Air-Fryer Puri (Chaat Puri)

Air-fryer puri for pani puri, made from scratch. This whole-wheat crispy, puffed puri is perfect for making some homemade no-fry puris when you are out of puris or don’t have those ready-to-cook puris. Presenting my baked, air-fried pani puri. 

I love air-frying puris than frying. It’s been four to five years since we eat only air-fried puris.

We buy those tiny ready-to-fry puris, pop them in air-fryer and watch those puff like tiny balls inside the air fryer. Easy-peasy right! Well, it’s easy as it sounds and I LOVE those.

But then, we are in a new-normal-situation now, where going out has become an emergency-thing. And, panipuri really doesn’t fall into that category.

Having said that, panipuri lovers like me often crave something that’s crispy, spicy, and tangy. Believe me, the diet cucumber panipuri is equally yum too. But then, I need cucumbers for that and going out is a big no, and if I have to then, why not pick some real ones!

Therefore, I made some experiments with three types of doughs.

• Number one: whole wheat, little oil and salt and knead to a stretchy dough.
• Number two: pure semolina dough with salt and warm water.
• Number three: wheat flour, semolina, tapioca starch, and baking soda+salt taste. Results are: 

As you can see in the picture, the semolina dough didn’t rise much. But it’s still crispy and papdi-like texture. The tapioca based has a crispy, light but semi-puffed texture. The just-simple, plain whole-wheat dough, however, resulted in perfectly puffed puris.

These puris, almost all, were puffed and can be used in making panipuri or other chaats. If I compare them with store-bought puris that I air-fry, these really feel small. They didn’t puff like a little, round ball. But they puffed enough to hold some potato or chickpea mixture and some of that spicy, tangy pani or water. 

How To Make Air-Fryer puri?

Crispy, puffed air-fryer puris perfect for indian chaats and panipuri. 

Ingredients: 

1 cup atta or whole-wheat flour (sifted), 1 tablespoon oil (any oil), ½ teaspoon salt or salt to taste, ¼ cup warm water or as needed to knead the dough

Method Of Making Air-Fryer Puri:

• Add the flour and salt into a large bowl. Mix well.

• Now add oil and mix it well. Break the lumps by rubbing the flour between your palms. Now add warm water little by little and knead a soft, yet stretchy dough.

• Cover and let the dough rest for 10-minutes. 

• Preheat your air fryer or CrispLid at 350F for 7-minutes. 

• Clean the air-fryer or CrispLid basket and line it with parchment paper. 

• Meanwhile, divide the dough into small balls and roll them into disc-shaped thin tortillas or rotis. Use a round cookie cutter to cut small discs out of it.

• Place the discs on air-fryer basket.

• Cook them for 3-minutes and flip and cook for another 2-minutes.

• The tiny puris will puff up and look brown around the edges. 

• Transfer the puris to a cooling rack.

• Use the puris in your favorite chaat recipe and store the rest in an air-tight container.
• Enjoy!

Here is my diet cucumber pani puri recipe.

Cucumber Pani Puri