An Aloo Tikki recipe that is crispy, crusty and so good. In Hindi language, aloo are potatoes and tikki are patties. So these are potato patties made the Indian way – spiced, herby and delicious.
I have updated this recipe post to a better version of stuffed Aloo Tikki made with green peas. Yes, stuffing aloo tikki with a spiced mixture of green peas or chana dal (split chickpeas) or paneer makes the aloo tikki taste only better.
Aloo Tikki vs Aloo Patties
The aloo tikki made in the streets carts of North India are usually stuffed with a spiced filling of peas and paneer or chana dal and served with chana masala or chole (spicy chickpea curry).
This platter is then topped with onions, sweet tamarind-jaggery chutney and hot green chutney (cilantro+green chillies dip). Sometimes curd (yogurt) is also added.
Of course, you can always skip the stuffing and make plain potato patties. Aloo Tikki made without stuffing also tastes nice.
In Western India, aloo tikki is known as aloo pattice or aloo patties and usually made without any stuffing. The method of making them is the similar with some variations in the spices added.
A popular street food In Mumbai are these crisp aloo patties served with Ragda (white peas curry) and is also known as Ragda pattice.
Tips for making Crispy Aloo Tikki
- Binding Ingredients: I always add a binding agent while preparing aloo tikki. It helps to keep the tikki in shape and they do not crumble while frying. They also help in crisping up the patties while frying. Breadcrumbs work very well and make for a truly crispy aloo tikki. I prefer to have a combination of both arrowroot flour and breadcrumbs. You can use either. In place of arrowroot flour, you can even use corn starch, rice flour, gram flour, roasted besan (roasted chickpea flour), potato starch or tapioca starch. But do not skip on the breadcrumbs as they make the aloo tikki nicely crispy and crusty.
- Types of Binding Ingredients: Since making aloo tikki for decades, I have had the opportunity to use various types of flours like corn starch, rice flour, bread crumbs, soaked bread slices, arrowroot flour as a binding agent on various occasions. All of them work well in binding the potatoes. Just remember that when you add any thickener, the potato has to be cooled down completely. Otherwise the mixture becomes sticky, if the thickener is added in hot or warm potatoes.
- Leftover Bread Slices: If you have leftover bread, then you soak the bread in water. Squeeze out the water completely and then add this bread to the potatoes. Here bread is added as a binding agent.
- Crumb Coating: If you prefer, you can crumb coat the tikki before frying. Traditionally it is not done in India.
- For fasting: If making aloo tikki for Hindu fasting days, then only add arrowroot flour or buckwheat flour or water chestnut flour or tapioca flour. Also add rock salt, instead of regular salt.
- Skipping Stuffing: You can easily skip the green peas stuffing. In place of green peas stuffing, you can even use cooked chana dal (split chickpeas), but they should be cooked well and remain separate without being pasty or mushy.
- Frying Twice: You can fry aloo tikki twice for more crispiness. Initially fry till pale golden. Then fry for the second time till crispy and golden.
- Freezing: You can even freeze these Indian potato patties after shaping them and keep them stored in a sealed container or a ziplock bag. Before frying these frozen aloo tikki, thaw them first.
Serving Suggestions
Aloo Tikki is served as an evening snack with some green chutney (cilantro dip) and tamarind chutney. You can even serve with tomato ketchup. If you have made chana masala, then serve with chana masala.
Here are a few recipe ideas with Aloo Tikki
- Aloo Tikki Chaat – Fried potato patties topped with a tangy-sweet chutney and curd.
- Aloo tikki burger – Crisp aloo tikki sandwiched in burger buns and then topped with veggies and spiced with chutneys.
- Dahi Aloo Tikki – Potato patties topped with yogurt, sweet chutney, green chutney and spice blends.
- Aloo tikki chole – Potato patties served with a spicy North Indian chickpea curry along with various chutneys.
- Frankie recipe – A delicious frankie made with thin wheat rotis stuffed with crisp aloo cutlet, veggies and yogurt raita.
How to make Crispy Aloo Tikki
Cooking potatoes and green peas
1. The potatoes and green peas have to be cooked together first.
a) Cooking in Stove top Pressure Cooker: In a 3 or 4 litre pressure cooker take 4 to 5 large potatoes and 2.5 cups water. Place a small trivet and keep a bowl containing ½ cup green peas in it. Pressure cook for 5 to 6 whistles on medium to medium-high flame.
b) Cooking in Instant Pot: Place 4 to 5 large potatoes in the steel insert of a 6 quart IP. Add 2.5 cups water. Place a trivet. On top of the trivet, keep a bowl containing ½ cup green peas. Pressure cook on high for 20 to 25 minutes in the Instant Pot.
4. For the stovetop pressure cooker, remove the lid after all the pressure falls in the cooker. For Instant Pot, do a quick pressure release after 5 to 7 minutes.
