Aloo Tikki Burger (Potato Burger)
If you’re on the hunt for a delicious, homemade vegetarian burger, look no further. My Aloo Tikki Burger recipe is a home run! Crisp golden potato patties are sandwiched between burger buns and then topped with veggies and slathered with two chutneys for a handheld meal that is a fan favorite.
About Aloo Tikki Burger
For my readers here in India, I’m sure you’re already aware of the well-known McDonald’s McAloo Tikki Burger. I’m here to tell you, this is not what I’m trying to replicate!
Instead, this recipe is a nod to the popular and traditional North Indian street food that is often sold on the streets of Delhi and Gurgaon.
We used to love gorging on these Aloo Tikki Burgers so much that we would visit the street vendor near our home in Delhi several times a week.
Having warm aloo tikki sandwiched between squishy-soft buttered buns topped with multiple chutneys and sliced veggies and served alongside Dahi Papdi Chaat was a perfect weeknight.
Nowadays, we try to visit the street vendors only on rare occasions. When street food snacks are made at home, we can make them healthy for our family while keeping them extra delicious!
I made a few tweaks to make this Aloo Tikki Burger a bit healthier than the ones from our night adventures.
First, I opted to use homemade whole wheat buns for a nice dose of fiber. I also add lettuce and cucumber to mine, because we can all use more fresh vegetables in our life, right? Finally, I pan fry the potato patties with just a hint of oil rather than deep frying them.
So, this recipe for Aloo Tikki Burgers comes very close to the ones served by street food vendors, but without all the extra guilt.
To make these burgers easier to attain on a weeknight, you can make the chutneys ahead of time and store them in the fridge. While you can opt to make your own whole wheat burgers, there is no shame in getting them ready-made from the store.
The buns I made for this photo shoot ended up a bit dense, so I won’t post the recipe until I can perfect it.
If lettuce leaves are not available, feel free to add blanched cabbage leaves instead. You can also add grated carrots and/or beetroot as a topping on the patties, or really any veggie that you like. Tomatoes, sliced onions, and lettuce are just the beginning!
It is best to use both the sweet Tamarind Chutney and savory Coriander Chutney to get a wide range of flavors, but simply using one kind of chutney will also do.
I did not have the sweet chaat chutney, hence I just made the coriander chutney this time around. I can tell you that it did not disappoint.
If you want, you can even make some French Fries to serve with the burgers. After all, burgers and fries are a match for the ages. For a healthier option, you can bake, air-fry, or roast the french fries.
If you don’t have onions, then avoid adding them as burger toppings. This potato patties recipe is a slightly different version than the Aloo Tikki recipe I have previously posted. You can use this recipe or the other one posted before. Both are equally good.
How to Make Aloo Tikki Burger
Making the popular North Indian street food known as Aloo Tikki Burgers is easier than you might think. Here’s how it’s done:
Make Tikki (Potato Patties)
1: Peel and mash 2 medium-sized boiled potatoes with a potato masher or with the back of a wooden spoon or a fork.
Do this when the potatoes are still warm, as it is easier to mash them when they are hot. Let the mashed potatoes cool and then proceed to the next step.
The potatoes can be cooked in a stovetop pressure cooker, steamer pot or the Instant Pot adding water as needed.
2: Add all the ground spice powders and seasonings listed below:
- ¼ teaspoon red chili powder
- ½ teaspoon coriander powder (ground coriander)
- ½ teaspoon cumin powder
- 1 teaspoon chaat masala
- salt as required
Mix the ground spices and seasonings thoroughly with the mashed potatoes.
3: Add 2 tablespoons of rice flour or cornstarch as a binder. I used rice flour.
4: Mix very well.
5: Shape into flat, round patties.
6: Heat about a tablespoon of oil on a flat tava or frying pan or skillet. Place the potato tikki on the pan.
7: Whilst the patties are being pan-fried, slice 1 small onion, 1 small tomato and 1 small cucumber.
Also make sure to thoroughly 4 to 5 lettuce. Let them dry naturally or you can opt to pat dry with a clean kitchen towel or use a salad spinner.
8: When one side golden and crisp, turn over with a spatula and fry the second side until crispy and golden. Here are the tikkis after they were browned on both sides.
Assemble Aloo Tikki Burger
9: Move the tikkis towards the edge of the pan so that they stay warm while you toast your buns. Smear a bit of oil or butter in the center and lightly roast the sliced bread buns.
10: Apply the Cilantro Mint Chutney or Coriander Chutney on one half of the bun, and the sweet tamarind chutney on the other.
11: Place the potato tikki on one halve of the bun.
12: Top with the sliced onions, tomatoes, and cucumber.
13: Sprinkle with some chaat masala.
14: Place the lettuce on top.
