Thattai recipe with video & step by step photos. Thattai are popular deep fried Indian Snacks made with rice flour, urad dal flour, salt and herbs. These crunchy rice crackers are from the Tamil cuisine and are also known as thattu vadai. During the festive season thattai & murukku are made in most South Indian homes as festivals are incomplete without fresh homemade delicacies.
Thattai are known as Nippattu in karnataka and chekkalu in Andhra. However all these 3 are different in texture and taste as they are made with different proportions and ingredients.
Each home has their own recipe of making these to suit their personal preference. This recipe yields light, tasty and crispy thattai that you can make for a tea time snack.
Making perfectly crunchy traditional rice flour snacks begins with rinsing the rice well, draining and drying. Then milled to flour as the fresh ground flour enhances the aroma & texture of these snacks.
To make thattai and murukku, I follow the same traditional method & make rice flour at home using raw rice during festivals. However this time I have made these using store bought rice flour.
If you have a helping hand home then I suggest making thattai with homemade rice flour as they taste the best.
If using store bought rice flour make sure you use the one from an Indian brand preferably South Indian brands. There are tons of varieties of rice flour available in the market – made with long rice, sticky rice, glutinous rice, boiled rice etc.
Many of these do not work well to make these rice crackers. Unknowingly I had tried these snacks a few years ago with different kinds of flours and they turned out to be soft within hours.
So the key to tasty and crunchy thattai is good rice flour. If you are a beginner, I would highly recommend watching the thattai recipe video and the following the step by step photo instructions.
Step-by-step photos
Preparation for thattai recipe
1. Wash and soak chana dal for 1 hour, drain it completely and set aside.
2. Roast urad dal or peanuts on a low to medium flame till golden. Cool completely. If using peanuts, then remove the skin.
3. Add roasted dal and fried gram to a blender jar. If using peanuts, first powder the fried gram very fine. Then add peanuts and make a coarse powder. You can also powder sesame seeds and use.
4. I used urad dal & fried gram so i made a fine powder together.
Making dough
5. Add rice flour, urad dal and fried gram flour, salt, red chili powder, drained chana dal and sesame seeds. Sometimes sesame seeds splutter while frying, so make sure they are lightly crushed.
6. Add curry leaves and butter.
7. Mix up gently to incorporate the butter and then add water little by little. Do not pour lot of water at one time.
8. Make a stiff and non sticky soft dough.
9. Divide the dough to 14 to 16 balls.
How to make thattai
10. Spread a dry cloth. Grease your fingers. Begin to make thattai by flattening the dough ball.
11. Flatten the dough as much as possible. You will see the balls begin to crack towards the edges. That is just fine, join up the cracks. Grease your fingers as needed. You can also flatten these with the base of a greased steel bowl or a greased lid. I am comfortable making these with fingers as the thattai turns out even with fingers.
12. Make these thin as shown in the picture. Too thin thattai will break while you lift and too thick ones will not turn crisp. So make them moderately thin.
13. Heat oil in a deep kadai. When the oil is hot enough, drop a small flat piece of dough to check if the oil is hot enough. The dough should come up and not sink to the bottom.
Slide thattai in the hot oil from the sides. Take cake while you slide it. Flip and fry on both sides until golden. You can fry more than one thattai at one time if there is enough space in the kadai.
14. The bubbles begin to reduce when they are well fried. Drain them to a kitchen towel. Cool them completely. They will look very oil as soon as you remove them from oil but then nothing much would be on the surface or in the thattai.
Storing thattai
Now comes the very important part of storing them well. Not only the method of preparing thattai even the way they are stored is very important to keep them fresh and crispy for many days.
Do use a clean and moisture free air tight container. I use air tight stainless steel containers to store thattai, chakli, murukku.
Do not leave them too long to the air/fan/ air con once they are cooled down. As soon as you notice them cooled transfer them to the jar.
Thattai should be completely cool before moving to the jar. These keep good for 2 weeks.
You may like to check these festive snacks recipes,
Butter murukku
Sweet murukku
Ribbon pakoda
Murukku
Chakli
Recipe
Thattai recipe
For best results follow the step-by-step photos above the recipe card
Ingredients (1 cup = 240ml )
To roast and powder
- 1½ tsp urad dal or 1½ tbsp peanuts
Ingredients for thattai
- 1 cup rice flour
- 1 tbsp butter (unsalted)
- 2 tbsp fried gram or roasted gram or pottukadalai
- 1 tbsp chana dal or bengal gram (soaked for 1 hour)
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds (crushed, optional, use fresh)
- ½ tsp red chilli powder (use 1 tsp for spicy)
- ¼ tsp asafoetida or hing
- Salt as needed
- 1 sprig curry leaves chopped finely
- Water as needed
- Oil for deep frying as needed
Instructions
Preparation
- Wash and soak chana dal for 1 hour. Drain and set aside.
- Dry roast urad dal or peanuts until lightly golden and cool them. If using peanuts, remove the skin.
- Add urad dal to a blender jar along with fried gram. Make a fine powder. If using peanuts, then powder fried gram very fine, then add skinned peanuts and make a coarse powder. You can also powder sesame seeds.
Making thattai dough
- To a mixing bowl, add rice flour, urad dal & fried gram powder, red chili powder, hing, salt, sesame seeds & chopped curry leaves.
- Drain the soaked chana dal and add it to the bowl.
- Also add soft butter & mix all of them well to incorporate the butter.
