This easy homemade chaat masala is the best spice blend to add to your favorite Chaat dishes and Pakistani and Indian street food snacks!
Indian and Pakistani foods are notorious for having too many spices. While we of course love cooking our favorite Pakistani and Indian dishes, we also take shortcuts, like preparing spice blends in batches. This means that we can save time, and still enjoy our favorite dishes on busy days!
This chaat masala spice blend is an essential seasoning mix we have in our pantry at all times!
What is Chaat Masala?
Chaat Masala is a special spice blend used in many Indian and Pakistani dishes, especially in snacks and street food. Chaat masala has a unique taste, that is salty, spicy, tangy, some times sweet all at once. If you’ve had any Indian street food like bhel, pani puri, or chana chaat, you’re probably familiar with this explosion of flavors.
The secret to the combination of flavors all at once is chaat masala – a simple spice blend that you can make at home!
Chaat Masala is not only great to have on hand to recreate your favorite street food snacks or chaat, but you can sprinkle it on top of fruits to make fruit chaat, or mix a little in with plain yogurt to make a simple flavorful raita!
Recipes you’ll love
We love cooking from scratch, but sometimes it can be tedious, so we like to prepare spice blends and some chutneys in batches to enjoy flavorful foods even on busy days!
If you’re looking for more spice blends or chutneys that make cooking your favorite Indian and Pakistani dishes easier, here are some of our favorites:
- Garam Masala: Homemade Spice Mix
- Ginger Garlic Paste
- Green Chutney
- Khajur Imli Chutney: Sweet and Tangy Tamarind and Date Sauce
Spices in Chaat Masala
There are various versions of chaat masala, all with a few slightly different species. The key to chaat masala is the black salt, amchur powder, and anardana (pomegranate seeds), that really create an explosion of flavors you might have tasted.
We encourage you to try this recipe and tweak to it your preferences.
- Black salt – Kala Namak – a rock salt, with a sulphurous smell mined from the Himalayas. It has a pungent smell, and adds a sour and smoky flavor to the chaat masala.
- Dried Pomegranate seeds – Anardana – you can find it as seeds or as powder. This adds a sweet and tart flavor to the chaat masala.
- Dried mint leaves – this adds an earthy flavor to the chaat masala.
- Amchur Powder or Dried Mango powder – a fruity ground spice made with raw/unripe mangoes and gives the dish a tangy taste. We also use it in other recipes such as Aloo Paratha, Dal Puri and Chana Aloo Masala.
- Coriander seeds – Dhaniya – a common spice used in lots of recipes, adding a floral aroma to the spice blend.
- Cumin seeds – Zeera – another common spice that is used in many recipes, adding a warm, earthy taste.
- Cloves – a warm and earthy spice with a very potent aroma.
- Ginger Powder – made with ginger that has been dried. It adds a spicy zing to the chaat masala blend.
- Red chilli powder – the chilli powder adds a bit of heat to the spice blend. Be sure to adjust to your liking.
- Black peppercorns – a popular spice, with a spicy flavor, used to make ground pepper.
- Ajwain – carom seeds – look similar to cumin seeds, and add warm spice to the spice blend.
How to make Chaat Masala?
Toast the whole spices: In a pan on low heat, add coriander, cumin, ajwain and black peppercorns and cloves and roast till fragrant, about 2-3 minutes.
Remove from the pan and transfer to a plate to cool the spices completely.
Once cooled, add the whole spices to a spice grinder or clean coffee grinder. Mix in the rest of the spices – ginger powder, black salt, red chilli powder, anardanam dried mint, and amchur powder. Grind until the spices are evenly ground into a powder.
Store the spice mixture in an airtight container and sprinkle on your favorite Pakistani or Indian chaat dishes or snacks.
Tips for Chaat Masala
- Use good quality, whole spices for best results.
- You can make this chaat masala with ready-made ground spices. However, roasting whole spices results in a more flavorful chaat masala spice blend.
- Toasting the dry spices in a dry skillet helps remove any excess moisture from the spices, so your homemade mix will last longer.
- Make sure to store your homemade chaat masala powder in an airtight container.
- This chaat masala mix stays fresh for up to 6 months.
How to use Chaat Masala Spice Blend?
Chaat Masala is used in a variety of Pakistani and Indian dishes, typically street food and snacks. Here are some of our favourite recipes to use your homemade chaat masala spice blend:
- Dahi Vada Papdi Chaat
- Chana Chaat: Pakistani Chickpea Salad
- Fruit Chaat – Pakistani Fruit Salad
- Corn Bhel: Easy Corn Chaat Salad
If you give this recipe a try, we’d love to see it! Tag us on Instagram @thespicemess
Chaat Masala
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons Coriander seeds
- ¼ cup Cumin seeds
- 4 cloves
- 1 tablespoon Black peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon Ajwain (carom) seeds
- 1 teaspoon Ginger Powder
- 2 tablespoons Black salt
- 1-2 tablespoons Red chilli powder
- 1 tablespoon dried Anardana/Pomegranate seeds
- ¼ cup dried mint leaves
- 1 tablespoon Amchur /dry mango powder
Instructions
- Toast the whole spices: In a pan on low heat, add coriander, cumin, ajwain and black peppercorns and cloves and roast till fragrant, about 2-3 minutes.
- Remove from the pan and transfer to a plate to cool the spices completely.
- Once cooled, add the whole spices to a spice grinder or clean coffee grinder. Grind until the spices are evenly ground into a powder. Mix in the powdered spices (amchur powder).
- Store the spice mixture in an airtight container and sprinkle on your favorite Pakistani or Indian chaat dishes or snacks.
Notes
You can adjust the quantity of red chilli and black peppercorns to reduce heat.
Make sure it does not burn; the reason is to remove moisture to have a longer shelf life.