Parathas are an Indian unleavened bread and an integral part of many Indian meals. Any subzi (vegetable) or curry dish can be fabulous when accompanied with fresh, hot parathas. Try this recipe. It’ll be worth your while! Although we refer to this recipe as Chapatti in the video, this is actually a Paratha recipe. The difference between the two is that Chapattis are cooked without oil whereas Parathas are pan fried.
Ingredients:
Whole Wheat Flour – 1½ cups
Oil – 3 tsp
Salt – ¼ tsp
Warm water – ½ cup + 2 tbsp
Whole Wheat Flour – ½ cup
Oil for pan frying
Method:
- In a large bowl, mix the flour and salt well.
- Add oil and mix again to incorporate the oil into the flour.
- Slowly add warm water and knead to form a dough.
- Shape dough into a ball and rub a few drops of oil on it to coat.
- Cover and let it stand for at least 15 minutes.
- Knead dough once more and divide it into 9 ping pong size balls.
- Roll each ball in your palms and press into a flat circle.
- Put ½ cup of whole wheat flour in a flat bowl or dish.
- Dip a flattened ball into the dry flour and coat it on all sides.
- Using a rolling pin, roll out each ball into a flat disc – similar to a tortilla.
- Keep dipping the dough into the dry flour while rolling so it doesn’t stick.
- Heat a tava or skillet on medium heat.
- Place the rolled chapatti on the skillet.
- When bubbles start to form, flip the chapatti over.
- After about 10-15 seconds, smear the chapatti with a little oil and flip over.
- With a spatula, press the chapatti to make it balloon up.
- Smear the other side with a little oil and flip over again.
- Keep pressing on the bubbles gently to make the entire chapatti rise up.
- Chapatti is done when all the raw dough appears cooked.
Makes 9 Chapattis
Tips:
- Practice, practice, practice! The more you make chapattis, the better you will be at rolling them.
- While rolling a chapatti, gently rub your palm over it. You can immediately feel where it is too thick or too thin. Then, roll accordingly. The goal is to have a chapatti that is the same thickness all around.
- Invest in an insulated chapatti container. As you cook the chapattis, place them in the container and close the lid to keep them piping hot until dinner time.
Watch and learn.
Hi,
Thank you very much for the great service you are doing by showing these cooking videos.
We have a food fair (to raise money for our temple to build a meditation centre) coming up and we are thinking of making Aloo Parathas and Chapattis. Food fair will go on from 10.00 am to 9.00 pm. We are thinking of making the dough in the previous night and then make them into small balls (even aloo inside in case of aloo parathas) then wrap in cling wraps. In the fair we will flatten them using rolling pins and cook on hot plates. What do you think of the idea? Or is there any way we can do the flattening too the previous night and stack them while putting a cling wrap or an aluminum foil in between?
Thanking you.
Best Regards – Rashmi
Hi Rashmi,
Yes, you can do what you have suggested but here is my suggestion:
Make the balls and roll them out. Semi-cook the parathas and chapatis the day(s) before. At the mela/fair, just heat the parathas, smear oil and finish the cooking process there. As for the chapatis – very lightly cook them so when you stack them, they do not stick together. Again, finish cooking at the fair.
Good Luck at the fair.
Thank you very much Anuja for your prompt reply. I did not expect to get a reply from you so fast. Thanks again. We really appreciate your service and help.
Best Regards- Rashmi
Hi,
Could u please share the methood of how to freeze the chappati.And how long this frozen chappati will stay fresh in freezer.
Thanks
Hi hope ur ok
Just wanted to know if resting the dough makes a difference?
In my family we make rotis and we use boiling water and roll straight away but we dont make it puff up on an open flame we jus press down like you did with the chapatti but dont smear oil in it so i think basically we are making a cross between roti and chapatti!
Hi Mary,
We rest the dough for 2 reasons:
-if you have added salt in the dough, it gives time for the salt to break down and be able to mix in with the dough. You will have specks of salt otherwise.
-when the dough rests, it cause gluten (protein structure of the flour) to relax and spread easily.
There is a whole science chapter behind it – but don’t think I’ll get into it right now and spare you the lecture 🙂
Hi, i just made the chappatti from this recipe today, for the first time. I ended up needing more water, almost 2/3rd cup.
also, i sifted the flour into the bowl. my chapatti took forever to form bubbles, i ‘cooked’ it on a medium flame in a non stick pan. when the bubbles did come, they were v. few… it really didnt puff up much. for half the time, i cooked it on medium-low flame, the other half on medium. when it was browned on both sides, i took it out. But it was sort of hard, not v. soft, and not cooked properly from the inside, even though i had cooked it for ages. Also, the taste was terrible. I used the same aata as you guys. I think that MAYBE i should not have sifted it (what do u think?), and that maybe it was old aata…i got it from my cousin, i dont know how long she had it for.
