A Chapati Recipe is essential for any serious Indian food lover!
The Indian Chapati, which is also known as roti, is a delicious but simply put together soft flat bread prepared with whole wheat flour.
![Chapati Recipe - How to make Indian Chapati with Ghee [Easy]](https://www.masalaherb.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Chapati-Recipe-How-to-make-Chapati-11.jpg)
The day when I entered India, I learned my first typical Indian food lesson, when the chapati flatbread was introduced to me.
What is Chapati?
Chapati is an Indian flat bread prepared with simple whole wheat flour, salt, and water.
Sometimes ghee (clarified butter) is added to create moist flakey buttery layers, this is called a ghee chapati.
Every family household in India prepares a batch of fresh chapatis every single day.
The whole wheat flour used is known as atta or simply chapati flour.
They prepare the dough, let it rest, roll out the chapati balls and fry the chapati on a flat pan known as a tawa pan in India.
Chapati is a staple daily flat bread in the Indian subcontinent.
Normally the task of making the roti is given to the women of the house, and the ladies cook the flatbreads in the early morning hours when it is still dark outside.
Depending on the household, the wholewheat dough is prepared at times the previous evening.
Chapati vs Roti vs Phulka vs Paratha vs Nan
In India, flatbreads have at times different names, depending on the region.
So, Chapati, Roti, and Phulka are the same thing, a plain flatbread prepared with wholewheat flour or local millet flours.
However, a flatbread with ghee is also a chapati and in some places, it is a paratha/parantha, whereas both can be stuffed with mince, spiced mash potato, spinach etc.
A paratha can be prepared with all purpose flour or whole wheat flour.
Chapati, Roti, Phulka, and Paratha are rolled out doughs and prepared on the stove top.
A nan is a stretched out all-purpose flour flat bread which is leavened with egg or in modern recipes with yeast.
Often while nan bread includes milk too and is basted with butter and fresh chopped garlic.
Nans are typically cooked in a tandoori oven.
In some regions in India, you will see more variations of flatbread
How to use Chapati?
Chapati is the simplest bread in the world but the humble flat bread can be used in so many ways with your food, which makes the Chapati recipe a complete essential in your Indian cooking repertoire!
You can use the chapati to spoon up any Indian curry or dal or you can simply transform it into a wrap or here around they would say a stuffed chapati roll.
Besides, that Chapati with ghee is often while enjoyed as a breakfast item.
In fact, chapati with ghee tastes like the French croissant and has buttery soft layers like a classic croissant.
In Goa, for example, chapati is a staple breakfast item.
Chapati Recipe flat bread ingredients
To create soft chapati flatbread dough you will need the following 4 main ingredients.
- whole wheat flour is the main ingredient, which is better known as Atta in India.
- a sprinkle of salt to give the dough flavor
- and of course, water to form an elastic and form-able dough
- some oil so that the cooked chapati doesn’t get tough. (This is a plus point ingredient)
…and if you want to make a ghee chapati then add the clarified butter to that too.
How to make Chapati dough?
When preparing chapati flatbread from scratch you will need to follow some simple steps.
When you prepare the chapati dough, make sure to work it out into a smooth dough for 5-10 minutes.
you will need to work out the dough, that way the chapati will be softer.
The right amount of water is important at the same time using quality whole wheat flour is another plus point.
Also, to make a soft chapati dough you will need to give the dough some resting time and another crucial point is to work out the dough again just before rolling out the chapati circles.
How to make Ghee Chapatis?
The flatbread with ghee, if made correctly, will reward you with buttery soft delicious layers on the inside, just like a croissant.
The layers in a ghee chapati recipe are created by rolling out the dough batch by batch, spreading ghee on it, folding it in, rolling it out again and repeating the process.
It’s the same process for making a French Croissant!
You can see the whole process in my step by step pictures in the recipe card.
How to cook the rolled out chapati?
For the plain dry chapati recipe, cook the chapati on a dry flat frying griddle or in a chapati maker.
For the ghee chapati recipe, cook the chapati the same way like the plain chapati, just that you spread some ghee on the rolled out chapati each time on both sides before frying.
You will realize that the easiest and most hygienic way of cooking this chapati recipe is of course with a flat grilled pan.
These pans are also known as tawa pans in India.
After all, you can use the flat pan too for making dosa and French crepes.
If you can’t get a tawa, buy a crepes pan.
Another option is to get a chapati maker.
I have heard of those but never seen one.
Eventually, you could also just use a Tortilla maker tortilla maker/tortilla press cooker.
