Samosa Recipe (Punjabi Potato Samosa)
Updated: June 26, 2024, By Swasthi
It’s hard to resist a crispy and flaky Samosa filled with delicious spiced potatoes. This perfected chef’s recipe will help you make the BEST potato Samosas at home. If you ever wondered how those eateries selling authentic Punjabi foods make the crispiest and flakiest samosas, you got to try this recipe.
My step by step photo guide and video will help you make them perfectly, the Indian street style way! Super flaky and crunchy crust without all that extra grease! The BEST samosas are actually made on the streets of India and in budget eateries, not in the upscale restaurants.
For a flavor blast, they are eaten, dipped into the Mint chutney or Cilantro chutney and Tamarind chutney. A lot of times these are also assembled to a meal known as Samosa Chaat, in which they are topped with a chickpea curry (Chole), chutneys and crispy sev. It is finished off with a sprinkle of chaat masala, coriander leaves and pomegranate arils.
In this post I also share 2 instant recipes to make a small batch of the chutneys. You may find them after the photo instructions. Whether you are hosting an Indian themed dinner or a tea party, these will be the show stopper! Give these a try for your next occasion.
About Samosa
Samosa is a fried pastry snack, usually with a filling of spiced potatoes. They are very popular in India, Middle East & Asian countries. They originated from the Middle East and were brought to India by the Merchants. Today Samosa is one of the most eaten snack in the South Asian Countries.
You will find variations with mixed vegetables, keema, only onions and cheese/paneer. But nothing beats the Classic potato version and after Pakora, these are the most popular street snack in India.
You will find samosas everywhere, as a street food, party snack, restaurants and even in cafes. They are very special during Holi, the Indian festival of colors & also during the month of Ramadan and are eaten as an Iftar snack.
We usually avoid eating fried snacks in cafes and restaurants for health reasons (oil being heated too long). Years ago I learnt making samosas because my kids’ love them. Making them at home is super easy if you learn the steps correctly especially making the crust.
This recipe is from the Punjabi Chef Harpal Singh and anyone who has eaten these have said they are the BEST! If you want to make them with meat, use this Keema recipe to make the filling.
Expert Tips
A perfect samosa should be crispy & flaky with almost no bubbles or blisters on them.
- Flour to oil/ghee ratio is very important to make a flaky samosa crust. Too little oil may lead to hard crust and too much oil can break it. So use the right amount.
- It is essential to incorporate oil into the flour well, until it resembles breadcrumbs. This makes for the flakiest samosa crust.
- The texture of samosa dough has to be slightly stiff yet pliable & not too soft like roti/naan dough. So use water only as needed. Too much moisture in the dough will make lots of tiny air pockets in the crust and will prevent the samosas from turning crispy.
- Rest & knead the dough – This dough does not require kneading when it is made. But it needs resting. After the resting, knead it well for 3 to 4 mins. It should not turn smooth but has to be tight and stiff. So do not overwork here.
- Roll the dough to a disc of medium thickness. It should not be too thick or too thin. Check the video for the thickness. Thin layers will tear the samosas while frying. Too thick will not cook the crust well.
- Most important Tip – Frying: The key to the best flaky samosa is to fry them in moderately hot oil, on a low flame & for longer time (very important). Later you increase the heat and fry them on a medium heat until crisp. Since the pastry has enough fats, it won’t soak up oil with this method. This is the secret behind authentic Indian samosa that you get in the best samosa eateries.
- They should not be cooked in very hot oil or on high heat. Very hot oil will cause bubbles on the crust and frying at high temperature won’t cook the samosa dough from inside. You want to cook them on a low flame until the dough is well cooked from inside.
For more similar snacks, you may like to check
Falafel
Spring rolls
Bread rolls
Pakora
Sandwiches
Photo Guide
How to make Samosa (Stepwise Photos)
Preparation
1. Peel, halve and boil 500 grams (3 to 4 medium) potatoes in a pot of water, until fork tender (not mushy). Or pressure cook unpeeled and halved potatoes for 2 to 3 whistles on a medium flame or in the instant pot for 5 mins, placed over a trivet with 1 cup water. Peel them after cooling.