Hi Fatma,
Chapatis do take a lot of practice (and patience) so hang in there and don’t give up 🙂
For what you have described, here are a few things you could try to do differently next time:
Be sure the tawa is hot ( so keep it on medium flame till it is very hot but not smoking). The chapati was too thick or not rolled evenly. I think that should take care of the puffing up.
Regarding the taste, it could be the reason you mentioned or because of the cold tawa was cold and the chapati dried up. 🙁
About the needing extra water – no idea what the reason for that is ….. 🙁
Hope that helps and keep trying, making the chapatis at home is one of the most satisfying things 😉
Hi,
I tried Tandoor roti. Excellent idea to use toaster.
I tried roti with oil in dough, the roti came thin and soft.
Thank you girls
Wish you a Happy New Year
Sudha
Chennai
please please answer my query 94
when i make chapati it always turns out hard as a rock haha so how can i make it soft
If you use oil in the dough and then keep them in an insulated container immediately after they come off of the tawa, they should not get hard. Also, while cooking the chapati, do not keep flipping and pressing over and over. This will dry out the chapati and it will become hard.
Hi Hetal and Anuja,
I was wondering if you guys saw my query above ? !
Expecting a reply soon …;)
Hi Hetal Anuja,
I would like to know if there is any way we can freeze the rotis. I dont mean the dough, but basically just roll out the chapptis and then freeze them so that when we need to eat chappatis, we just take out the frozen rotis and heat them on a tava ? I tried freezing rotis but they turned out really hard and pappad like !! Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Hi Surya,
Sorry we missed your question. You can roll out chapattis and place them in between wax or parchment paper and then freeze them in ziploc bags. When you’re ready to have them, just take out how many you need and place them directly on the tawa…no need to defrost. The wax/parchment paper will prevent them from sticking to each other.
ok thanks guys !
Shoba, your query re freezing roti dough with baking powder. I bake a lot and have not frozen dough or batters but have rested them overnight in the fridge. Unfortunately, the baking powder did lose some of its effectiveness. Give it a try but use double acting baking powder. Double acting baking powder carries a double insurance: that the dough will rise after it hits the heat. Big query?? Would freezing kill the baking powder!! I can’t answer that question because there’s a bit of chemistry involved here. Does Pillsbury have a frozen biscuit/scone dough? If they do, then there’s our answer.
Thanks Anuja for clarifying
One query. Can the oil be added to the warm water. Would this distribute the oil more evenly seeing it’s only a tablespoon. Or, is this a no no!!
Hi Lydia,
We want the Oil to coat the Chapati Flour and the Water is for the binding, in other words, it won’t do the job it’s supposed to if you combine them 🙂
Tip: To divide the chappati dough into equal portions, roll the dough into a fat cylinder. Cut it into 9 or 8 portions/discs. Voila, you’re a step ahead you have a flattened disc. You’ve saved yourself some time. I do that when making small bread rolls, can’t see why it wont work here.
Great Tip, Lydia! Thanks again 🙂
Hi,
Love the idea about freezing the dough as I am always looking for quick time saving but healthy recipes for my family. I am from Trinidad and we usually make our rotis with baking powder, would I be able to freeze that dough as you did?
Hi Shobha,
We have not made rotis with baking powder so cannot give you an accurate answer. Sorry. You can try a small batch and see if it comes out ok before making a huge lot.
Hi Hetal And Anuja!
I have been feeling homesick lately and have been missing my mom’s food. So, you can imagine how happy i am that I have come across your easy recipes – I am not a good cook 🙁
I am planning to make some parathas but I have a question – How many grams would 1 cup of atta weigh?
Thank you!
Hi Lilluz,
Glad you’re finding SMTC useful. We like to use a cup measure because the weight of flour will depend on the type of flour, humidity, whether it has been sifted of not, etc. Normally, a cup of flour will weigh approx 120 – 125 grams.
HI
I tried making chapathis from your video..
i came out well but when i pack it in my husbands lunch box it is not remaing soft … it becomes very hard after 5-6 hrs .. I use golden temple atta .. which brand will you suggest..pls reply
Hi Sai,
We use Laxmi brand…we have noticed a few others say that Golden Temple is a little chewy 😉
Hi, my chapatis come out a bit tough. How I can I make them softer?
Thanks!
