Chakli (chaakli or chakkuli)

67 Comments / Munchies (dabbe khaaN) / By

Chakli/chaakli or Murukku is my first entry in ‘dabbe khaaN’ category (dabbe khaaN means the food that can be prepared and saved for many days in a dabba or jar).

Chakli is the most famous crunchy snack or ‘dabbe khaaN’ of India. I think every household has their own way of making this dish. When I was in college, mom would make this in bulk and give us. In our hostel, all the friends would attack it as soon as we reached hostel from home. She always used the fresh coconut oil for deep frying. Her chaklis remain good for months. This was my first attempt at chaklis, since in India, I never had to make them on my own. My mom would make them whenever I asked. I always preferred her chaklis over the ones available in stores.

I used the sunflower oil for deep frying, I had little hopes that they would turn out well. But before I finished making them, I had finished eating half the bunch and within two days I finished all (well…two days because my husband had to literally pull the container from my hand and keep it, repeatedly saying don’t eat too much. Save a bit for tomorrow).

Mom uses homemade butter (called as ‘loNi’ in Konkani or ‘makkhan’ in Hindi) for them, I used this shortening. I think shortening makes the dishes crispier.

Ingredients:
Rice flour 5 cups
Butter (loni) or shortening ¾ cup
Urad daal 4-5 tea spns
Cumin seeds (jeera) 1 tea spn
Sesame seeds (Til) 1 tea spn
Oil
Milk
Salt

Method:
Roast urad daal (without oil) till they turn slightly brownish and powder them.
Add the powder, butter, cumin seeds, sesame seeds and salt to rice flour and mix well. Now add milk/water to it slowly mixing it to remove any lumps (Milk makes the chaklis crispier and tastier). Make it into dough (like chapathi dough).
Knead the dough well on a flat board, pressing the dough to the board.

Fill the chakli press with the dough and press into chakli shape on a flat board (use a plastic paper on the board to make it easier to lift the chaklis).

(Use the following ‘shape’)

If the chaklis tend to break while making, try kneading the dough for some more time, if still it doesn’t come out well, add some more milk/water and knead again.
Heat oil in a kadai and deep fry the chaklis. Take out on a kitchen towel.

When they are cooled to room temperature, store them in an airtight container.

Preparation time : 90mins

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67 thoughts on “Chakli (chaakli or chakkuli)”

  7. Deepa

    You are such a fearless cook, Shilpa. Now chakli is something I would never dare to attempt so difficult does the task look to me. Its something my mother did ages ago and I waited to eat. Now, all I can do is look at your photo and drool. BTW, let me know if you are still in Kansas. have some goodies for you.

    Reply
  8. Anupama

    Lovely Chaklis shilpa, I asked my mom to get me the chakli flour (bhajani) for me from india and the chakli maker as well but due to weight restrictions on the flight she had to leave both behind. So no chaklis for me this diwali.

    Reply
  10. Shilpa

    Thanks MT, Madhuli, Linda, anon, varsha,krithika.
    Preeti, thats a nice suggestion. I will change the name now.
    Anupama, I bought the chakli press in Indian store. It is available for $9 to $13. Its a great addition to kitchen. I kept it on hold for 7 months and finally bought it few days back :).
    Deepa, yes I am still in Kansas. I will mail you seperately.

    Reply
  12. Aruna

    I donno when you made them, coincidence maybe, but i made them on Sat, when i took the recipe from my mom in the morning. I was so tempted to try it, made it immediaty.They look gr8. So neat all in same size. Thanks for sharing

    Reply
  16. Rajasi

    Gosh! It looks so delicious!!! I want to make them, but I am very apprehensive about that chakli press, I don’t think mine will come out in one spiral. I will break them in thousand pieces!!!

    Reply
  17. mamta

    hey shilpa let me tell u that u r an awesome cook, u can make THE CHAKKULI…i wanted to ask u can i make it as kodable as i dont have the press.just give me the yes and i’l jump to it.

    Reply
  18. Shilpa

    Thanks all.

    Rajasi, you can make them well. Try kneading the dough well, if still they break, add some more milk/water and knead again. My first chakli broke into pieces, I then added some milk, kneaded again and they came out well :).

    Mamta, Thanks for the nice words. Yes you can make them like kodbale. But I am going to post the actual kodbale tomorrow, so you can follow that too :).

    Reply
  20. anu

    Hi Shiilpa, wanted 2 try out chakli.Firstly i wanna know can ghee be used instead of butter[loni] as we don’t prepare loni neither i know wat shortening is.Is amul butter ok?I suppose not coz now i realise that in d kodbale recipe i used amul butter which must have made it break while friying[as amul butter is salty].Looking forward 4 ur rply.

    Reply
  21. Shilpa

    Anu, you can use Amul butter or Vanaspathi ghee for making these chaklis. I don’t think the butter will make any difference to them. Knead the dough very well if you feel they would break. (my first chakli broke, so I added some more milk and kneaded well and the other chaklis came out real good).

    Reply
  23. Roopa

    Hi Shilpa, it looks so mouth watering, i had tried to make chaklis a lot of times, but never came out good, always the problem is it becomes too brittle,…i dont know what the cause is…but i will try ur recipe and let u know how it turns out…all your pics in this site is sooo nice:) keep up ur good work!