5. Check with a knife or fork to see if the potatoes are cooked well. The knife should be able to slid easily if the potatoes are cooked properly. If the potatoes are undercooked, then cook them for some more minutes.
Making green peas stuffing
6. Drain the water from the steamed green peas using a small strainer or colander. Take the peas in a bowl and mash them.
7. Mash to a coarse texture.
8. To the peas, add the following ingredients: ¼ teaspoon red chilli powder or cayenne pepper, ½ teaspoon coriander powder, ½ teaspoon fennel powder, ½ teaspoon dry mango powder or ¼ to ½ teaspoon lemon juice, 2 teaspoons finely chopped ginger, 1 teaspoon finely chopped green chillies, 2 tablespoons finely chopped coriander leaves, 2 pinches black salt and regular salt as per taste.
9. Mix very well. Check taste and add more salt if required.
Making potato mixture
10. When you drain the green peas, also drain the water from the potatoes as well and let them become warm. Do not keep them in the hot water as then the potatoes may end up soaking the water and become soggy. Make sure all the water is completely drained.
11. When the potatoes are warm, then peel them and grate. I find it easier to grate the potatoes and then mash them. However, you can also chop them and mash with a potato masher. Let the grated or mashed potatoes cool completely at room temperature. You can even keep the potatoes in the fridge for 30 minutes.
12. After the mashed potatoes have cooled completely, add the following ingredients: ½ teaspoon red chilli powder or cayenne pepper, ½ teaspoon garam masala powder or curry powder, 1 teaspoon coriander powder, 1 teaspoon dry mango powder or ½ to 1 teaspoon lemon juice, ½ teaspoon black salt and regular salt as per taste.
13. Next add ¼ cup bread crumbs and ¼ cup arrowroot flour. Instead of arrowroot flour, you can also add rice flour, corn flour (corn starch) or tapioca starch or roasted gram flour (roasted besan).
14. Mix everything very well.
Stuffing and Shaping Aloo Tikki
15. Divide the mixture into small or medium shaped patties with a hollow center or cup shaped discs. You can apply some oil on your palms when making the patties or tikki.
16. Place the green peas filling in the center.
17. Bring the mashed potato edges on the top and seal them.
18. Roll gently between your palms and gently flatten. Make all tikki this way.
Frying Aloo Tikki
19. Heat 2 tablespoons oil till on a skillet or tawa or frying pan till it is medium hot. Gently place the tikki and begin to pan-fry them.
20. When the base is crispy and golden, gently flip each tikki with a spatula.
21. Fry the second side till crispy and golden. You can gently flip once or twice more till the aloo tikki are golden and crisp evenly.
22. Remove and place in a strainer kept on top of a bowl. You can even drain them on paper towels. Fry all tikki this way. Add 2 tablespoons more oil when frying the second batch.
23. Serve Aloo Tikki plain with coriander chutney & tamarind chutney. You can also serve these potato patties with sweet yogurt raita.
Note: This recipe post from the archives has been republished and updated on 7 May 2020.
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Aloo Tikki (Crispy & North Indian Style Recipe)
Ingredients
For cooking potatoes and green peas
- 500 grams potatoes or 4 to 5 large potatoes
- ½ cup green peas 100 grams - fresh or frozen
- 2.5 cups water
Other ingredients for stuffing
- ¼ teaspoon red chilli powder or cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon Coriander Powder (ground coriander)
- ½ teaspoon fennel powder (ground fennel seeds) - optional
- ½ teaspoon dry mango powder or ¼ to ½ teaspoon lemon juice
- 2 teaspoon finely chopped ginger or or 1.5 to 2 inches, ginger or ¼ teaspoon ground ginger powder - can reduce the quantity of chopped ginger
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped green chillies or 1 to 2 green chillies, finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)
- 2 pinches black salt
- salt as required
Ingredients for potato mixture
- ½ teaspoon red chilli powder or cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon Garam Masala or curry powder
- 1 teaspoon Coriander Powder (ground coriander)
- 1 teaspoon dry mango powder or ½ to 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon cumin powder (ground cumin) - optional
- ½ teaspoon black salt
- salt as required
- ¼ cup bread crumbs or add as required
- ¼ cup arrow root flour or add as required
- 2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves (cilantro)
- 4 to 5 tablespoons oil for frying the tikki or as required
Instructions
- The potatoes and green peas have to be cooked together first.
Cooking in Stovetop Pressure Cooker
- In a 3 or 4 litre pressure cooker take 4 to 5 large potatoes and 2.5 cups water. Place a small trivet and keep a bowl containing ½ cup green peas in it. Pressure cook for 5 to 6 whistles on medium to medium-high flame.