15: If you haven’t already, apply the coriander chutney on the other slice. If you have sweet chaat chutney or tamarind chutney, you can apply this chutney on the other slice.
Another variation is to apply both the chutneys on both the slices along with some butter or Mayonnaise.
16: Place the top bun atop the lettuce to make a delicious burger. Insert a toothpick in the center of the burger to hold it steady.
You can also place a glazed cherry inserted in the toothpick in the center if you prefer.
17: Repeat, making all Aloo Tikki Burgers this way. Serve Aloo Tikki Burger with tomato sauce or Ketchup and some coriander chutney or sweet chaat chutney by the side. This is your burger, so serve it just the way you like!
FAQs
Why do my aloo tikki patties have a taste of cornflour?
Ooops, sounds like you might’ve tried cooking them too quickly. Make sure to set your tawa or frying pan on medium-low heat, then cook until the patties are deeply browned on both sides. By this point, the internal temperature should be perfect and will cook away the raw flour flavor.
How do I get my potato patties to have a more crispy exterior?
To get that crispy outer coating, you need to crumb coat the tikki by first dipping it in a all-purpose flour paste or a gram flour & rice flour paste and then coating with bread crumbs.
To get even more crispness, this method of crumb coating is done twice. You can check this Veg Cutlet Recipe, where the patties are crisper, to get more inspiration.
Can I turn these into cheeseburgers?
Sure! Potatoes and cheese pair very well together. Feel free to add any melty cheese of your choice – havarti, muenster, pepper jack, mozzarella, cheddar, or even American cheese would all go well.
Step by Step Photo Guide Above
Ingredients
For potato tikki
- 2 potatoes – medium-sized
- ¼ teaspoon Red Chilli Powder or cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon Coriander Powder (ground coriander)
- ½ teaspoon Cumin Powder (ground cumin)
- 1 teaspoon Chaat Masala
- 1.5 tablespoon Rice Flour or cornflour (cornstarch)
- 1 or 2 tablespoons oil or as needed, for pan-frying the potato patties
- black salt or rock salt (sendha namak) as required
Buns & toppings
- 6 burger buns
- 1 tomato (small-sized), thinly sliced
- 1 onion (small-sized), thinly sliced
- 1 cucumber (small-sized), thinly sliced
- 4 to 5 lettuce leaves chopped if large – or kept whole if small
- 1 teaspoon Chaat Masala or as required
- Coriander Chutney as required
- Tamarind Chutney as required
- oil or butter for toasting the buns, as needed
Instructions
Making potato patties
- Boil the potatoes in a stovetop pressure cooker or steamer or Instant Pot till they become soft and are completely cooked.
- Peel and mash them when they are warm. Let the potatoes cool at room temperature.
- When the potatoes are cooled, add all the ground spice powders and salt and mix well.
- Add the rice flour or cornstarch and again mix well.
- Shape into round patties and pan fry the tikkis till they are crisp and golden from both sides.
Making aloo tikki burger
- Slice the burger buns horizontally into two equal halves. Pan fry in a bit of oil or butter till lightly crisp. Don't toast them.
- Apply the green chutney or both the green chutney and sweet tamarind chutney on the bun halves. You can even spread some butter first before applying the chutney.
- Place the aloo tikki on one halve of the bun.
- Top with the sliced vegetables and lettuce. Sprinkle some chaat masala on the veggies.
- Cover with the other halve of the bun. Insert a toothpick on the burger.
- Make all the burgers this way.
- Serve Aloo Tikki Burger immediately accompanied with french fries, coriander chutney or tomato ketchup.
Notes
- Pan fry the potato patties on a medium-low to medium heat, so that they are evenly golden and crisp and well-cooked. If the patties remain undercooked, the raw taste of rice flour or corn starch will be felt.
- You can pan-fry the patties in ghee if you prefer.
- Adjust the seasonings according to your taste preferences. You can also add herbs like coriander leaves or mint leaves to the patties.
- Instead of coriander chutney, you could also spread eggless mayonnaise (plain or flavored) on the buns.
Nutrition
This Aloo Tikki Burger recipe from the archives first published on March 2013 has been republished and updated on November 2022.
Hey, can I make this whole dish in Air Fryer without using any oil?
You can air-fry these.
In north india aloo tikkis are deep fried
I was wondering if we can deep fry those tikkis instead of putting it on tawa.
Btw those burgers taste awsm
What I have seen in north india (delhi) is that the tikkis are shallow fried on tawa. In deep frying, they might break in oil.
I am glad i tried your burger recipe. The aloo tikkis came iut awesome and my kids loved it to the core. Thank you for sharing this amazing veggie burger recipe. I have followed a lot of your recipes and an a fan.
thanks a lot frenny. glad to know 🙂
Nice recipe I really loved it. The recipe is really really good
thanks ananya for positive views.
