Flavorful, spicy, delectable, and easy… this Chettinad Potato fry aka Aloo fry tick all my boxes! These are a super simple side dish, perfect with anything and would certainly enhance any ordinary meal for lunch and dinner!

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What is Chettinad masala?
Ingredients required –
How to make Chettinad Potato Fry? Step by step process of making aloo fry –
Notes, pro-tips, and quick FAQs
More Potato recipes –
Chettinad Potato Fry

Chettinad (a small region in the state of Tamil Nadu India) is well known for its freshly ground spicy spice mixes.

Today, I am sharing a very simple yet delicious Chettinad Potato Fry / Urulaikilangu Fry recipe with all.

This Chettinad style recipe is a potato roast recipe cooked in a different and flavorful way. It is not the same as regular aloo fry. Plus this recipe is not deep fried and it is made in very less oil.

Potato is really a versatile vegetable. Fried, boiled, baked, mashed, stuffed, roasted, grilled all the wonderful ways you can use potatoes!

It also can be used in many different dishes like pulao, curries, and in many fried Indian snacks as well.

I use potatoes with many other vegetables or spices and herbs and it simply complements and enhances all the flavors and the end result is always a wonderful and delicious dish.

Making recipes with potatoes are usually easy to prepare.

They are the one veggie I know my family (and I am sure yours too!) will always love!

These lip-smacking Chettinad Potato fry were no exception, and just as I expected, my whole family loved them.

These aloo fry are just about perfect! They're a great side dish for almost any meal.

This recipe goes really well with Rice, Puri, Paratha, Tandoori roti, or Chapathi. It is one dish that never fails to bring a smile on your face!

I love that this dish is fairly simple and delicious, but nice enough for gatherings, holiday party or potluck.

This recipe can easily be packed in your kid's lunch boxes as well.

The hero of this dish is Chettinad masala.

What is Chettinad masala?

Chettinad recipes are mostly based on freshly ground masala powders. Freshly ground the masala is the key to their cooking. This one ain't different.

The Chettinad masala is a dry spice blend made of cumin seeds, coriander seeds, Red dried chilies, black peppercorn, urad dal, and chana dal.

These spices are dry roasted in a low flame and let to cool in a pan. Once cooled they are ground to a fine powder and added to the dish later on.

I often make this spice blend in large quantity and store it in a refrigerator. It comes in handy when I want to make a quick recipe.

It is a very tasty and flavorful spice powder and can be used with any vegetables like mushroom, cauliflower, bell peppers, carrots, bhindi(okra), and eggplants (baingun).

Ingredients required –

This is an overview of the ingredients in the recipe (very handy to use as a visual grocery list at the store). Quantities are mentioned in the recipe card.

Boiled baby potatoes, Chettinad masala, few basic Indian spices, onion, curry leaves, mustard seeds, and 2 tablespoons of oil is what you need to make this simple potato recipe.

How to make Chettinad Potato Fry? Step by step process of making aloo fry –

For Chettinad Masala

Dry roast all the Masala Ingredients for 5 minutes on a medium to low flame. Let it cool down. Grind it to a coarse powder. You can make this masala in bulk too. Place this masala in an airtight container and store it in the refrigerator. It stays fresh up to a month or even more than that. (Photo 1 to 4)

For Chettinad Potato Fry

Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds. Let it splutter. Now add curry leaves and onions. Saute for a minute. (Photo 5 to 10)

Sauteing onions, mustard seeds and curry leaves in oul

Once onion gets sauteed, add Boiled and peeled baby potatoes. Mix well. Let it cook for 2 to 3 minutes. (photo 11)

Now add salt and prepared Chettinad Masala. Stir well. I have added only ¾ of the masala and remaining I stored it in an airtight container. Use according to your taste and spice level. (photo 12 to 15)

Let it cook for 5 to 6 minutes or it turns slightly golden. Switch off the flame. (Photo 16)

Chettinad Potato Fry is ready. Garnish it with some coriander and serve it with Puri, Phulka, or Rice.

Adding salt, turmeric powder and chettinad masala in baby potatoes,

Notes, pro-tips, and quick FAQs

Dry roasting brings out the essential oils in the spices. Don’t skip this step.
Don’t skip any whole spice, all the whole spices are essential for this dish.
You can add dry coconut powder in the masala.
Traditionally, for Chettinad recipes, gundu chilies are used. But I have used the Kashmiri red chilies. It gives nice deep color to the dish.
After roasting the spices for Chettinad Masala, allow it to cool for a while and then blend it to a fine powder.
Make Chettinad masala ahead of time and refrigerate it. It stays fresh for months.
You can use freshly ground masala with any vegetables.
Select bay potatoes of uniform size as far as possible. Or if you are going to use big potatoes, cut them into equal pieces.
I have used ⅔rd of the Chettinad masala and stored remaining in the fridge. Use according to your liking.
You can use baby onions too instead of chopped onions.

Which potatoes to use to make this recipe?

I've made this dish with Russet (Cut into medium square pieces), red baby potatoes, white baby potatoes, and Yukon Gold potatoes and each one has been wonderful in its own way.

You can use leftover boiled potatoes too.

But if I had to choose a favorite, it would have to be white baby potatoes.

How to store?

This dish stays fresh up to 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator. Personally, I have never tried freezing them. But It should work. Store them in airtight container and freeze, should stay good up to 2 months.