Martha
Hi Martha,
If you’ve followed the recipe exactly, there could be a couple of possibilities. The chapati is not rolled evenly or is too thick. After cooking, did you keep the chapatis in a covered (preferably insulated) container until ready to serve?
I use the mexican tortilla warmer… The one that looks like a round oven mitt/ pot holder? They keep my rotis warm upto 2-3 hours… The rotis can also be popped into the microwave with the warmer on for about a minute and you get piping hot rotis..
HI dear sisters,
today i made Chapthi for dinner…it comes really good on first time n its ballon up…im so happy…:)i wanna knw dat in dis recipe u dip n roll in dry flour is chapati flour or maida ..? but i tried chapati flour but chapati is like sandy feel wen it touches..dats i want to knw which flour u used…or chapti is like dat…coz i dnt abt dat..ps let me knw
thanx for ur recipes..:)
Hi Shahira,
For this recipe, we used just plain chapati flour. The trick to prevent the sandy feel is to brush off the excess dry flour from the chapati before putting it on the tawa. If you want, you can use maida. We use maida in our Roti (Rotli) recipe because it helps us to roll it very thin.
Can you please post the recipe for Bhature or Kulche please!
Thanks
Just made chapattis following your recipe. They weren’t perfectly round or even, but were tasty nonetheless. Couldn’t have done it without your video. Thanks so much!
Hi
I am a big fan of show me the curry. When i try to make chapathis that is when i make golf size balls n keep them it tends to dry fast so i just cover them and take it one by one and even then my chapatis doesn’t remain soft. Yes i did follow the same instructions, my husband says its very hard and u cant eat the next day.
help…thank u both…
Do you cover and keep the dough to rest for 15-20 minutes? Does your dough become dry before or after you make the balls? When you cook the chapati, do you keep it in a covered container immediately after taking it off the tawa? All of these things may affect the outcome. Also, the next day, you still have to warm up the chapati either on a tawa or flame to make it very soft.
Thank u Hetal..Really appreciated..
Terrific instructions, I’m going to have to try this tonight, thank you!
hi anuja and hetal,i am writing to both of you first time.i am big fan of your way of cooking and the way you are telling.i got one request could you plese show how to make corn flour chappati, you can say makki di roti in punjabi as well.
thanx a lot for giving us so many wonderful ways of cooking.
Hi Sukh,
Thank you for taking the time to write to us and welcome to the SMTC family!
We already have Makki Ki Roti on our list and unfortunately, our list is very long but we will get to it.
Thanks for your support!
Hi Hetal and Anuja
Is this chapati recipe the same as the gujurati Bhakri recipe? If not, could you post a recipe for Bhakri, I would greatly appreciate it.
Hi Pari,
In my family, we do call it “bhakri”.
Hi,
is it different between whole wheat flour and wheat flour??
can i use wheat flour?
thanks
There is a difference between the whole wheat chapati flour that you purchase from an Indian grocery store versus the whole wheat flour from an American grocery store. The chapati flour is milled a little more so it is smoother and lighter in color. If you use wheat flour from an American grocery store, you can add a little all-purpose flour while kneading the chapati dough.
Do you have a recipe of naan? If not, it would be great if you could make a video recipe for naan.
Hi
Please could you tell me how to make plain corn flour/corn meal chappaties
thankyou
Do you mean Makki ki Roti? We have that on our list:)
Thanks!!!! Looks a lot like the way my mother used to make it… But now I have you girls around to help. Thanks again.
Hi Hetal and Anuja!
My fiancee might have a condition that makes it impossible for her to eat wheat products, do you think it would be possible to make parathas using gluten-free flour?
Thank you so much,
Chris
Hi Chris,
We have never used gluten-free flour to determine if this recipe will work or not with it. There are other options like “Adai” which is like a crepe made with different daals and rice. Sorry couldn’t be of more help.
Hi Hetal!
I really appreciate your quick response to an unusual question! I guess I’ll just have to give it a try! Thanks so much for a wonderful website!
Chris
Hi Chris!
If you try this, could you post the results? I love this site, and was about to post asking about gluten-free, when I saw that you already did just that a few days ago. I would love to be able to have parathas with my curries!
Linda
Hello there,
I was looking for an easier way to make the dough. After seeing your video i tried using my food processor for it. Your ingredients are just the perfect amount. Its amazing how easy the who process is. I usually take about 20 minutes to get the dough done. I did the same in about 5 mins today. Thanks a lot for your recipe and video.
Uma
Pls can u show how to make “bhakri”.I am a fan of gujju food…so some more gujju items on ur show pls:))
Hi Magpie,
You can leave the dough out for a few hours and it won’t hurt anything. I’ve left it on the countertop for 3-4 hours and it’s worked just fine.
