The Perfect Chapathi Recipe

A very soft and puffed up Indian flat bread, Chapathi. Serve with Indian curry, main dishes or even use it to make sandwich wraps.
 
Photo Mar 28, 3 54 29 PM (1)
 
I have been getting quite a lot of requests to give a step by step tutorial on how to make soft and perfect chapathis. So here goes..hope you find this useful.
 
Firstly I’ll give you few important tips for making soft and puffy chapathis. These are my moms tips actually. 🙂
 
  1. Hot water is always preferred than room temperature water for making the dough. This will give you soft chapattis all the time.
  2. Do not pour all the water at a time. Pour in little by little mixing.
  3. Adding oil to the dough will give a good texture.
  4. Knead the dough well for 2-3 minutes.
  5. After kneading the dough, spread a little oil all over and let it sit for 15-30 minutes covered.
  6. Roll out the dough evenly. Do not make it very thin, it won’t puff up well.
  7. The pan should be really hot while adding the chappathi. Then after flipping it reduce heat to medium and after last flip increase heat to high for chapati to put up well. There are two flips in total. Check the directions.
  8. After cooking the chapathis, it is best to eat them right away, or else just keep them closed in a thermal container.
Photo Mar 28, 3 38 27 PM (1)
 

INGREDIENTS:

  • 2 cups atta (wheat flour)
  • 240 ml hot water ( a little more than 3/4 cup)
  • 1 tbsp vegetable oil
  • salt to taste
  • Maida (all purpose flour)
 
DIRECTIONS:
 
  1. In a bowl add 2 cups of atta. Add in salt and oil. Mix it in.Photo Mar 22, 4 04 23 PM (1)Photo Mar 22, 4 06 37 PM (1)Photo Mar 22, 4 07 22 PM (1)Photo Mar 22, 4 08 01 PM (1)
  2. Pour in water little by little, mix a little with wooden spoon.Photo Mar 22, 4 10 25 PM (1)Photo Mar 22, 4 10 39 PM (1)Photo Mar 22, 4 11 51 PM (1)
  3. Now start kneading the dough with your hand. If you feel the dough is sticky add in a little bit of atta, start with 2 tbsp, maximum of 5 tbsps. Knead for 2-3 minutes. The dough should be soft and pliant.
  4. Rub the dough with a little oil. Let it stay for 15-30 minutes covered.Photo Mar 22, 4 13 13 PM (1)Photo Mar 22, 4 18 34 PM (1)
  5. Make small balls out of the dough. Roll out the chappathi by adding a little maida.
  6. Photo Mar 22, 4 32 01 PM (1)Photo Mar 22, 4 33 53 PM (1)Photo Mar 22, 4 37 36 PM
  7. Heat the tawa (flat pan) very well. Place the rolled chappathi on the tawa. Let it stay for a minute. Then flip.Photo Mar 22, 4 40 19 PM (1)Photo Mar 22, 4 41 34 PM (1)
  8. Reduce the heat to medium and let the chapathi get cooked for 2 minutes or till you get golden color spots on it. Flip.Photo Mar 22, 4 42 42 PM (1)
  9. Increase the heat to high and gently press chapathi with a spatula or flat spoon and you can see the chapathi nicely puffing up. Press on top of the puffed area so that the entire chapathi gets puffed.Photo Mar 28, 3 52 08 PM (1)Photo Mar 28, 3 52 17 PM (1)Photo Mar 28, 3 52 29 PM (1)
  10. Now add a little ghee on top, take it off the heat and serve hot.Photo Mar 28, 3 53 42 PM (1)

 

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34 thoughts on “The Perfect Chapathi Recipe

  1. Hi there.Thank you for the simple straight forward recipe. Approximately how many balls of dough should you get from this amount of flour ?

    1. Hello Zubeida!
      You are most welcome.
      With 2 cups of flour I got 8 balls of dough, so 8 chapathis.

  2. In have electric burners on my cooker. Do you think i could manage by using two pans one on a medium burner one on high. Or could you suggest how to achieve these yummy looking chapatis without gas burners. Your instructions are teally good.

    1. If it will be difficult to adjust the flame on your electric cooker, you can use 2 pans like how you said. It will work well. Hope your chapathis come out well.

    1. We use maida for dusting because it will give a smooth texture to the chapathi. Atta can be used too, but you’ll feel the course texture of it over the chapathi after cooking it.

    1. Hey Hadiza. Ghee is clarified butter. It’s made by melting butter and skimming the fat off of the top. You’ll be left with a yellow liquid when it’s hot and a creamy solid when the ghee cools down. Ghee will be easily available in Indian stores. If you don’t get ghee, substitute it with butter. But the aroma of ghee gives a traditional Indian touch to the chapathis. 🙂

  3. Could this be made with all purpose flour for the dough rather than wheat flour? I don’t have wheat flour on hand right now :/

  4. I made this recipe for dinner tonight and it was delicious! None of my chapathi puffed up all the way, though… I wonder what I did wrong.

  5. Turned out great but didn’t puffed at all. Can it be due to the fact that I used all purpouse flour, not what one?

  6. Hi Mohsadia!
    They went perfect thank you!
    But I’m only eating 2 and I made 8. Can I freeze them or how can they last in the fridgE?

  7. Thanks for the gray tips! It’s always so hard to make the perfect chapathi. Can you kindly tell me what kind of tava ur using? I couldn’t stop drooling over it… looks amazing

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