Poori or Puri is a traditional Indian fried unleavened bread made with whole wheat flour, salt, and water. The dough is rolled into small discs and deep fried. Poori puffs up while frying and turns crisp on the outside. It has a soft texture inside when made correctly.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 10 minutes
  • Cook time: 30 minutes
  • Total time: 40 minutes
  • Yield: 30 · 30 Poori
  • Category: Breakfast
  • Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

  • 3 cups or (360 grams) cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon oil (or melted ghee (optional))
  • 1 teaspoon salt (or add as required)
  • ¾ to 1 cup water (or add as required)
  • oil (for deep frying - as required)

Method

Making dough

  1. In a mixing bowl or on your work-surface, take the whole wheat flour, salt and oil or melted ghee.
  2. Add little water at a time and knead well to form a dough. The dough should not be soft but stiff and tight. You can also make a semi-soft dough.

Assembling and rolling

  1. Divide the dough into small or medium pieces – about 25 to 30
  2. Make into medium sized or slightly small balls.
  3. Spread a bit of oil on both sides of the dough ball. Spreading oil and not dusting with flour helps the oil to stay clean and you won’t see dark burnt flour particles inside the oil.
  4. Roll the dough evenly into circles of about ¼ inch - neither too thin nor thick.
  5. Place the rolled dough circles in a plate and cover with a clean kitchen towel, so that they don’t dry up.

Frying

  1. Heat oil in a deep frying pan or kadai.
  2. When the oil is sufficiently hot then add one dough circle at a time and fry gently pressing down with the frying spoon or slotted spoon in a circular motion.
  3. Turn over when puffed up and fry till golden brown.
  4. Serve poori hot with a vegetable curry like korma or sweet dishes like suji ka halwa or aamras or potato curry.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.