Cooking in Instant Pot
- Place 4 to 5 large potatoes in the steel insert of a 6 quart IP. Add 2.5 cups water. Place a trivet. On top of the trivet, keep a bowl containing ½ cup green peas. Pressure cook on high for 20 to 25 minutes in the Instant Pot
- For the stovetop pressure cooker, remove the lid after all the pressure falls in the cooker. For Instant Pot, do a quick pressure release after 5 to 7 minutes.
- Check with a knife or fork to see if the potatoes are cooked well. The knife should be able to slid easily if the potatoes are cooked properly.
Making green peas stuffing
- Drain the water from the steamed green peas using a small strainer or colander. Take the peas in a bowl and mash them.
- Mash to a coarse texture.
- To the peas, add red chilli powder or cayenne pepper, coriander powder, fennel powder, dry mango powder, finely chopped ginger, green chillies, coriander leaves, black salt and regular salt as per taste.
- Mix very well. Check taste and add more salt or spice powders if required.
Making potato mixture
- Meanwhile drain the water from the potatoes as well and let them become warm.
- When the potatoes are warm, then peel them and grate. I find it easier to grate the potatoes and then mash them. However, you can also chop them and mash with a potato masher. Let the grated or mashed potatoes cool completely.
- After the mashed potatoes have cooled completely, add the following ingredients: red chilli powder or cayenne pepper, garam masala powder or curry powder, coriander powder, dry mango powder, black salt and regular salt as per taste.
- Next add bread crumbs and arrowroot flour. Instead of arrowroot flour, you can also add rice flour, corn flour (corn starch) or tapioca starch or roasted besan (roasted chickpea flour or roasted gram flour).
- Mix everything very well.
Stuffing and Shaping Aloo Tikki
- Divide the mixture into small or medium shaped patties with a hollow center or cup shaped discs. You can apply some oil on your palms when making the patties or tikki.
- Place the green peas filling in the center.
- Bring the mashed potato edges on the top and seal them.
- Roll gently between your palms and gently flatten. Make all aloo tikki this way.
Frying Aloo Tikki
- Heat 2 tablespoons oil till on a skillet or tawa or frying pan till it is medium hot. Gently place the tikki and begin to pan-fry them.
- When the base is crispy and golden, gently flip each tikki with a spatula.
- Fry the second side till crispy and golden. You can gently flip once or twice more till the aloo tikki are golden and crisp evenly.
- Remove and place in a strainer kept on top of a bowl. You can even drain them on paper towels. Fry all tikkis this way. Add 2 tablespoons more oil when frying the second batch.
- Serve Aloo Tikki plain with coriander chutney & tamarind chutney. You can also serve these potato patties with sweet yogurt raita.
Notes
- If making aloo tikki for fasting - Add arrowroot flour or buckwheat flour or water chestnut flour or sago flour. Use rock salt, instead of regular salt.
- Servings: Recipe makes 6 large tikki. You can make then medium sized or large.
- Spices & Herbs: You can reduce or increase the spice powder and herbs. A variation is to add fresh mint leaves to the tikki. You can even add chaat masala powder.
- Crispiness: You can twice fry the tikki. First fry till pale golden. Then again fry till crispy and golden.
- Stuffing: The spiced green peas stuffing can be given a skip. You can even substitute green peas with steamed sweet corn, grated paneer (cottage cheese) and cooked chana dal (split chickpeas).
- Binding Ingredients: Add the binding ingredients which you have in your pantry. So in place of arrowroot flour you can add corn starch, rice flour, roasted besan (roasted chickpea flour), tapioca starch, potato starch or soaked bread slices. But do not skip on breadcrumbs as they aid in getting a nice crispy crust on the tikki.
Wow lovely recipes and easy prepration methods.I am really proud.God bless you.
Retired Chef and Hospitality Consultant,New Delhi,India.
thank you much.
Hi, can we make patties the previous night, refrigerate them and then fry in the morning for lunch box?
Thanks,
Vani
yes you can do this way.
Tried the recipe and they came out good. Thank you Dassana Amit. The only extra ingredient I added was cinnamon powder and that gave nice flavor to the tikkis and with your permission I would like to post this recipe in my blog.
Thanks
Welcome Sri Vani. Thanks for your positive feedback. Yes you can post this aloo tikki recipe in your blog in your own words. You can give a credit link back to this tikki recipe post.
It was good but the taste and crunchiness deferred from the street vendors.
thanks pradipta. for the street style crunchiness use breadcrumbs to coat the tikki..
Hi, can we preserve home made aloo tikki in freezer, the way we get ready made tikki of McCain.
yes you can freeze them. before frying let the aloo tikkis come to room temp and then fry them.
Can I use the same recipe for cooking in air fryer? I’d be great to get air-fryer cooking versions if possible.
Akanksha, yes you can use the same recipe. just brush some oil on aloo tikki.
very nice recipes, i want to write a guest post on your site, how can i write? plz guide me.
thanks pranita. we do not take any guests posts.