Why is my chapati dough sticky?
When preparing the chapati recipe, you might have added a little more water than needed.
A quick fix for that is to add small quantities of flours to the dough while working out the chapati dough further until you get a smooth dough.
Why is my chapati dough hard or why is my chapati chewy?
Make sure to follow these steps for soft chapati:
- add little oil to your dough, this is a trick to make your life easier and should help you to create soft chapati
- ultimately try making only ghee chapatis first until you get a hang for Indian flatbreads. It’s hard to mess up buttery flakey soft ghee chapati. This is how I started out too.
- use quality fine ground whole wheat flour. Try to get Indian whole wheat flour, aka atta, as it’s more suitable for Indian flatbreads.
- add enough water to the dough so that it’s not dry. Adjust the liquids. You will notice that, sometimes the amount of liquid depends on the weather in your part of the world because your flour gets affected by humidity in the air and sucks in water. Wet weather means, add a few drops less water. In a dry climate, I often noticed that I needed little extra water than described in a recipe. Use your judgment. The dough should not be too dry, nor should it be sticky. Adjust with small qualities of flour and water until you got it right!
- try using lukewarm water for better results. If you struggle a lot try using milk or buttermilk, instead of water. That will get you 100% soft chapatis but that’s not the traditional way and the chapatis will taste different too.
- work out your dough until you have a smooth and soft dough which is not sticky. It’s important that you work out your dough first and then a second time shortly just before rolling out again.
- Let your dough rest at least 15 mins minimum after having worked it out the first time. For best result let it rest overnight.
- Roll out your chapati evenly, not too thin, nor too thick. 3 mm or 0.11 inch is the rule. when rolled out too thin your chapati tends to get harder whilst cooking. Also, don’t add too much flour while rolling out the dough, just enough so that it doesn’t stick. Flour literally sucks out the water from the chapati and the chapati can turn out more dry and hard.
- Use a good non-stick griddle, which heats up evenly. Don’t try it out for the first time with a regular sticky griddle. You will have a hard time and your chapati will get black and burn on some spots while remaining uncooked in other places. For example, I tried making chapati once with a traditional clay griddle. It was a sticky horror.
- Dust your rolled out chapati before cooking it to get rid of excess flour which can burn on the griddle and turn your chapati harder. To dust just slap the chapati between your hands
- Heat up your pan before placing the first chapati into the griddle pan. Always cook with high heat only on all sides for a short time. never cook on slow heat, the chapati will get chewy.
How to make Chapati round?
When rolling out the dough keep enough flour under your chapati, but not too much either, just enough to not stick. Use a small rolling pin too.
If you are new to this, just roll out the dough a little and turn it each time so that you slowly have a round circle shaped.
In time you get the hang for this and eventually you will see that when rolling out the chapati dough with some flour underneath, that the chapati circle starts to move a little always towards the right.
And so you can create effortlessly a round chapati.
Why does a chapati puff and how to puff a Chapati?
You will have noticed that chapati is often seen and presented puffed, stuffed with hot air when freshly prepared.
When working out the dough layers are formed between and so heat of the griddle creates hot air which makes the chapati puff.
A chapati doesn’t puff that much on a griddle.
If you want to puff up your chapati like a balloon, then cook it first on both sides and at the end drag the chapati on a raw gas flame.
That will create the chapati balloon effect.
Ghee chapati is heavier and doesn’t tend to puff the way plain chapati does.
How to store cooked chapatis?
So, that chapatis remain hot after cooking, you need to store them well.
To do that you can use a hot pot or some kind of an insulated container of the chapati size.
That way the chapati will remain soft and warm.
Another option is to wrap the chapati into aluminum foil so that they remain soft.
Leaving the chapati out is what makes them slowly tough.
Tools you can need to make this chapati recipe:
- Mini Wood Rolling Pin
- Cast Iron Griddle – flat pan
- Hot Pot/Insulated container to store the Chapatis so that they remain soft and warm
Flatbreads from around the world
Serving suggestions with the Chapati recipe 🍛
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Please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas with us in the comment section further below!
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Chapati Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cup Whole Wheat Flour
- pinch Salt
- 1 Tablespoon Oil
- 1/2 cup Water make sure to slowly add the water to the dough to adjust the amount of liquid needed
- Ghee aka Clarified Butter
Instructions
- Start by mixing the Flour and the salt well, make a well and add the oil and water. Mix and work out the dough on a board. It should never be soft but rather harder! Let it rest covered with some flour. Best is over night or at least 30 minutes.