Tip: You can also pressure cook them whole following these timings – small potatoes – 5 mins, medium size – 7 mins and large – 10 mins.
2. Cool the potatoes and crumble them. Set aside.
Make Dough
3. To a mixing bowl add
2 cups all-purpose flour (organic maida)
¾ teaspoon ajwain (carom seeds)
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ cup oil or ghee (4 tablespoons)
4. Mix everything very well. Rub the flour in between your palms to incorporate the oil well for 3 to 4 minutes. After this step the flour should resemble breadcrumbs. Press down a handful of this flour in your palm, it should form or hold the shape. It should not crumble meaning oil is well incorporated. Check video.
5. Add 4 tablespoons water and begin to form a dough ball adding more water as needed. I added about 4+ 2 tablespoons water in total.
6. Dough has to be firm, stiff and not sticky. Cover and rest for 25 to 30 mins.
Make Potato Stuffing
7. Heat 1 tablespoon oil or ghee in a pan. Next add ¾ teaspoon cumin seeds.
8. When the seeds begin to splutter, add 1 tablespoon minced ginger and 1 to 2 chopped green chilies. Saute for 30 to 60 seconds. Then add a pinch of hing. Optional – You can also add some chopped cashews and roast until golden.
9. Add the spice powders –
- ¾ teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder (adjust to taste)
- ½ teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
- ¾ to 1 teaspoon garam masala
- ½ teaspoon cumin powder
- ½ teaspoon amchur powder (dried mango powder) or chaat masala (adjust to taste)
- ½ teaspoon fennel powder (optional, saunf powder)
Saute for 30 seconds and then add green peas. Saute for 1 to 2 mins. Then add potatoes.
10. Saute the entire potato masala for 2 to 3 mins until potatoes blend well with spice powders. Add ¼ cup chopped coriander leaves. Taste test this and adjust salt if needed.
Set aside to cool. If you have not used amchur or chaat masala, then add lemon juice at this stage.
Make Samosa
11. After 25 to 30 mins, knead the dough for another 3 to 4 mins. The dough has to be stiff yet and not soft. Divide the dough to 5 equal parts.
12. Oil the counter or the rolling board. Place the ball.
13. Roll it to a oval shaped even layer. Mine was 8.5 inches long and 6.5 inches wide. It has to be slightly thick and not too thin.
14. Cut it in the center to make 2 parts.
15. The roti shrinks back little due to the nature of all-purpose flour so I prefer to roll it gently again. If you feel the edges are too thick then roll a bit.
16. Apply water with your finger over the straight edge.
17. Join the edges to make a cone shape like you see in the picture. Stick the edges well. Stick the edge from inside the cone as well to secure. Check video. If you have a trouble sticking, make a paste of 2 tbsps flour and little water. Smear little paste to stick the edges.
18. Fill the cone with potato masala. Press down a bit with a tiny spoon.
19. Apply water on the edge.
20. Stick the edges to seal well. On one of the sides, make a pleat as shown in the image. I have shown an alternate but similar method in the video do take a look at it.
21. Bring the pleat to a side and stick it up. Make sure your samosa is sealed well. Pinch and Press down on the edges very well to seal them.
22. This will give you a perfectly standing samosa. Place them on a tray and cover to prevent drying. Just make 5 to 6 samosas first and then fry them. Make the rest of the samosas while you fry the first batch. This way the samosas will not dry up.
Fry Samosa
23. Heat a pan with oil for deep frying. The oil should be moderately hot and not very hot. When it is just getting hot, add a small portion of dough to the oil. It has to rise slowly & the oil must not be bubbling or sizzling a lot. You should see only tiny bubbles. This is the right temperature. (The dough should not come up immediately and turn golden.)