    Reply
  24. Rowena

    This is a wonderful recipe – I puchased my press in Hyderabad and have been waiting foe a good recipe.Thank you

    Reply
  25. Sarita

    Hi Shilpa,
    Me too prepare the chakkuli but instead of rice flour I use maida and prepare “maida chakkuli”..the only thing is that you need to steam the maida in steamer (Pedavan) for 20 minutes and seive them.measurement will be 4 cups of maida and 2 cups of “hoorna” (fried urad dal powder) Rest of the prosedure is same and I use white til instead of black til.
    I am gonna try this one too…
    Sarita Bhandarkar
    Appleton, WI USA

    Reply
  26. Udita

    hi Shilpa,
    Posting this reply just after finishing frying the chaklis.I was looking for this recipe since so long and finally got it here. I have tried your Rawa dishes as well and they were really so great in teste that my husband always ask me to look for the recipes in your blog only.:-)
    Chaklis are really so yummy, though i have added little maida and some chilli powder.
    Thanks a lot for sharing. Cheers.

    Reply
  28. SANDHYA BHATT

    IT WILL DEFINATELY HELP ME OUT TO MAKE DIWALI A BEST FESTIVAL TO WELCOME THE GUEST WITH U BEST RECEIPE. HOPE IT WORKS FINE….

    HAPPY DIWALI TO U.

    Reply
  29. Leena

    Hi :

    I am going to try out this receipe today, please tell me how much of milk I need to add.

    Thanks and Wishing You and Your Family a Very Happy Diwali..

    Shilpa: Leena, I haven’t measured the exact amount of milk. Just add enough to make a soft dough.

    Reply
  30. Leena

    Hi Shilpa :

    I have tried out this receipe and the results were amazing. Everyone enjoyed the Chaklis at home. Yes I agreee with you – adding milk to the flour makes a lot of difference. Thanks a ton for the wonderful receipe.

    Reply
  33. nikhat.

    Hey thank’s alot yaar for the dilicious chakli’s. I was missing it for a long time… and thank’s again for your mother’s recipe… I LOVE MOM & CHAKLI… SEE U AGAIN.

    Reply
  34. swathi

    Hi Shilpa, these look so delicious!…
    but have a small doubt dont v have to add chilli pwdr for this???
    do let me know….
    thanks
    swathi

    Reply
  35. Arvind

    waw! wondefull, trying it today along with my wife and let u know the results.
    Many thanks for the recipe.

    Reply
  39. Manisha

    Dear Shilpa,

    Thank you so much for posting this recipe! My chaklis turned out really great this diwali, and I remembered the delicious chaklis that my mom used to make when I was a kid.

    Thankyou for such a wonderful site with some truly authentic North canara dishes, I too am from North Kanara and I enjoy reading your recipes.
    Here’s wishing you all a sparkling and happy Diwali !

    Reply
  40. sonal

    Lots of thanks

    yesterday only i made chakli home using Chakli floor bought from a grocery store. i had lots of problems in shaping them, as they were breaking while shaping. i learnt from trying that i needed to need the dough more and add some more water to it. but ur recipe with butter and milk and rice floor will make it tastier. Really thanx. Chakli is one of my favourite dish.

    Reply
  44. Nasir

    If you do not have Chakli maker, you can use an inexpensive pastry bag, made of plastic film with a hard plastic insert and threaded, interchangable tips.I have tried both and actually pastry bag is easy to handel for making perfect chaklies!!

    Reply
  46. ritu

    hi! shilpa i want to ask u something that milk used for chakli dough it should be cold(room temp.)or warm?
    can u tell me something about butter chakli which is full white or creamish in color usually get at any manglorean shop if u know the recipe pls. tell me

    Shilpa: Milk should be cold or room temperature.

    Reply
  48. Foodies

    Hi,
    This recipe is very good. The proportion of ingredients is accurate. I made chakli for the first time by this recipe and turned out really good.

    Reply
  49. Kirthana

    Hi Shilpa,

    I came across your site one day when googling. Tried the chaklis and they came out really well , and they were so easy to make . Thanks for sharing all your great recipes . Hope to make many more yummy dishes using your recipes.
    Rgds

    Reply
  51. mrskhubchandani

    Namaste Shilpa as usual ur recipes r perfect.can u show us the exact way to make kaju katli .like how to prepare sugar syrup for katli etc.my daughter likes it very much so please do help

    Reply
  53. Chaitali

    I am looking for Schezwan Chakli Receipe can you please provide me the Receipe I will be Thankful to YOU.

    Thanks

    Chaitali

    Reply
  54. Radhika

    Hi Shilpa,
    Amazing recipe! congratulations! also want to mention that your recipe made my day, i just picked this recipe today and tried it out. it came out amazing!! and am happy that this time i made something on my own for diwali, my 6 year old freaked out on the chaklis 🙂 and am sure so will my husb when he comes from office.
    Thanks, for posting all these recipes!
    -Radhika

    Reply
  59. Vinda Dravid

    Hey, nice recipe! Have you tried the brown chakli recipe? The one where you use a mixture of flours like chana dal, urad, yellow mung dal along with rice flour? They are a Maharashtrian version and taste lovely too. I think I have a recipe for that on my blog. I have never tried making pure rice flour chaklis at home, I’ll use your recipe to make some soon. Thanks!

    Reply
  63. SONA

    Hi Shilpa….. Tried ur this recipe of chakli n the chaklis came out really well n crispier…..Thank u … I love your blog.. with best wishes …

    Reply
  65. Kalpana Mallya

    Dear Ms. Shilpa:
    Maybe you can help me, please try. I made the maida chakulis with my MIL’s recipe, as I have done many times in the past with excellent results. But this time the trial round of chakulis just disintegrated in the oil.
    Presuming that fat may have been too much, I steamed more maida and added to the kneaded dough with exactly the same result. Do you suppose the oil is the problem? its branded sunflower oil and I usually use that type of oil only.
    Please give me the benefit of your experience and guide me.
    Thank you.

    Reply

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