Air Fried Tortilla Papdi for Indian Chaat

Only 2 ingredients-tortillas/rotis and a drizzle of oil to make these practically no oil, tortilla chips/papdi that we Indians use in our popular street food category-Chaat. Papdi is an important ingredient in all street food, be it it Bhel puri, Sev puri or Papdi Chaat as it adds the crunch to these sweet, spicy and tangy dishes.

The small pieces of air fried tortilla is an easy hack to using papdi. Papdi is a laborious process that involves making a dough with all purpose flour, rolling them into 1 inch diameter puris/discs(hence the terms bhel puri, sev puri, batata puri, pani puri!) and then deep frying them at a low temperature till they turn crisp. Another hack I use is using Apple butter to make sweet chutney. Not only is it a no cook recipe, you get a serving of fruit and it lasts six months in the refrigerator. If you haven’t tried it, give it a try. Its such a time saver and just trust me, there is no difference in taste, texture or flavor. Here is the recipe for Green Chatni with Cilantro/Coriander and Mint-Freezing instructions included.

For the longest time, I used to deep fry the cut tortilla pieces and use them as papdi. I haven’t made papdi chat for a few years now as it was not only a messy affair, frying the tortillas but they always soaked way too much oil. Honestly, the air fried papdis are so much crispier than the fried counterparts and are made in practically no oil. I love using these air fried, low fat papdi in my easy tater tots papdi chaat.

I had some left over rotis the other day and tried the same recipe using multi grain rotis instead of flour tortillas. The papdis turned out crisp and crunchy! What a great way to use up left over rotis and give it a totally new avatar. Since home made rotis are thinner than store bought tortillas, I air fried them for a minute or two less. After the first 4-5 minutes, keep checking as air fryers vary. Since rotis are made of whole wheat, the papdi will be a little darker in color. Here is a picture of my Multigrain left over rotis turned into crisp papdi. Color is little darker than the flour tortilla papdi because of the multigrain flour that was used. This recipe works well with any kind of tortilla-corn, wholewheat, low carb, keto and gluten free.

Cut these tortillas pizza style into triangles, sprinkle some sea salt on them and they can be used for dipping with salsa and guacamole. Delicious, crisp, non fried tortilla chips ready in minutes! Dip them into this easy Make ahead Guacamole recipe which will last a whole week without turning brown!

Some other easy recipes to try for parties are-

Mexican 7 Layer Bean Dip

Bread Katori Chaat

Batata Vada/No Onion Garlic Aloo Bonda

Indian Bread Rolls-Air Fried Potato Stuffed Bread Rolls

Dabeli Twists-make ahead and freezing instructions included

Here is the written recipe followed by the step by step pictorial one-

 

Here is the step by step pictorial recipe-

Preheat the air fryer at 370F for 5 minutes

Stack 2-3 tortillas/rotis and use a knife or pizza cutter to cut into small squares or diamond shapes

Drizzle oil and rub oil over all the pieces

Place the tortilla pieces and air fry at 370F for 4 minutes

Toss the pieces and air fry again for 3 minutes

At this point, any pieces that have browned, remove them and

continue to air fry for 2 more minutes, so all the chips/papdi are the same color

Use in Papdi Chat, like I have done below, in bhel puri, sev puri, and Mexican bhel

tastes good with salsa and guacamole as well!