Aloo kulcha is the best recipe of stuffed kulcha. If you are inspired by Amritsari kulcha then this aloo kulcha recipe will make a difference in your taste that anyone can easily make at home. Soft, fluffy oven baked loaded with spicy Indian mashed potatoes (aloo bharta). Perfect to serve with chole masala, fresh yogurt, chutney, and achar.
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What is Aloo Kulcha?
Aloo Kulcha is basically a traditional style of naan bread prepared on tandoor and stuffed with spicy Indian mashed potatoes. In Punjabi recipes, kulcha is the crowd hitter as everyone loves the bite of hot and spicy, crispy, and soft kulcha with Punjabi chole masala. People from Amritsar make the best aloo kulcha ever.
In this recipe of Aloo kulcha, I prepared the generic kulcha dough and then stuffed it with spicy mashed potatoes, and baked it in the oven. The same recipe can cook on tawa/skillet/griddle. The crispy crust and buttery texture make it different from other leavened flatbread and naan recipes.
In Pakistan and India, you will find the best kulcha at street food, dhabas, and roadside shops. It will give you the best flavor with hot masala tea. I personally love to make homemade kulcha by experimenting with different stuffing but aloo and onion kulcha can’t beat the flavor.
There is an ongoing debate at home as my family insists to make white flour or maida kulcha as it gives the perfect restaurant style or tandoori kulcha look but I always encourage them to have whole wheat kulcha which is healthy and nutritious. In the same way, baked kulcha in oven gives a similar look of bakery kulcha. Tawa kulcha is much more like tawa naan or aloo paratha.
Last time, I shared the recipe of Aloo naan which has been loved by the masses so today sharing my best kulcha creation that I made with love and passion. So let’s delve into it to make this homemade kulcha recipe…
Kulcha Dough Ingredients
All purpose flour (Maida) – Used white flour. You can susbstitute with wheat flour or a combination of wheat and white flour.
Yogurt – It will works as catalyst to make soft and fluffy naan.
Oil & Butter - Used both to add lubrication.
Baking Powder - It will help to rise the naan dough to make it puffy, fluffy and soft.
Milk - Used to knead the naan dough
Salt - Will adjust the salty flavor.
How to Make Aloo Kulcha
Preparation of kulcha dough
In a deep bowl, sieve flour and add salt, baking powder, cooking oil, cube of butter, and yogurt. Crumble all the ingredients by hand. Now carefully add milk or water to make a soft dough. Knead for 2 to 5 minutes to make it soft and fluffy. Then rest the dough for 01 hour at warm place. After an hour, dough is ready to stuff and bake.
Preparation of Kulcha Stuffing with Mashed Potatoes
Boil the potatoes, peel the skin and perfectly mashed it.
In a pan heat up the oil and add cumin seeds, chopped green chilies, and let it pop for few seconds then add finely chopped onions. As it starts to change color to pink then add Kashmiri red chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, mango powder, salt, and black salt. Give it good mix to combine all the ingredients.
Now add mashed potatoes and cook on high heat and keep stirring with a spatula to fold potatoes in masala. Carry this process for 2 to 3 minutes then turn off the heat and keep the potatoes cooled down as it’s ready to stuff.
How to Roll the Kulcha Dough and Apply Stuffing
With the help of flour knead the dough and distribute in equal portions. I got 3 kulchas in 2 cup white flour. So made 3 equal dough balls.
Knead the balls with your hand to make them flat on the rolling board like a roti. Roll a medium size flatbread.
At the middle of the flatbread, place the stuffing (don’t overstuff) and took the edges, and connect them to make a ball. Then make it flat with soft hand (with the help of palm). Gently roll it with rolling pin to make it big in size.
How to Bake Kulcha in Oven
Set the oven tray with foil or parchment paper, drizzle oil at the base, and place the kulcha on it.
Mark the kulcha with hands as shown in the video.
Brush egg wash at the top and sprinkle white /black sesame.
Place the tray in oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. My kulcha took 12 minutes to get ready.
In the meanwhile, I prepared the topping with butter and freshly chopped coriander. Take it out and brush the butter on it.
Take it out and brush the butter on it.
Serve hot with chole masala or chickpea curry.
Tips to Make Soft Kulcha
- Always use good quality baking powder as it makes a big impact to make the kulcha soft, puffy, and fluffy.
- You can also use a pinch of baking soda to accelerate the job of baking powder. It will help to speed up the process of dough rising.
- Knead the dough with milk as it will work as a taste enhancer. You can also use water to knead the dough as a substitute.
- Never skip yogurt in kulcha dough as it will help to develop yeast texture in the dough that will tenderize and set the gluten.
- Make sure the potato stuffing is hard don’t make it lumpy or runny.
- Always cool down the stuffing before adding otherwise it will be difficult to manage kulcha as it can be torn, or a stuffing leakage issue will come up.
- Don’t overbake otherwise it will be hard in texture.
- Always cover after buttering the kulcha to make it soft or serve immediately.
Variations
You can play with different types of stuffing. Many forms of bakery kulcha come with variety of stuffing ideas.
You can make cheese stuffing just to make cheese kulcha. Add spiced onions to make onion kulcha. In the same way, use sauteed spinach, gobi, keema, chicken tikka, or cabbage. My mother used to make radish kulcha which was awesome in taste. If you ask in comment section then I will definately plan to share the recipe.
Serving
Plain kulcha can be served with variety of dishes but stuffed kulcha has limited choices to pair up. I personally love to make chole masala or simple chickpea curry without coconut milk. Alternatively, it can simply serve with fresh yogurt, chutney or mango pickle.