- Roll that ball out with little flour so that it doesn’t stick and spread some ghee on the surface of the dough.
- Dust it a bit so that the flour won’t burn while cooking and add the raw rolled out dough to the preheated flat pan. Cook 1 side first for 10 seconds, then the other side.
- Turn around and this time spread little ghee onto the surface. Turn it again and spread on that side some ghee too. The chapati will blow up a bit but not that much as it does when cooked without ghee.
- Some parts will get a bit dark and a cow freckles pattern will appear. That’s normal, that’s how it is prepared everywhere.
- Best enjoyed still warm.
- In India people store the freshly cooked chapatis in a special chapati container so that it remains soft through the day. People usually take these to work to have with their food or in Bombay you have the Dhaba wallas caring those metal boxes with the warm chapatis and curries to the offices.
Notes
- You can make this chapati without ghee by turning it into a plain chapati! Just leave out any of the ghee rolling/folding parts and don’t add ghee to the frying of the chapati bread.
Nutrition
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The Post, Chapati recipe, was first published on March 16th, 2012 and was enhanced and updated ever since.
can’t wait to make this. looks delicious and simple! <3
I need to give this a try! I love homemade flatbread!
I love roti! Thanks for sharing the recipe. It looks delicious, and I didn’t realize how simple it is to make!
How wonderful to have the recipe for flatbread. Thank you so much!
I still haven’t made my own ghee. This recipe looks great using it. I love how you outlined all of the steps.
I can’t wait to try making chapati!! You make it look super easy and it also looks so delicious! Great recipe!! I can just imagine myself dipping chapati in everything!!
Okay this looks amazing! Can’t wait to give it a try – you make it look so delicious!
This looks wonderful. I want to make this to go with your beef meatball curry. I can get whole wheat flour here in Japan, but I wonder if Atta is super finely ground or different from overseas flour?? I don’t have ghee, so I’ll have to use butter…..
Hi Pamela,
Hm I don’t know what the whole wheat flour is like in japan but most probably you should be good with using what you get there.
For the Ghee… you can make clarified butter easily at home by heating and melting the butter and skimming off any impurities and foam. What is left is clarified butter. 🙂
Hi Helen, these flat breads look awesome! I have made Jamaican roti before and it is very similar to your method of laminating each layer with a fat, it was delicious! I usually make naan yo go with Indian curry but I will try this next time.
Great recipe but i think this is indian parathan not chapati. But you recipe is really amazing
Hi there,
That’,s the Goan chapati. In goa the ghee flat bread is known as chapathi locally, in other places one might call it a partha.
Well a perfect start from Indians who have just been initiated into cooking. because you know how it is in our households. One must absolutely know how to cook chapatis. 😀 Thank you for sharing Helene! 🙂
Helen I am really loving that you reposted this chapati recipe – thanks so much!
This kind of reminded me of Sri Lankan pancakes. I am talking about the shape actually :-). I should really try this out. It looks very tasty Thanks for sharing.
Helene, I make every kind of bread (I’m a breadaholic!) but I have yet to make chapatis (though they are similar to my flour tortillas). Must make a batch next time I make chicken tikka masala.
Hi Jean, yes I think chapatis are like flour tortillas. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
This Reminds me of Chinese pancake. I made them few time, lots of work but worth it. Got to try chapati too. Thank you for sharing!
Hi Sandra!
I have never seen a Chinese pancake, that’s new to me. For sure these kind of things take lots of work. You have to imagine that people here make that everyday for breakfast in the morning and for the day in advance.
i think this is the first time I actually see a step by step chapati recipe.
Thanks Helena for sharing, they look delicious.
These look so delicious! I had a bad experience at a restaurant last time I ordered these. They failed to actually cook them through. BLERGH. Yours look absolutely perfect!
That squared shaped paratha is what I grew up eating! It’s triangular these days 😀
Another perfect and timely post. I love chapati and naan and have been dying to learn to make both but for some reason this scares me! It seems so complicated. Thanks so much for the great step-by-step photos and your recipe! Now it is my turn!
I just don’t believe my eyes that you are making parathas. They are so nicely made and cooked.
thank u thats nice from u! =D
Living in the ME, there is something like that here, although it’s called something different. Great recipe and cool pictures!
I use exactly the same ingredients to make my chappatis but I’ve never rolled them like that – great tutorial and something I will definitely try.
I love chapati, look forward to trying this now.