24. Gently slide as many samosas as you can to the oil (I fry 5 at one time). Fry them on a low flame, undisturbed for about 10 to 12 mins. When the crust becomes firm, increase the flame to medium. Turn them to the other side and fry until crispy and golden.
Helpful note: After you add them to the hot oil, you will see very tiny bubbles rising slowly, meaning the temperature is right. You should not be hearing any sizzling noise as it does with other fried snacks.
25. Don’t rush. They will take a lot of time to fry golden. Be patient and fry until golden & crisp. (check video). When the samosas turn golden, remove them to a steel colander or wire rack. For the next batch, reduce the heat completely to bring down the temperature and add them.
Serve samosa with mint chutney, Sweet tamarind chutney or tomato sauce.
How to make Instant Tamarind Samosa Chutney
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons tamarind paste (or 2 tsps. concentrate, more if required)
- ½ cup jaggery / brown sugar
- â…› teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder
- ½ teaspoon cumin powder
- ¼ teaspoon garam masala
- ¼ teaspoon ground fennel
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon black salt (or sea salt only if needed, your tamarind paste may contain salt)
- ¾ cup water
Instructions
- Mix together cumin powder, garam masala, red chili powder and fennel in a small sauce pan. Toast them on a low heat for 30 to 60 seconds, until aromatic. Do not burn.
- Add the jaggery, tamarind paste and pour water. Mix well and simmer until slightly thick, a sauce like consistency.
- Stir in the ginger and black salt during the last 1 minute of cooking. It takes about 8 to 10 mins for the tamarind chutney to reach the right consistency.
- Taste test and add more salt, tamarind, jaggery or any other spice as required to taste.
- Notes – Adjust the amount of tamarind paste as every brand is different. Tamarind paste and concentrate are not same. Concentrate is stronger so start with lesser and adjust as needed.
- Black salt imparts a distinct flavor. You may add that if you have. If you have roasted cumin powder and homemade garam masala, you don’t need to toast the spices in the beginning.
How to make Green Chutney
Ingredients
- 2 cups mint leaves (use only leaves, no stalks, sub with cilantro)
- 1 cup cilantro/ coriander leaves (include tender stalks, sub with mint)
- 2 cup yogurt / thick curd
- 1 teaspoon sugar (adjust to taste)
- 1 teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
- â…“ inch ginger peeled
- 2 small garlic cloves peeled
- 1¼ teaspoon roasted cumin powder (bhuna jeera powder)
- 1 teaspoon chaat masala (optional, for the authentic flavors)
Instructions
- Blend together mint, cilantro, salt, ginger, garlic, green chilies, roasted cumin powder, sugar, salt and 2 to 3 tbsp cold yogurt to a smooth paste.
- Whisk yogurt until smooth and stir in the blended paste. Stir in the chaat masala.
- Taste test and adjust salt, chili and sprinkle lemon juice if required. Serve with kebabs, snacks & sandwiches.
Faqs
Not adding enough oil to the flour will make a hard crust.
Adding more water than needed while making the dough will make soft dough resulting in oily crust.
Yes you can use spring roll sheets or puff pastry sheets to make the samosa.
Frying them in very hot oil or too much moisture in the dough can make plenty of bubbles or blisters on the crust.
How to bake Samosas?
Yes samosas can be baked. But fried samosas taste the best. I have tried baking these after brushing them generously with oil at 340 to 360 F/ 170 to 180 C in a preheated oven for 35 to 40 mins. The results were okay but not as good as the fried ones.
If you are keen to bake them then use ready store bought frozen puff pastry sheets. Roll each sheet to a square. Cut each sheet to 4 to 5 roundels with the help of a round cutter. Then cut each one to half. Then use them as mentioned in the recipe below.
Can I use whole wheat flour / atta?
Yes you can. But for best results I would suggest all-purpose flour. Samosas made with wheat flour have a nutty flavor and are dense. Using 50/50, wheat flour and all-purpose flour will yield better results.
