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Thattai Recipe by DK on Aug 12, 2009

Thattai Murukku Recipe | Krishna Jayanthi Recipes | Gokulashtami Recipes
One of my all time favorite snacks after salt seedai is called Thattai. Its a crispy thin South Indian savory snack and one of the important dish made as offering during festivals like Krishna Jayanthi.  These are highly addictive and you would be hard pressed to stop at just one.
Thattai Murukku Recipe | Krishna Jayanthi Recipes | Gokulashtami Recipes
These made a regular appearance during my first year of marriage. The cold and rainy Seattle made a perfect backdrop for some crispy thattai along with hot ginger tea. These photos don't do justice to how delish these are. I found it difficult to multitask the process of cooking and taking photos.
Thattai Murukku Recipe | Krishna Jayanthi Recipes | Gokulashtami Recipes
Its a pretty straightforward recipe and this recipe comes from a lot of haggling with my mom. She is a "look and feel" cook and to coax out the measurements was a task indeed. But it was all worth it in the end when they tasted as good as the ones made by my mom. To me, that's success enough :).
  • Cook time:
  • Prep time:
  • Serves: Around 10
  • Yields: Makes around 10-15 thattai's depending in the thinness and size
Ingredients
  • 1 cup Rice Flour (sifted)
  • 2 tbsp Urad Dal flour (see how to make it here)
  • 2 tbsp Bengal gram/Channa Dal/Kadalaparuppu
  • 1/4 cup freshly grated coconut
  • 1/2 tbsp white sesame seeds
  • 2 tbsp Ghee
  • salt to taste
  • 1/4 tsp asafoetida
Method
1. Soak the Bengal gram in some water for an hour until soft. Then add all the ingredients together
2. Slowly add water, tablespoon by tablespoon to form it into a dough
3. Dont add too much water. You should get a tight dough
4. Take a plastic sheet. Grease it with little oil/ghee. Form a small ball from the dough and place it on the sheet
5. Grease your fingers and press the ball with your fingers to flatten it.
6. Press it thin. Its ok if the edges get frayed a little - you are not going to win any prizes for the best looking Thattai's!
7. Slowly turn it over your palm. The greased plastic will enable it to slip on your hands easily
8. Drop it gently in hot oil
9. The oil will bubble and slowly the thattai's will come on the surface.
10. Turn them to cook evenly until golden yellow/ deep brown
11. Drop them on a paper towel to drain excess oil
Once cooled, store them in an airtight container. They keep very well for weeks. They are great on their own but we also enjoy them with our tea and rasam.
Thattai Murukku Recipe | Krishna Jayanthi Recipes | Gokulashtami Recipes

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Recipe Reference

Mom's recipe notes

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9 Member Reviews

By Aruna on Jun 22, 2012

I made this thattai.  It was excellent . My husband's favourite item is this. Thank you very much. I added chilly powder also.

Recipe Image

By Amrita on Aug 25, 2011

Hi DK I made Thattai as per ur recipe but i used Roasted rice flour instead of the normal one.I also omitted white sesame seeds as I did not have them.The result was a dark brown (instead of the normal golden brown) colour with the same taste..\"smiley\"...wanted to show u this..\"laugh\"

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38 Comments

By Lakshmi on Sep 6, 2015

Tried it....came out very good. The maiden effort was a huge success

By Karthik on Jun 24, 2013

I tried this recipe but they blew up like pooris and tended to either be soft inside or charred on the outside if I kept them for a longer time in the oil. What am I getting wrong?

By Sudha on May 18, 2013

I want to ask which oil you use for frying.The colour is very nice.pl.do reply.

I alternate between 2-3 oils for frying, but this one is traditional Sesame oil --DK

By Sudha on May 18, 2013

Hi,Wonderful thattai.my family loved it.thanks for this recipe.

By GEETHA SUBRAMANIAN on Mar 16, 2013

I read your receipe. Can you please clarify, whether we can use rice flour purchased from shops. If it has to be prepared by us , whether we have to use raw rice or boiled rice

By Priya on Nov 22, 2012

Very good recipes. For the thatai, do i use soaked rice powdered or soaked rice powdered and fried ? pls help me. i want to make it today.

