Uttapam (Chennai Onion-Chili Thick Pancake)

📷 · Chennai Uttapam photo by Apoorva lakshmi, CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Breakfast · India · Chennai

Uttapam (Chennai Onion-Chili Thick Pancake) 🥞

Name: Uttapam (Chennai Onion-Chili Thick Pancake)
Prep time: 18 min
Cook time: 27 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 2-4 servings
Cuisine: South Indian
Ingredients: 2 cups idli rice or short-grain rice; 1/2 cup urad dal (skinned black gram), soaked separately; 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds; Salt to taste; 1 onion; fine dice; 2 green chilies; slit; 8 curry leaves; torn; 1 carrot grated + handful peas (optional topping mix); Oil or ghee for the griddle; Coconut chutney and sambar to serve

The dosa's stout older sibling: the same fermented rice-urad batter poured thick, studded with onion, green chili and curry leaf, and cooked until the underside crackles while the top still sets. Chennai's idlis get the morning; the uttapam gets the hungry ones.

Tamil Nadu South Indian ⏱ 45 min Easy

Method

1

Soak rice with fenugreek 6 h, urad dal 8 h. Grind urad to fluffy batter first, then rice coarse — loose enough that a spoon leaves a trailing ribbon.
2

Mix, salt, and ferment 8-12 h in a warm place until doubled and faintly sour.
3

Heat a flat tawa until a flicked drop sizzles away. Stir batter (do not degas by hand); pour a ladle in the center and spread gently into a thick 12 cm round.
4

Press onion, chili and curry leaf into the wet top; add grated carrot and peas if using. drizzle oil round the edge.
5

Cook 2-3 min low-medium until the top loses its raw sheen and the base is deep golden with freckles; flip 30 s for the mottled finish.
6

Serve stacked with coconut chutney and very hot sambar for pouring.

Comments

0/500

Uttapam (Chennai Onion-Chili Thick Pancake) 🥞

Method

Comments

Related recipes

Amritsari Chole 🫘

Mumbai Pav Bhaji 🥔

Madras Masala Dosa 🫓