Related Recipes
Recipe Card
Samosa Recipe (Punjabi Potato Samosa)
For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card
Ingredients (US cup = 240ml )
For Samosa Dough
- 2 cups (250 grams) all-purpose flour (organic/ unbleached)
- ¼ cup (60 ml) oil or melted ghee
- 6 tablespoons (90 ml) water
- ¾ teaspoon carom seeds (ajwain)
- ¾ teaspoon salt
For potato filling
- 4 medium (500 grams) potatoes
- ½ cup green peas (boiled or frozen)
- 1 tablespoon oil or ghee
- 1 tablespoon ginger minced or paste
- 1 to 2 green chilies chopped (optional)
- 1 pinch hing (asafoetida) (optional)
- 4 tablespoons coriander leaves chopped finely
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice (or ½ tsp amchur or chaat masala)
- ½ teaspoon salt (adjust to taste)
Spices
- ¾ teaspoon cumin seeds
- ¾ to 1 teaspoon garam masala
- ¾ teaspoon red chilli powder (adjust to taste)
- ½ teaspoon cumin powder
- ½ teaspoon fennel powder (optional)
To serve
- Mint Chutney (or make from separate recipe card below)
- Tamarind Chutney (or make from separate recipe card below)
Instructions
Boil Potatoes
- Peel, halve and boil potatoes in a pot of water, until fork tender (not mushy). Or (pressure cook unpeeled potatoes for 5 whistles on a medium flame or in the instant pot for 8 mins, placed over a trivet. When the pressure drops, cool & peel them.)
- Crumble the potatoes, don't mash them. Keep aside.
Make Dough (or use frozen puff pastry sheets)
- Mix together flour, carom seeds, salt and oil in a mixing bowl.
- Rub the flour well with your fingers or in between your palms for 3 to 4 mins to incorporate the oil. It should look like breadcrumbs and this is very important to make flaky samosa.
- Take handful of flour and press down with your fingers. It must hold shape and not crumble. This is an indication that the oil is well incorporated. (check video or photos in the post)
- Add water little by little and mix the flour to form a slightly stiff yet pliable dough. (Check pictures in the post). It should not be very soft like roti/naan dough. Cover and rest for 25 to 30 mins.
Make Potato Filling
- Heat a pan with oil. Add cumin seeds.
- When they begins to sizzle, add ginger & green chilies. Fry until ginger smells aromatic, for about 30 to 60 seconds.
- Stir in the green peas and saute for 2 mins.
- Add red chilli powder, garam masala, cumin powder, chaat masala (optional) & fennel powder. Saute for 30 seconds.
- Stir in the potatoes and sprinkle salt. Mix and saute for 2 to 3 mins. Mix in coriander leaves & set aside to cool.
- Taste and add more salt if needed. If using lemon juice, add it now. Divide the mixture roughly to 10 portions.
How to Make Samosa
- Knead the dough gently to smoothen a bit. Divide it to 5 portions and roll to balls. Cover the dough balls until the end, to prevent drying out.
- Grease the rolling area and then flatten a ball. Drizzle a few drops of oil.
- Begin to roll to a circle or oval shaped disc. (Around 8.5 inches long by 6.5 inches wide). It should be neither too thick nor too thin. (Watch video)
- Using a knife cut it to two semicircles. The 2 parts make 2 samosas. If the edges are too thick, gently roll it to thin down.
- Work on one part – apply water over the straight edge (towards the cut side). Join the edges to make a cone. Press down gently to seal the cone from inside as well. (Check video or photos above) (If you have trouble sticking them, make a paste of flour and water, smear that lightly & then stick)
- Fill the cone with one portion of potato masala and press down with your finger to push it inside the cone. Smear water generously on both the other edges.
- Bring the edges together and seal them by pinching off the edges together. If you prefer to make a standing samosa, make a pleat on one side. Bring back the pleat and seal it by pinching off the edges together. (Check video or photos above)
- Make sure the samosa is sealed well. Cover them with a cloth to prevent drying.
Deep Fry
- After you make 5 samosas, begin to heat the oil until medium hot.