- Pour little water and begin to mix everything to make thattai dough.
- Add more water as needed and make the dough.
- Dough has to be non sticky, stiff and smooth.
- Too moist dough will make your thattai greasy as the excess moisture will soak up oil.
- Next too little moisture in the dough will make the thattai crack a lot while spreading the dough and make them hard.
- Taste the dough and add more salt if required.
- Divide the dough to 14 to 16 balls. Keep it covered.
How to make thattai
- Heat oil on a medium flame in a wide kadai.
- Spread a dry cloth, grease your fingers.
- Place a ball on the cloth or greased sheet.
- Begin to spread them moderately thin.
- Very thin thattai will break when you remove from the cloth. Very thick ones will not turn crisp.
- If the edges begin to crack then join them together.
- Make as many thattai as possible till the oil heats up.
- Check if the oil is hot by dropping a tiny flat piece of dough. It should rise and not sink.
- Transfer one thattai at one time to the hot oil.
- You can fry more than one thattai at one time if there is space in your kadai. But do not crowd them as they will not fry properly.
- Make sure the flame is set to medium high. Low flame will make them oily and high flame will brown them.
- Flip them when fried on one side. Flip as needed to both the sides and fry until evenly golden & crisp.
- When they are fried fully, bubbles will begin to reduce in the oil.
- Drain them on a kitchen tissue.
- Repeat frying them in batches.
- When they cool down, transfer them immediately to a tight air tight container.
- Serve thattai as a snack. They keep good for about 2 weeks if fried in fresh oil.
Video
Video of thattai recipe
NUTRITION (estimation only)
Notes
Alternative quantities provided in the recipe card are for 1x only, original recipe.
For best results follow my detailed step-by-step photo instructions and tips above the recipe card.
© Swasthi’s Recipes
Soundarya says
Your recipies are great. Your recipies helped me learn cooking. Thank you very much for inspiring me to cook better!
swasthi says
Welcome Soundarya
Glad to know!
Thank you
Sujatha says
Tried this thattai! Came out well , super recipe thanks Swasthi..
swasthi says
Welcome Sujatha
Glad to know
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Preethy says
Can pottukadalai be replaced with something else? Pottukadalai is not available in the place I stay.
swasthi says
Hi Preethy
I haven’t tried with substitutes. Fried gram makes them light. I have a similar recipe you can check it Chekkalu. These are more crispier than thattai
Preethy says
Thank you
Vanitha Rathod says
Can i use ghee instead of butter?
swasthi says
You can use hot oil instead of butter.
Gayathri says
Is there a particular reason why one shouldn’t use ghee?
swasthi says
I haven’t tried it
Ranjini Prabhakar says
Your Thathai recipe seems interesting. Going to make tomorrow. Thank you!
swasthi says
Welcome Ranjini
Hope you like them!
Manisha Tiwari says
Can I bake these thattai. I would like to try baked version. please suggest.
swasthi says
Hi Manisha
I haven’t tried them baking.
Revathi says
Thank you so much for the thattai recipe. I made them and turned out very good. Making another batch today. Good work.
swasthi says
Welcome Revathi
Glad to know! Thanks for the comment.
Prakash Iyer says
Hi,
I tried the recipe for making Thattai at home.The test was good but it lost crispness within 2 hours of storage in airtight container.
All steps were taken religiously.
Kindly suggest any precaution(s) to ensure that thattai remains crisp for many more days and enjoyable :
Prakash Iyer
swasthi says
Hi,
As I mentioned in the post, thattai turns soft for several reasons.
1. Frying them in oil that isn’t hot enough.
2. The quality of flour.
3. Not frying thattai for long enough.
4. Frying them on a high flame will brown them too quickly but they don’t stay crisp for longer.
If you have followed all these steps and yet your thattai isn’t crisp for longer then i would say it should be the flour. I suggest refrying them in oil to make them edible.
Hope this helps.
Shama says
Very practical.
Krithikavedhachalam says
Perfect recipe,it came out really well,texture was so nice
It looked crunchy but was very comfortable to eat
Really a big thanks and wishes
swasthi says
Hi Krithika
You are welcome. Glad to know thattai turned out good. Thanks for the comment.
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Aswini says
Hi Swasthi,
I tried this thattai today. Perfect recipe. Came out very well. Thank you for the recipe.
swasthi says
You are welcome Aswini,
Glad your thattai turned out good. Thank you so much!
Umaravichandran says
Very nice and explained very clearly.well done
swasthi says
Thank you
Jayanthi says
When i make thaatai it to soft but not crispy what should I do please tell me the recipe
swasthi says
Hi Jayanthi,
Thattai becomes soft if you fry them when the oil is not hot enough or if you make them thick. They must be as thin as possible and must be fried in hot oil on a medium high flame. Try this recipe it will turn out good.
siva says
Fantastic recipe, Very easy nicely explained.
Tried it and it came very well. Thank you for the recipe.
Rehma says
Long back I searched for this recipe. I dint find here so dint try anywhere?. This Iām gonna try it. Akka my sons birthday is coming up. We are planning veg menu for 3 families . You know my cooking skills so please suggest me some very simple menu ?? please Thank you
swasthi says
Welcome Rehma,
Yes I can mail the menu for you by evening.
Rehma says
Thank u so much akka
Suriya says
That’s such a wonderful recipe.. well explained.. gonna try fa sure.. cheers š