Litti – A popular and favourite food of Bihar. Roasted dough ball stuffed with spicy gram flour mix.
This is a very traditional recipe of Bihar and now popular all over India. This sattu stuffed litti is usually served with chokha and chutney. Chokha is a mash of roasted vegetables mainly brinjal, tomato and potato. Spice like salt, lemon juice and green chilies are added in the chokha along with a generous drizzle of mustard oil.
In Bihar, U.P, and Jharkhand this is the most favourite food and often cooked in all their function and celebrations. It is very healthy, nutritious considered as a super food because it is very rich in protein and is gluten free. There are so many small shops and eateries on the roadside of Bihar and U.P selling these authentic fresh litti chokha cooking on chulha or cow dung cakes.
Litti is a dough ball stuffed with sattu which is made with roasted black chana and jawar etc. Nowadays readymade sattu aata is available in the market and you can also grind roasted kala chana at home and get fresh sattu anytime.
In roasted sattu, many spices are added to add flavour and taste. Kalonji, ajwain, chili powder, salt, hing, choppd green chili , some lemon juice, fresh coriander, ginger, some mango pickle, or chili pickle along with few tsp of pickle oil. This sattu mixture is stuffed inside the simple dough balls and packed neatly so that the stuffing does not come out while baking. The leftover sattu stuffing you can store in an airtight jar in fridge and use later.
With the sattu stuffing you can also make parathas, pooris or a slightly different version Makuni. Sattu can also be mixed with water to make the very popular, healthy Sattu drink (savoury or sweet). For the sweet sattu drink, only sugar and sattu is added in chilled water. For Namkeen sattu – salt, jeera powder, lemon juice, chopped green chilies and hara dhaniya is added in chilled water .With sattu a healthy nourishing drink is ready to enjoy in summer.
The method of making Litti is quite similar to Rajasthani bati but the taste is very different as both have different stuffing and taste. Traditionally the littis are slow cooked on cow dung cakes but as this method is not feasible everywhere so in many areas litti is cooked over hot charcoal in clay oven / chulhas. This method gives a nice smoky flavour to the litti. In cities people use oven or baati oven to make litti, you can also cook it on gas stove by putting it on a wire mesh or grill.
You can also deep fry the litti if you don’t have baking or grilling options, but taste will be slightly different. You may also check these options – air fryer, oven, tandoor, stove top roast.
Serve Litti with ghee, chutney, chokha and some salad. At some places people also enjoy it with dal so choice is yours. The Street vendors serve these on Sal leaves or banana leaves.
I have already posted the recipe of making Baingan aloo tamatar ka Chokha here
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Litti Chokha
Ingredients
- 3 cup Whole Wheat Flour / Atta
- 1 tsp Salt / Namak
- 3 tbsp Clarified Butter / Desi Ghee
- 3 tbsp Yogurt/Curd
stuffing of litti
- 1.5 cup Sattu/ Roasted black chana flour
- 2 tbsp Mustard Oil / Sarso ka tel
- 1/2 tsp Carom Seeds / Ajwain
- 1/2 tsp Nigella Seeds / Kalonji
- 1/3 tsp Asafoetida / Hing powder
- 2 tbsp mango pickle masala
- 1 tbsp Green Chillies / Hari Mirch chopped
- 1 tbsp Ginger / Adrak grated
- 1.5 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 cup Fresh Coriander / Cilantro / Hara Dhaniya chopped
- 2-3 tbsp Water / Paani
Instructions
Making litti dough
- In a bowl take the wheat flour, add salt and mix
- Add ghee and mix well with the flour and now add curd and water and make a smooth and soft dough.
- Apply some ghee or oil on the dough ,cover and let it rest for 15 minutes.
The stuffing
- Take a bowl and mix all the ingredients listed in stuffing. mix well , it should not be very dry.
Making litti
- Divide the dough in equal size balls , around 12-14 or as per your preference.
- Flatten the ball on your palm and fill with the prepared sattu mixture.
- Cover it from all the sides and make a neat ball. similar way stuff all the littis.
- Bake the littis in the oven at 200 degree temp for 35-40 minutes, change the sides midway.
- Can roast or grill on gas stove/ air fryer /charcoal chulha or cow dung cakes
- Bake till litti become golden with few brown spot appear on it.
- Remove from the oven and immediately crush slightly and dip in hot ghee and serve.
- Serve and enjoy with dal, chokha and chutney