- Oil has to be medium hot and not very hot or cold. A piece of dough dropped in the oil should not sizzle or rise immediately. Instead you should see tiny bubbles in the oil & the dough should take a while to come up to the surface. This is the right temperature.
- Gently add as many samosas as you can to the oil and fry them on a low flame, undisturbed for few minutes (about 10 to 12 mins).
- When the crust becomes firm, increase the flame to medium. Turn them to the other side and fry until crispy and golden.
- While the first batch of samosas fry, make the rest of them. Remove the golden fried samosas to a wired rack or a steel colander. Let the temperature of oil come down slightly before you fry the next batch.
- Serve samosa with mint chutney, sweet tamarind chutney or tomato ketchup.
Bake Samosa in Oven
- Preheat the oven at 180 C or 360 F for about 20 mins. Brush each samosa generously with oil all over and place them on a prepared tray. Bake these for about 35 to 40 mins.
In the Air Fryer
- Spray your samosa with oil or brush with ghee. Preheat your air fryer for 7 mins at 360 F or 180 C if required.
- Place the samosa in the air fryer basket or tray spacing them at least an inch apart from each other.
- Air fry for 12 mins, turn them to the other side and air fry for another 5 to 6 mins, or a little longer until golden and crisp. (In non-preheated air fryer air fry at 370 F or 190 C for the same time)
- Brush them with ghee or oil as required.
Notes
- This recipe makes 10 large samosas, the same size you get in authentic Indian restaurants. If you want, you may make 14 medium or 16 mini samosas. You just have to divide the dough and filling to more portions.
- Crushed spices: In punjabi samosas, usually crushed coriander seeds and fennel seeds are used in the stuffing. I have not used them here as my kids don’t like biting into the whole spices. You can use 1 tsp of coriander seeds & half tsp of fennel seeds crushed. Add them to the initial tempering along with cumin.
- Boiling potatoes: It is essential to keep the boiled potatoes fork tender and not mushy. Increase or reduce the pressure cook timing depending on the size of your potatoes.
- You may add 1 medium onion to the stuffing. But it is not at all needed. After tempering the spices you can add the fine chopped onions and saute until light brown.
Video
NUTRITION INFO (estimation only)
© Swasthi’s Recipes
About Swasthi
I’m Swasthi Shreekanth, the recipe developer, food photographer & food writer behind Swasthi’s Recipes. My aim is to help you cook great Indian food with my time-tested recipes. After 2 decades of experience in practical Indian cooking I started this blog to help people cook better & more often at home. Whether you are a novice or an experienced cook I am sure Swasthi’s Recipes will assist you to enhance your cooking skills. More about me
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Comments
A woman I work with is from Lahore and doubted I could make anything even close to a real samosa. I did 2 test batches (I love samosas, so they weren’t wasted) to make sure I knew what I was doing before presenting one to my friend. Her response: “Where did you buy these?? They’re better than my grandmother’s samosas!”. After several batches she still doesn’t completely believe that a white guy can make amazing samosas. Thank you, Swasthi!
Glad you like the samosas Rik. Thank you so much for sharing back.
Which kind of potato do you recommend is best for this recipe?
Lisa, Russet or Yukon gold work well
its wonderful and delicious
Thank you
Thanks a lot for samosa recipe,everything u explained very nicely
Swasthi, you are an angel and your recipes are my go-to Indian, no fail recipes! This samosa was amazing! I made it a little bit more spicy though by adding 1/4 tsp of powdered ghost pepper, along with the kashmiri pepper. It was AMAZING! I made the mint sauce and tamarind sauce for the dips and the samosas were gone within 30 mins between 3 people.
Thank you for the kind words SCRA. You made my day! So happy to know the recipes work well for you. Thanks again!
Hi,
Any healthier alternative for maida that i can use?
Hi Anshika,
Yes you can use wheat flour and it is mentioned in the faq section. But the crust will be dense and but it still tastes good
No haldi, generous amount of amchur, crushed coriander and fennel seeds from the notes, made these truly the best Punjabi samosas. I made a double batch and they all are gone under 30 mins. Thank you for the video and pictures. Really helped a lot!
