Chakkuli

Chakkuli is one of those snacks every Kannadiga home knows well. It shows up at festivals, at weddings and in the steel dabba that comes out when guests arrive. Our Chakkuli is made in small batches, crisp and light, with the familiar spiral shape you remember from childhood.

Ingredients in malenadu Chakkuli

Besan flour, rice flour, roasted gram flour, ajwain, butter, salt, sunflower oil and white sesame. That is the full list.

We do not use palm oil and we do not add preservatives. The butter gives it a soft richness, while ajwain and sesame bring the flavour you expect from a good homemade chakkuli. Roasted gram flour (hurigadale) adds a slightly nutty note that makes it different from the plain rice chakkuli sold in most shops.

What does our Chakkuli taste like?

It is crunchy, mildly salted and not spicy, so children and elders both enjoy it. Each piece breaks cleanly and does not leave your fingers oily. The ajwain comes through gently at the end, which is exactly how it should be.

How Chakkuli is made

The flours are mixed with butter, spices and water into a soft dough. The dough is pressed through a chakli mould into spirals and fried in sunflower oil on a medium flame until golden. Getting the dough right is the tricky part. Too much butter and the chakkuli breaks in the oil, too little and it turns hard. Our makers have been doing this for years, so they know the balance by hand.

After frying, the pieces are cooled fully before packing. Packing them warm makes them soggy, so we never rush this step.

How to enjoy Chakkuli

• With a hot cup of tea or coffee in the evening
• Packed in school or office tiffin
• As part of a festival plate during Ganesha Chaturthi, Deepavali or Krishna Janmashtami
• As a light snack while travelling by bus or train
• Crushed over curd rice for some crunch (try it once)

Pack size and storage

Each pack has 100g of chakkuli. After opening, keep it in an airtight container so it stays crisp. Avoid keeping it near the stove or in a humid place. If it does lose a bit of crunch during the monsoon, warm it for a minute in a dry pan and it will be fine again.

Chakkuli, chakli or murukku?

They are cousins. In Karnataka we call it chakkuli, in Maharashtra it is chakli and in Tamil Nadu it is murukku. The shape is similar, but the flours and spices change from region to region. Our version follows the Malenadu and coastal Karnataka style, with rice flour, besan and butter.

A snack for every age

Because it is not spicy, this is one snack the whole family can share. Little ones can hold a piece and nibble on it slowly and older people like that it is light and not too hard to bite. It also travels well, so it is a good thing to carry when you visit relatives or go on a long drive. Just pack a few pieces in a small steel box and you are sorted for the evening.

From the malenadu collective

malenadu is a farmer producer company from the Western Ghats region of Karnataka. We work with small producers who still make snacks the traditional way. Your order helps them reach customers directly, without middlemen taking a cut in between.

We also put this chakkuli in our festive Sweets & Savories Comboand many customers first tried it there.

More from malenadu

Also try our Masala Peanut or see all malenadu snacks. Chakkuli is closely related to murukku and you can read about murukku here.