If you want to make platter then add some kebab or curry stuff with it.
Q & A
Use any type of vegan flour that you like. Whole wheat and almond can be used. Use plant based yogurt. Baking powder is vegan friendly so you can comfortably use it. Use almond milk or substitute it with water. On the place of baking soda, use Acquafaba or simply skip it if you don't have. Butter can be substitute with vegan butter. Make the same stuffing with potatoes.
Well, it's not gluten free if it's cooked with white flour. You can substitute the flour with jowar (sorghum flour), chickpea flour, oat flour, almond flour, or tapioca flour to make it 100% gluten free.
Naan is prepared with yeast while the kulcha can cook without using yeast. Naan is more fluffy, puffy, and has thick crust compared with kulcha which is thin, has crispy crust and more flaky then naan.
If the dough is not properly kneaded or cooked without without resting the dough. Sometimes, too much dusting of flour can make the kulcha hard in texture. Over baking can also make hard kulcha.
May be the baking powder is old or not doing the job. Add ⅓ teaspoon baking soda and ½ teaspoon baking powder with 2.5 cups flour. Give enough time to rest the dough. I hope it will be soft and fluffy on your next attempt.
Minimum storage time is 1 hour and maximum is overnight.
Break it and add some flour and roll it again. I know it will be sticky then apply some oil on your hand to deal with this. Roll on board with your hand and directly place on baking tray or cook on tawa/skillet.
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Aloo Kulcha Recipe
Ingredients
Dough Ingredients
- 1 cup Yogurt
- 1 tablespoon Oil
- ½ teaspoon Baking Soda
- 1 tablespoon Milk
- 2 teaspoon Butter
- ½ teaspoon Salt
Potato Stuffing
- 3 Russet Potatoes Boiled (Medium Size)
- 2 teaspoon oil
- ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1 teaspoon chopped green chili
- 1 medium onion Chopped
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ⅓ teaspoon black salt
- ½ teaspoon Kashmiri red chili powder
- ⅓ teaspoon turmeric powder
- ½ teaspoon coriander powder
- ½ teaspoon mango powder
- Egg wash
- Sesame
- Butter + Coriander
Instructions
Preparation of Naan Dough
- In a deep bowl, sieve flour and add salt, baking powder, cooking oil, cube of butter, and yogurt.
- Crumble all the ingredients by hand.
- Now carefully add milk or water to make a soft dough.
- Knead for 2 to 5 minutes to make it soft and fluffy.
- Then rest the dough for 01 hour at warm place.
- After an hour, dough is ready to stuff and bake.
Preparation of Kulcha Stuffing with Mashed Potatoes
- Boil the potatoes, peel the skin and perfectly mashed it.
- In a pan heat up the oil and add cumin seeds, chopped green chilies, and let it pop for few seconds then add finely chopped onions. As it starts to change color to pink then add Kashmiri red chili powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, mango powder, salt, and black salt. Give it good mix to combine all the ingredients.
- Now add mashed potatoes and cook on high heat and keep stirring with a spatula to fold potatoes in masala. Carry this process for 2 to 3 minutes then turn off the heat and keep the potatoes cooled down as it’s ready to stuff.
How to Roll the Kulcha Dough and Apply Stuffing
- With the help of flour knead the dough and distribute in equal portions. I got 3 kulchas in 2 cup white flour. So made 3 equal dough balls.
- Knead the balls with your hand to make them flat on the rolling board like a roti. Roll a medium size flatbread.
- At the middle of the flatbread, place the stuffing (don’t overstuff) and took the edges, and connect them to make a ball. Then make it flat with soft hand (with the help of palm). Gently roll it with rolling pin to make it big in size.
Bake Kulcha in Oven
- Set the oven tray with foil or parchment paper, drizzle oil at the base, and place the kulcha on it.
- Mark the kulcha with hands as shown in the video.
- Brush egg wash at the top and sprinkle white /black sesame.
- Place the tray in oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes. My kulcha took 12 minutes to get ready.
- In the meanwhile, I prepared the topping with butter and freshly chopped coriander. Take it out and brush the butter on it.
- Take it out and brush the butter on it.
How to Cook Potato Kulcha on Tawa/Skillet
- After stuffing, rolling and marking with hands, sprinkle sesame and apply water at the bottom of the kulcha. You can take the kulcha in hand to apply water.
- Then place it on preheated tawa and cook on high heat. Use a cast iron skillet to get the best result.
- Cook from both sides and apply fresh coriander and butter mixture right after cooking.
Notes
- Always use good quality baking powder as it makes a big impact to make the kulcha soft, puffy, and fluffy.
- You can also use a pinch of baking soda to improve the work of baking powder. It will help to speed up the process of dough rising.
- Knead the dough with milk as it will work as a taste enhancer. You can also use water to knead the dough as a substitute.
- Never skip yogurt in kulcha dough as it will help to develop yeast texture in the dough that will tenderize and set the gluten.
- Make sure the potato stuffing is hard don’t make it lumpy or runny.
- Always cool down the stuffing before adding otherwise it will be difficult to manage kulcha as it can be torn, or a stuffing leakage issue will come up.
- Don’t overbake otherwise it will be hard in texture.
- Always cover after buttering the kulcha to make it soft or serve immediately.
Hinz
In summer lunch, kulcha with yogurt feels like a bliss. Do you feel the same? Here is simple and easy kulcha recipe.