By subhavenkatesan on Nov 15, 2012

fine.I tried ur recepies it was nice,good.pls continue.

By veena on Nov 2, 2012

Hi I enjoy reading your site and I tried out thattai, they tasted good as soon as fried but turned soft next day. What could be the reason? Another thing, how to add your site as reader for my ipad? Thanks in advance.

Cooling it down completely and storing in an air tight container will keep it crispy. But if you live in a cold climate, then I guess its hard to keep it crispy for long! Will get back to you if I get to know of any tips for this. As for Ipad, I have no idea! I don't own once hence havent really figured out that nuance yet--DK

By nanda on Jun 23, 2012

I like all recipes Big Hug Nanda

By nanda on Jun 23, 2012

I like all recipes. Big Hug Nanda

By Tasneem on Apr 27, 2012

Thank you for all the effort you have put in providing these wonderful recipes. I stumbled upon your site whilst searching for this recipe - thought they were called elladai. In fact I tried two of your recipes today - the murukku recipe & the thattai recipe - both turned out really good. I usually make murukku using 2 cups rice flour to 1 cup besan, which also are very tasty. But today in addition to my recipe I made yours too & am happy that everything was successful. I made the thattai using the roti maker as it is very easy and they turn out all even & as one of the posts suggested I added chilli flakes & chilli powder, some raw peanuts, til, curry leaves, some ginger and ajwain. Thank you very much again. I look forward to using more of your recipes.

By Cauvery Jayshankar on Oct 24, 2011

I tried thattai muruku and came out tasty. I added curry leaves and chilli powder too. Thanks for the easy and quick to make recipe!

By suman on Sep 10, 2011

hi this recipe is good i will try it

By JustaGirl on Aug 27, 2011

Planning on making these for my mom when she visits in September :) They are her absolute favourite! Will post pics once I am done.

By vikram on Aug 20, 2011

hi thanks for sharing this recipe... my mom liked the recipes a lot...

By Allison on Jul 20, 2011

I LOVE thattais! Thanks for the recipes and procedures. I have been wanting to make these for a long time. Of course they are good on their own, but I think they will make an excellent substitute for corn tortilla chips for my sister, who must avoid eating corn.

By hithaishi on Jul 20, 2011

I made this today, came awesome.my husband and kid loved it.I used my chapati maker to flatten the dough, that was quick. Thanks for the receipe

By cn on Oct 5, 2010

hi! i made thattais n they came out very delicious!i added red chilli flakes n a bit of chilli-ginger paste to it. i also added few tbsps of sour curd when binding the dough. the result was amazing!

By sRI on Sep 1, 2010

Thanks for these recipe.. Thanks for giving all names in tamil too (kadala paruppu) ... This is my first year gokula ashtami after marraige .... I am going to make this today evening. I will tell you evening about how it came.

By Sowmya on May 26, 2010

Your Thattais look superb! Did u add some food colour to the dough?

Oh No! Not at all. I try to avoid adding food color/ any other artificial ingredients as much as possible . In case of otherwise, I wud def. mention it in the recipe :) I just deep fried it to a more golden red color. :) --DK

By azeeza bijli on Mar 14, 2010

:) very nice and tasty seedai i luv it oooooooooooooooooo...............................!

By Purnima on Feb 23, 2010

LOL,, Sorry, what I meant to say in my earlier comment was "Your efforts are great help to people who browse recipes on net "

By Purnima on Feb 22, 2010

:-P Hi, Very nice, like your arrangement of everything in the website. Its a pleasure to read and love your sense of humur. I am a south Indian but left India long time ago. I have not made this in a while. Looked at so many recipes of thatti but yours is the best, refreshed my memory. Great job D & K. I have a team too but my significant other loves to eat :wink: and I love to cook. :-o Your efforts are big help to people who browse net for internet. Very well presented blog, good recipes and great attitude.