Made aloo tikki Burger today it came well , most important part is all ingredients for tikki r easily available in the kitchen also tried tawa paneer masala which was lip smacking
Thanx for ur recipe
thanks for the feedback on the both the recipes malikah. agree that when cooking, the ingredients should be easily available in the kitchen.
Aloo tikki very nice
thankyou chander 🙂
Very nice recipe
this reciepee has helped me to much i love burger
thanks rishabh
Hey hi.. Although I love the receipies n the ease of cooking with pics u post along with them… If I may ask .. Why do you only make veg… Can u please try to include non veg too… I mean I’m not much of a veg person… Hope u can do something bout it..
Thanks for the sczhewan sauce receipe I’ve been looking for one for long n finally will try the one here sooooooon.
🙂 take care
welcome heena. glad to know that you liked the recipes. i am a vegetarian and thats why can only post those recipes which i cook at home. i hope you understand my position.
Hi Dassana,
I tried the aloo tikki burger today and it turned out wonderful!! 🙂 Although, I couldn’t find the dates for tamarind and dates chutney, I just made without them.
Thank you so much for posting it 🙂 🙂
welcome siri. glad to know this.
Good Thx
welcome tony
I learned recently how easy veggie burgers are to make! I actually like them better than store bought. Those also look simple to make and delicious.
thanks rachel
it was so great to make it and my kids love it
thanks anshu
I was seriously very well and I appreciate u Dassana for this recipe It was yummier than I thought it would be thanks
welcome akanksha. glad to know this.
nice & simple recipe
thanks abhijeet
Very simple and nice recipe, But i think instead or frying buns on tava i would prefer deep fry with planty of oil it sounds unhelthy but bleave me it is not. Actually it will increase the taste tremendously. And please don’t cut the buns in two half before frying. Thank you.
i know frying buns gives a nice taste and texture. in fact when we made burgers first time in our cooking practicals in college, we fried the buns in oil. but we has sliced the buns and then fried them. the burgers that we made that day were yummy, not to mention the amount of fat they had 🙂
Tried it today..nd it was awesome..tasted almost like Mc Aloo tikki!!!
thanks shalini for sharing positive feedback.
Hello,
The photos looked amazing and I happened to come across good quality bread so there it was! I decided to make this recipe. This is the first one I tried from your website and very rarely do we find time to say thank you…..so this is a message to say thank you! We loved it and I pigged out on two burgers. Just one question – how to avoid the cornflour taste…i mean, how do i know the tikkis are cooked from within, else the powder taste comes through…I kept it on the pan for a longer time anyway….but would like it to be perfect next time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you once again
welcome and thanks kashmira. if the patties become crisp from the top, then by that time the corn flour also gets cooked. its best to cook these patties on a low to medium flame. if you cook on a high flame then the top will get cooked but the inside will remain uncooked and you will get corn flour taste.
very tasty……………………………!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it was very tasty and yummy. 🙂
thanks jiveeka
Mcd ke aalu tikki burger mai jo orange red sauce hota hai voh kaise banta hai plz answer
pata nahin kaise banate hain. maine bhi taste kiya hain 🙂
Thank you for sharing this recipe, i ate something similar while on holiday and have craved them ever since! I finally got round to making it for my family tonight and they were delicious 🙂 I’ll definitely be cooking more of your recipes.
Hey dassana..I made aloo tikki burger for breakfast today and it was yummy and so healthy..thanks for sharing this recipe.
welcome suhani
Hey dassana..I made the aloo tikki burger for breakfast and it came out so tasty and yummy..and healthy too..
Thank you so much for this amazing looking recipe! I love healthy recipes and I will look forward to trying it out and sharing it with my followers at TianaGustafson.com. As Arnold says “I’ll be back” 🙂 Thanks again!
thanks tiana.
it’s my favorite recipes
i love it.
oh the delicious burger,… so much Indian way…. veyr nicely done..
Looks yummy and the buns are so fresh
Such detail step-wise explanation..would be very helpful for many.
thanks sanjeeta.
Wow, this looks delicious…Hubby and i love tikkis…should try this…
Perfectly done.. yummy snck.. give me one
You know, I totally agree with the fact that you have stated in your blog i.e. “when street food snacks are made at home, you can make them very healthy for your family and still enjoy the deliciousness.” – It is so true & it comes out very well.
Lovely, lovely tikki!!
oh how i loved those burgers.. i need some for dinner tonite!
love that white is back again:)
Nice pictures of the steps . Wanted to eat one 🙂
perfect for summer grilling here in US.
I do this most of the times for my brekkie…looks perfect and ncie clicks..
Yummy Yummy Yummy Dassana :), your posts always remind me of Delhi….Hugs 🙂