That’s lovely Tiara. Happy to read that. Thank you for sharing back.
We have made samosas many times using this recipe and it never fails. I make these without any changes and I get repeat requests from family and friends. I am making them again this weekend. Thank you for the amazing work
Glad you all like them Christa. You made my day! Thanks for sharing back
awesome recipe explained in detail.. tried it and made better samosas at home than the ones we get from store… thanks
So happy to read that Asma. Thanks for sharing back
Good detail
I am making these for an Indian couple for their anniversary who own a store I go to. Looks like the perfect recipe. This is only my second attempt on making samosas. They sound great! Will let you know how they turn out.
Can’t watch the video because ads come on literally after one second. No comment on the recipe because I didn’t try it.
Hi Neil,
What you are watching is a trailer. There is a different detailed video that’s put in the recipe card at the end of the page. It is played from youtube. Please watch that. Hope you get to try!
Hello, My name is Remas Sharif. I am a 7th grader who is currently taking a class called Genius Hour. It is an elective class where I get to learn about a topic I’m really interested in. I have chosen samosas for my topic. I would like to ask you a couple of questions to help me with my research.
1. What is the hardest/worst part of making samosas?
2. What is your favorite part in making samosas?
Any help you would be able to provide would be much appreciated. Thank you for your time.
Sincerly,
Remas
Hello Remas,
You choose a great topic and good luck to you!
1. Forming the dough correctly is the hardest part of making samosa. You can easily go wrong adding too much water or kneading it too much.
2. Shaping the dough and filling the samosas is my favorite and fun part.
Hope this helps. Let me know if you want us to moderate your details in the comment section.
Thank you so much for your response and help.
Swasthi, your samosa recipe is fantastic and everyone loved them. This time we made 14 samosas instead of 10 as written in the recipe and they were much smaller than I anticipated. The filling is delicious and the frying instructions are great. They come out crisp every time, never fails! Thank you
Do you think that if I make these and form them and then freeze them that they’ll still be good when I fry them later? It’s all I had the time to do today and I was not going to let my dough dry out. I’m hoping for the best because I got these at a street vendor in Minnesota once and they were so spicy and amazing. The filling tasted exactly right.
Hi Allie,
Sorry! I think I am late (different time zone) and you may have frozen them. It’s alright to freeze them uncooked but we found frying them partially before freezing kept them much better. Fry them straight from frozen, at a slightly higher temperature and hope you enjoy the samosas.
Restaurant samosas never taste like the ones I remember buying from street vendors in India long ago. This recipe tasted so real! Although my dough was too wet, they still fried up flaky and crispy thanks to your excellent frying instructions. And, the potato filling is perfect! I’ll probably make that as a dish by itself in the future
Thanks Talia. Yes the best samosas are made on the streets not in the restaurants. Sometimes letting it sit for too long or kneading it even a little more makes it too wet. You should be able to get it right in the next attempt. Thanks again for sharing back your thoughts.
i am italian and I love your samosas recipe! they are very yummy and i am proud of myself for making them pretty well, thank you for sharing!
So happy to read that Alessia. Thank you for letting us know!
During Diwali we made the complete samosa chaat meal using your recipes. These samosas are fabulous and followed the street style chole from your tikki chaat. The previous day we made a large batch of tamarind and green chutneys. We just had to make the samosa on the day of serving since everything was made a day ahead. It was worth the effort and my family loved it. Thank you for the amazing and reliable recipes
Wow! That’s a great way to enjoy samosas. So happy to read that Ramya. Thank you for writing
Hello, it’s one of my favorite Indian snacks. I will first try it for Diwali tomorrow
Hope you like them Patrice
This was THE most intimidating Indian dish for me to try…before only in restaurants! The step by step instructions gave me courage!!! Excellent flavor and wonderful results!
Thank you Ana
My favorite Snack. Good preparation and nice article…
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