Chikar Cholay Recipe (Lahori Chana Masala) — Restaurant Style at Home

Assalam-o-Alaikum everyone, I am Sumaira. Today I am sharing my Chikar Cholay recipe, and I will show you how easily you can make restaurant-style Chikar Cholay at home.

Chikar Cholay are the soft, well-cooked chickpeas in a thick masala gravy that you get in Lahore. The secret is in the masala. Fry it properly, and the whole dish changes. I also use one small trick to make the gravy thick — a paste of a boiled potato and some boiled chickpeas. It works every time.

Everything is step by step below, with pictures from my video. If you want to see any step being done, tap the watch link under the picture and the video will open at that exact moment.

Ingredients

The full list with exact quantities is in the recipe card at the bottom. You need chickpeas, onion, ginger, garlic, yogurt, and the usual spices — plus cinnamon sticks and black cardamom, which give this dish its real Lahori smell.

How to Make Chikar Cholay

Soak the chickpeas. Take 1/2 kg chickpeas. Soak them in water with 1 tsp baking soda, cover, and leave overnight or for twelve hours. This way the chickpeas cook in less time.

Cook the chickpeas. Drain the water. Put the chickpeas in a pressure cooker with enough water to cover them and 1 tsp salt. Close the lid. When the whistle blows, cook for five minutes — mine were done in five. Release the steam and open the cooker. And remember my tip: the water the chickpeas cooked in, do not throw it away. We will use it later.

Start the masala. Take a wide saucepan. Add 1 cup oil — chickpeas usually need a little extra oil. Add 1/2 tbsp garlic paste and 1/2 tbsp ginger paste and cook a little. Then add 1 crushed onion and cook it until it changes colour and its water dries up.

Fry the spices, then my thickening paste. Keep the heat low while adding spices, so the masala does not burn. Add 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp red chilli powder, 1 tsp chilli flakes, 1 tsp turmeric powder and 1 tsp black pepper powder, and fry them well. Now blend a small boiled potato with 1/2 cup boiled chickpeas and a little water into a paste, and add it to the masala. Fry the masala well — the better the masala is cooked, the better the chickpeas will taste.

Whole spices and the rest. Add 3 cinnamon sticks and 3 black cardamoms, crushed lightly. Cook two to three minutes on medium heat, keep stirring so nothing sticks, and add a little water if needed. Then add 1 tsp cumin powder, 1 tbsp coriander powder, 1 tsp garam masala powder, 1 tsp chicken powder (a stock cube works if you don’t have chicken powder), and 1 tsp mango powder — skip the mango powder if you can’t find it. Cook a little.

Chickpeas and yogurt go in. Add the boiled chickpeas and mix them with the masala. Add 1/2 cup yogurt and cook well, until the oil separates from the masala.

Simmer. Add three cups of water — the same chickpea water we kept. Cover the saucepan and cook ten minutes on medium heat. You will see the oil start to come up on the chickpeas.

Finish. Add 1 tsp kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves), 3 finely chopped green chillies, and a little finely chopped fresh coriander. Mix well and cook on low heat for three minutes, so the oil separates. Delicious Chikar Cholay are ready. Dish them out in a nice bowl — for me, the serving is part of the recipe.

You can serve them with rice or naan. You must try them too. If you make them, tell me in the comments how they came out. Remember me in your prayers.

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