By DS on Nov 23, 2009

Hi DK: I have become your fan ever since I visited this website :) ! I made Thattai today and it was awesome - both taste and look wise. I want to thank you. BTW I must admit: these days --- for any recipe I look at your website first for step-by-step guidelines! You have done a great job! Top class presentation. Keep up the good work :mrgreen: ! - DS

Thanks for such a generous feedback. I am glad you love what you see at Chef In You. Encouragement as this, is what keeps me motivated :) -- DK

By Michael A. Madison on Nov 12, 2009

I bought some at a local USA grocery. I really liked them as they were full of chili. Anyone have a slightly different recipe?? Thanks!

You can easily make it hot by adding 1/2-1 tsp chilli powder to the recipe (or as per taste). You can also sprinkle chilli powder on these Thattai's as soon you remove from the oil after frying, while still hot. -- DK

By nira on Oct 16, 2009

hi , i just came across your recipes and they look very yummy.Motivated by it i tried to do murukku. Since it was my thala deepavali i wanted to surprise my husband.Everything was good except that the inside part was soft and outside was crisp.I want to make it like how my mom makes.Can u pl suggest me a way to solve this...

Thanks Nira :). The only explanation I can think of is probably the heat. Keep the oil hot and after dropping the murukkus, reduce to medium. I think the outside cooked faster than the inside. Also make sure that you drop the murukkus as soon as you roll them out with the maker before it dries out - drop it in the oil. I hope this helps. --- DK

By Jyothi on Oct 15, 2009

Hi, I do not have the coconut scrapper, can I slightly ground the coconut and add it in the mixture?

Hi Jyothi, I think it should work just as fine...:) Just make sure its not too moist - DK

By Pree on Oct 15, 2009

Hi..... Thattai's are looking very nice and crispy, Wish i can make this for Deepavali. Being this is my First Deepavali i wanna make this and give a surprise shock to my Hubby. In this process i am having a big doubt ...... Pls note i am put up in an hotel where everywhere fire alarms are present, so just want to know is it safe to make the area where i am ??? My husband never allows me to keep Oil for deep frying only for the above reason.... Await your valuable reply Thanks once again for your great effort :-)

Dear Pree, This deep frying should not be a problem since it does not cause that much of a smoke to cause fire alarms to break out. I have fire alarms in my house too and till date it has never caused concern. The only precaution I can think of ( since it is your first time) is that 1. Make sure you have the exhaust on 2. Open up any windows or ventilation just in case 3. And also not to keep the oil on v high heat and burning for long without any thattai's in it. Too much high heat without any food frying will also cause the oil to smoke too much causing alarm to go off 4. Keep the oil high and once you place the thattai's reduce it to med. Once fried and once ready for placing the next thattai, increase the heat again. This should help both to have crunchy thattai's along with making sure that oil does not smoke. Otherwise dont you worry - you will surely be able to give a pleasant surprise to your husband :) Good Luck :) Hope this helps ---DK

By Sheila on Oct 12, 2009

This is my very first time going to try out to make my own murukku and tattai which I will be following your method. They are really easy and simple to make. Thank you and good job!

By Lavanya on Sep 29, 2009

thanks for sharing the excellent recipe ! thattai came out very crispy and tasty.was easy to make too ,unlike the murukku which has to be made with the murruku maker,my hands used to pain while using the murukku maker.but this thattai is very easy to make without much strain. thanks a lot!

I am glad you like it Lavanya :) Yes sometimes making Murukkus can be a real hardwork! But they are so worth it arent they ;) That's why I always say, its better if someone else makes them for me :) - DK

By Kamala on Aug 17, 2009

Very nice shots. Nice and interesting blog

By Priya on Aug 13, 2009

My all time favourite, looks great DK!

By Chakh...le...Re!!! on Aug 13, 2009

woww!! That looks crispy and yummy!! Plss pass me some. Adding bengal gram is a cool idea!!

By mandira on Aug 13, 2009

they look fabulous!

By Sunshinemom on Aug 13, 2009

Lovely!! I appreciate you doing all this single handed!!

By K on Aug 13, 2009

They look simply mouthwatering:)

By TheThoughtfulTrain on Aug 13, 2009

My amma used to make this when we were kids. We call it Pappadavada! :-) Though I am not very fond of it, but will keep it in mind - will be useful when folks come home. :-) I am amazed at how you strike a balance between all cuisines! :-)

By Aparna on Aug 12, 2009

I think they look gorgeous. Happy Janmashatami.