Time
25 minutes
Difficulty Level
easy
Meal Type
Evening Snack
Serves 4
Key Ingredients
- Rice flour (from sona masoori rice, ground at home)
About This Recipe
Khichu is the Gujarati snack made from rice flour dough, tempered with cumin and ajwain and eaten soft and hot. The dough is cooked in the pan first, then shaped and steamed into soft pieces.
This version grinds its own flour from plain sona masoori rice, because a fresh, fine flour gives the dough its gloss. One and a half cups of water to one cup of flour makes the dough soft enough to steam light, firm enough to hold its shape; any wetter and the pieces turn gummy. The cumin and ajwain are tempered in oil and kneaded into the dough, not scattered on top, so the flavour runs through every bite.
A jowar khichu replaces half the rice flour with jowar flour for a nuttier, denser piece, and a jowar khichu recipe is the same method with that one swap. Some homes spread the dough in a plate and cut diamonds instead of pressing discs, and a pinch of chilli powder in the dough gives a hotter one. Khichu is nearly always served with oil and pickle, and it is meant to be eaten the moment it stops burning the fingers.
Ingredient List
Serving Size:
1x
2x
3x
Rice flour dough
- Rice flour (from sona masoori rice, ground at home) — 1 cup
- Cumin Seeds — 1 tsp
- Ajwain (carom seeds) — 1/2 tsp
- Salt — 1 tsp
- Water — 1 1/2 cups
To serve
- Groundnut oil (1 tbsp for the tempering, 2 tbsp to serve) — 3 tbsp
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Serving Suggestions
Serve warm with the remaining oil drizzled over and a spoon of green chilli or garlic pickle on the side; it is eaten soft, with a cup of hot chai. Spoon the pickle into the dent in each piece. Leftovers keep up to two days in the fridge and steam back to softness.
Tips for Cooking Khichu
Tip the flour into the boiling water in one go and stir hard, or it lumps. Knead the dough while it is still warm; once it cools it stiffens and cracks when shaped. Steam only until the pieces look glossy and feel firm; oversteamed khichu turns hard as it cools. Keep the steamed pieces covered with a cloth until they are served.
Chef’s Note
The dough tells you when it is ready: it leaves the sides of the pan and comes together as one soft mass that does not stick to the fingers. The tempering goes in warm, and the cumin and ajwain scent every bite of the dough. Two pieces, a quarter of the batch, come to about 209 kcal with 2.5 g of protein, and most of the fat is the oil served on top.
Per serving (approx.): 209 kcal, protein 2.5 g, carbs 24 g, fat 12 g, fibre 1.1 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
Aug 09, 2026
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