Chapati, and Naan, are to Indians what tortillas are to Mexicans. We both eat and use our breads the same way. As much as I love Indian breads, and I have yet to make any. Thanks for sharing your recipe, I’m going to give it a try. The recipe is quite similar to our flour tortillas 🙂
WOW!!!
You did great job with this paratha here!!! ( we call it paratha as applying ghee/fat makes layers… the word paratha is actually from parat in hindi which means layers…)
Beautiful!!
This is comfort food at its best. Love the paratha.. (ghee chappati)
Oh Helene, you are so right! Nothing can stop us from making this! I absolutely LOVE roti! Wrapped in curried chicken or used to scoop is heavenly.
I have had these once at a restaurant and they were very tasty. No doubt your homemade ones here taste amazing. Great tutorial also, you do make it look easy! Cool you have done a guest post, popping over there now!
Ack! Homemade roti! I love it 🙂 Roti is one of the first ‘Caribbean’ dishes I ate when I moved to Cayman…little did I know it was really Indian and the Trinidadians had just dressed it up their way. Great post! And well done guest blogging over at Chef Dennis’!
Mmmm I’ve been wanting to make chapatis for a long time and you’ve given me the inspiration! Thanks for your step by step instructions! I’ve bookmarked this to try soon 🙂
I love Indian flat breads! My favourite when I go to an Indian restaurant (I never take rice, I prefer to concentrate on garlic bread…).
Your chapati not only looks delicious, but also not that difficult thanks to the step-by-step photos. Thank you for the great recipe! I have been cooking a bit more Indian food recently, so I might try your recipe soon.
I have wanted to make roti bread for a long time. It just seems beyond me but your instructions give me courage! 🙂
Wow, I love chapatis – I don’t think I ever had home-made ones before, or indeed knew of anyone who did home-made ones. You make it seem much too easy Helene. I find Indian cooking some of the easiest to master. No matter what I do I can almost never get it right. You make me want to try these though – Maybe if I follow your instructions attentively enough… 😀
I love homemade rotis! 🙂 Thanks for sharing!
That’s similar to the plain Chinese pancakes and the scallion pancake. Very helpful tutorial.
Oh yum! It’s very much like a Mexican tortilla, isn’t it? I’m sure making it is trickier than it seems, but I make a pretty good chicken curry that my hubby likes, and this would be nice to add!
I thought the same that day when I saw my first torilla in my life. lol
I think my kids would love this for breakfast too! And me too…
Now that makes a lot of sense…all that Ghee in the bread dough…no wonder it’s so damn good. I am disappointed, though, it’s not as healthy as I was lead to believe. But it does propose itself to a splurge every now and then.
Eva you can make the roti without ghee too, in fact its more common in india without ghee.
Hi Helene, your chapati look delicious and very well done. I have not try making chapati, so far only naan and prathas. Thanks for your step by step photos. Your chapati presentation looks lovely.
Have a nice weekend.
Roti bread is so fantastic and I couldn’t imagine eating an Indian curry without roti bread. How delicious! Your recipe looks great xx
Indian breads are the best! I can’t believe how easy it is to make them. Maybe I’ll give it a go soon, especially seeing as the weather is starting to cool down a little bit in my part of the world which means that it’s the perfect time to start making curries again! (and of course, accompanying them with chapati :))
My Indian neighbor makes chapati from scratch and I’ve seen from the beginning to the end. It’s so much fun and delicious when we make from scratch isn’t it? My husband just left for India this afternoon. He’ll be enjoying all the spicy Indian food (as I can’t eat spicy, you know. :-)). Have a great weekend!
you know what, I actually made ghee yesterday! (: and then this shows up. perfect.
I have never made chapati before, but they look wonderful! I am such a huge fan of Indian flatbreads.
Your flatbread looks amazing, Helene! And I loved your guest post.
PS…I discovered that I have children your age!!! Makes me feel old 😉
I didnt intend to make u feel old!! You have surely gained wisdom in your life which I have not. 😉
I’ve yet to encounter an Indian bread that I don’t absolutely adore…and roti is no exception! Thanks for the recipe…love that I can make it at home now!
I’ve been meaning to try my hand at roti. Yours looks delicious!
These look wonderful (and I really enjoyed your post over on Chef Dennis).
Thank you so much for such a delicious Guest Post Helene, I love it!
What a delicious looking bread – I adore chapati all day everyday 😀
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
lovely and great idea to have this for breakfast with jam – truly multicultural eating 🙂
you know I was horrible at making chapati or roti and only recently i learned it 🙂 I love these kind of folded layered paratha 🙂