Recipe guide · 4 min read
How to Make Restaurant Style Chole Bhature
In brief: Restaurant-style chole begins with soaked chickpeas cooked until tender with tea leaves or a tea bag, black cardamom, bay leaf, cinnamon and salt. The tea gives the chole its deep colour without changing the flavour too much. Save the cooking liquid because it carries starch and spice, which help the masala become thick and glossy.
Dark, spicy chole and puffed bhature with the proper street-side restaurant finish.
Ingredients
- 2 cups chickpeas, soaked
- Tea bag, bay leaf and black cardamom
- 2 onions
- 2 tomatoes
- 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
- 2 tbsp chole masala
- Amchur and chilli powder
- 2 cups maida
- 1/2 cup yoghurt
- Oil and salt
How to make it
- 1Pressure-cook chickpeas with tea, whole spices and salt until tender. Reserve the cooking liquid.
- 2Cook onion, ginger-garlic, tomato, chole masala, chilli and amchur until the oil separates.
- 3Add chickpeas and some liquid. Mash a few beans and simmer until dark and thick.
- 4Knead maida, yoghurt, semolina, salt, sugar and oil into a soft dough. Rest, roll and fry bhature in hot oil.
Chef tips
- Do not overcook chickpeas before the masala stage.
- Mash a few beans to thicken naturally.
- Fry bhature quickly in properly hot oil.
Why this recipe works
Restaurant-style chole begins with soaked chickpeas cooked until tender with tea leaves or a tea bag, black cardamom, bay leaf, cinnamon and salt. The tea gives the chole its deep colour without changing the flavour too much. Save the cooking liquid because it carries starch and spice, which help the masala become thick and glossy.
For the masala, cook onions until golden, then add ginger-garlic paste, tomato puree, chole masala, coriander powder, chilli powder, cumin and amchur. Cook until oil separates. Add the chickpeas and mash a small portion to thicken the curry. Simmer with the reserved liquid until the chole look dark, clingy and restaurant-rich.
For bhature, knead maida with curd, semolina, salt, sugar, a little oil and enough water to make a soft dough. Rest it, roll evenly and fry in hot oil so it puffs quickly. Serve chole with bhature, onion, pickle, lemon and green chilli.
The restaurant finish comes from patience more than heavy cream or extra masala. Taste at the end, rest the dish for a few minutes, and serve it hot with naan, roti or jeera rice. At Sardaar Ji Dhaba, we look for the same balance every time: a gravy that clings, spice that stays warm, and a final bite that still feels generous.
The first bite should make you look up from the table.
Kitchen note · Sardaar Ji Dhaba