Would it affect the outcome if I allowed the dough to sit for a much longer time – several hours or a day – either out of the fridge, or in (and then allowed it to come to Room temp)?
Hi Mary,
Chapatis made from white flour (all-purpose) will have a very chewy and rubbery texture. You really have to use the whole wheat flour.
Hi,
I have never made soft chapatis-ever!I would like to make chapatis with white flour,does the amount of water needed change?
Hi Maurice,
Unfortunately, this recipe does not do well with white flour (all purpose flour). It becomes rubbery and very hard to eat. We have never tried it with rice flour.
Is it alright to use non-wheat flour when making Atta? Like, for instance, white flour or rice flour because wheat flour is rather expensive in our area
Maurice, you can try looking for the trinidad version of roti… I believe they make it with all-purpose flour.
Hi Bhavika,
Yes, hard anodized materials are non-stick without the non-stick coating (such as teflon). They are made from aluminum that has been oxidized to a super duper non-porous surface. The pores in metal is what makes things stick to them. Hard anodized cookware is the most durable cookware as there is no peeling like non-stick cookware.
We have opened our brand new SMTC Kitchen Store where we carry some of the Hard Anodized items. Please have a look when you get a chance.
Here is the link:
https://34.233.61.50/catalog
Hi Hetal,
Do you mean the hard anodized tava is non-stick without being the actual non – stick material, knowing non-stick cookware is not healthy as it releases toxic gases?
Can I get this in any American store?
Awaiting your reply..
Hi Bhavika,
In the video, we are using a hard anodized tawa. It has the advantages of non-stick without the obvious problems such as chipping and peeling.
Iron tawas need to be seasoned well to prevent sticking (coated in oil and heated to a very high temperature). You cannot wash them with soap – just rinse with very hot water and dry immediately.
Hello again,
In the video it looks like you are using Iron tava.
I was making on non stick and they turned out great.
Knowing the disadvantages of non sticking I tried using Iron tava.But rotis tend to stick.
Not all of them stick but few of them do.
How can I get rid of sticking ?
Hi Hetal and Anuja,
I tried making the chapatis, but they seemed a bit coarse. I used a bag of chapati flour (that’s what it said on the bag, but it seems much darker than your brand and is a deep golden colour. Is there a particular brand you use? Perhaps it is just the lighting? Also, is there more than one kind of Atta? There seems to be a zillion brands/types at our local Indian store. Also, mind were not crispy but also not particularly soft…I only had small bubles or only puffing on one side..is that due to not rolling evenly and is there a such thing as a chapati maker that flattens the dough evenly?
Many thanks to the two of you for producing such a wonderful website. It has inspired me to try and learn Indian cooking.
Hi Bhavika,
We are in the process of opening the SMTC Kitchen store on our website in the next week or so. We will be carrying different size stainless steel insulated containers. Please check back soon.
Hi ,
I wanted to know where could I buy the insulated container here in the US.
Can u please let me know on that?
Keep up the good work.
Thanks a lot.
Hi Angel,
Unfortunately, you cannot use all purpose flour. The chapati will be really chewy. You can find chapati flour at any Indian grocery store. If you don’t have an Indian grocery store nearby, the next best thing is to buy the whole wheat flour from your local supermarket and mix about 1/4 cup all purpose flour for every cup of wheat flour.
Can I use all purpose flour instead of Whole wheat flour??
Hi Mo,
A cup is a standard unit of measure here in the US. A cup holds 8 fluid ounces (roughly 236.58 mL). So 1.5 cups would be approx 356 mL.
hi,
please could you tell me what 1.5 cups of flour in grams or millitres are (if using a small jug to measure), as everyone has different sized cups!
thanks
Hi Sani,
The chapati/paratha will definitely stay for one week in the refrigerator. You use the same ingredients/quantities mentioned. You can keep them in a container with a tight fitting lid. When ready to eat, you can re-heat them on the tava, over an open flame (if you have a gas stove) or even in a toaster oven. Do not microwave as they will get chewy.
Good luck!
hetal u can try steaming the chapatis in a wet muslin cloth for maybe 3-4 min. although the last one got stuck to the cloth the chapatis were soft.
Hi Anuja/Hetal,
Your tips are excellent and are really great help.
Can you please suggest if I can make the roti and keep it for a week.Will all the measurement/quantities be same as mentioned above and what is the correct procedure to store it for a week.
When I take it out everyday, do I need to heat it in a tawa or microwave while eating.
Thanks again for all the wonderful recipes and great work!!!
Cheers,
Sani