Thanks a lot for your recipes. I’ve tried a number of them and my family loved it
Welcome Mamatha. Glad to know this.
i tried it for first time and hit was a big hit in my family ,and pictures helped me a lot !!!
thanks som for this feedback. nice to know.
very testy aloo tiki i like
I used to make aalu tikki at home.. so here is a tip. you can add bread crumbs as well in mixture of tikki so it gives more crunchy to tikkis.
thanks jyoti for this handy tip. will help readers too 🙂
I love aalu tikki…. Here very fine nai delicious recipe step given
thankyou monika 🙂
Hi mam, I usually visit this site. Ur recipes always turn out to be good. Whenever I have tried any recipe for the first time, it always came out to be yummmmmyy. Keep it up mam.
thanks a ton nitika for your positive and encouraging words 🙂
Itss….awesme recipe I tried at my home..I Just Loved it!!♥……
thankyou bhumika for your positive feedback 🙂
Can I use cornflour,instead of corn starch for the alootikis?
What s the difference,I would like to know.Thankyou
corn flour as we call in india is corn starch only. outside india, its called as corn starch. corn starch is white colored flour. whereas corn flour as its called outside india or maize flour is yellow colored flour. you can use corn flour and even corn starch.
hey dasanna, can i use besan instead of corn flour
you can use besan instead of corn flour. just roast the besan lightly in a small pan till its aromatic and then add to the mashed potatoes mixture.
Great explanation and easy to cook recipe. Super liked aloo tikki recipes 🙂
Simply superb maam
Hi maam, This is Deepthi and i am a big fan of yours.You are an amazing cook.The way you explain each and every recipes is incredible.If i have any doubt while cooking i simply look up to your blog.keep up the good work maam.the way you reply to all our comments itself motivates us .thank you
very pleased to know this thankyou so much deepthi 🙂
nice and looked easy to me but when I tried it my tikki just broke and the stuff got messed up please help.
some more corn flour would have helped the tikki to hold shape. when the binding agent is less in tikki or cutlets, then some more always can be added.
I don’t have starch …can I replace it by anything else
you can add rice flour or lightly roasted besan.
nice recipie enjoy it
thankyou parul 🙂
Hi, thanks fro sharing this easy recipe, I have tried it with rice flour, it became tikki but not very crispy and the edges were more softer, please share me how to improve.
the secret in getting the tikki crispy, is to shallow fry and on a low flame. slow cooking makes the edges and top crispy. you can also coat the tikkis with breadcrumbs or crushed corn flakes and this would also give a crisp texture.
Sry i meant to say.. aloo tikki” batter” be kept for d night.. n prepared next morning..
yes you can prepare the aloo tikki mixture in the night. keep in the fridge. before preparing the tikkis, bring the mixture to room temperature. or else they will absorb extra oil.
Can d aloo tikki be prepared and kept in the refrigerator at night.. n aloo tikkis be made in d following morning?
Love the recipe and the pictures . Thank you for posting . Going to make this for my husband today .
surely swathi try and let us know how it was? you are welcome.
Really awesome dish
thankyou syed 🙂
Love all ur recipes
thankyou kanika 🙂
Hi Dasanna.I am frequent visitor to your site.To begin with,you have an amazing assortment of dishes.I mean,”you ask for it and you have it ,kinds”.The way you elucidate each recipe is outstanding!!..crisp and clear..all the very best,ciao.
Thank you
we are very pleased to know this padmaja 🙂 thankyou so much for your kind and honest words and you are always welcome.
Thanq dassana for tasty recipes n ideas to pack tiffin for my kid ……
welcome sunaina 🙂
very testyyy..yammmm.
easy and testyyyyyy.
thanks fatima
Hi Dassana,
Thanks for this recipe, it turns out great. I made 1 tikki with fresh mixture, and the other 1 I refrigerated for next day. There was a difference between 2 patties at the time of frying. The fresh 1 had a solid crust from top which was gud, but the other 1 came out soggy.
Can you please tell me the recipe of tikki which I can refrigerate and have a solid crust from top at the time of frying.
welcome vineet. thanks for sharing your positive feedback on aloo tikki. before using refrigerated tikki mixture, bring it at room temperature by keeping it out for some time. 2nd thing you can do it to roll the mixture in bread crumbs and then fry it. it will give some crispness. but best is to make fresh aloo tikki recipe.
sooooo yammi………
Thanks Dasanaa .Very easy way to learn and yummy receipes.
thanks mythili
Thanks Dassana for such good recipes. The way u explained it is awesome. Please tellme some receipes for kids.
thank you vibha… i would have written about some kid recipes…. but i do not have enough time to do so. all the recipes that are waiting to be posted by me are general recipes.. not specifically meant for kids…
i suggest you to search on google or yahoo and you will come across a lot of kid recipes on the internet.