Baked Indian Spiced Potato Chips – Batata Kachari

Batata Kachari is a simple and easy to make vegan Maharashtrian side dish/snack/appetizer recipe. This recipe requires marinating the potatoes in Indian spices, then coating them with mixture of flour and semolina and baking until crisp and done. Its in a way similar to the regular french fries/wedges just that it has more texture (due to the coating of flour and semolina), taste (from the Indian spices) and is much healthier than the deep fried french fries. 

Kachari is a great addition to a quick and simple meal like Dal Rice along with some pickle/chutney and salad. Simple yet comforting and satiating. My Mom usually shallow fries the coated potatoes but I prefer baking them. Baking helps consume less oil and also you can get more chips done in less time as compared to shallow frying in a pan. You put a batch in the oven and you are free to do some other chores. These chips freeze beautifully. Allow them to cool completely pack in ziplock/freezer safe container and freeze. Defrost and either microwave or bake at 350F just until they are hot. Comes in really handy for those busy days. 

Now to the recipe…

Ingredients:
2 medium potatoes
1/2 to 1 tsp red chilli powder (or to taste)
1/2 tsp dry mango powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp salt (ot to taste)
1 tsp oil + more for greasing

For Coating:
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup fine semolina (Rava/Sooji)
pinch of salt

Method: 
Preheat oven to 400F. Line a baking tray with aluminium foil and spray it with cooking oil. Keep aside. 

Peel and slice the potatoes. Soak them in water for about 10-15 mins. Drain and soak all the excess water with either a paper/kitchen towel. Add these dry potoes slices to a bowl. To this, add all the dry spice powders like turmeric, red chilli, dry mango and salt. Then add the 1 tsp oil and mix all together. Make sure the masala coats all the potatoes slices evenly.

Spread some coating mixture onto a plate and take one slice and dip in in the coating mix. lay it on pre greased baking tray. Repeat this for all slices. Then spray all slices with some oil and bake for about 20-30 mins or until crisp and done. Flip each slice after 10-15 mins for even cooking. 

Notes: 

• you can also shallow fry these potato chips instead of baking. 
• The longer you keep the chips marinated it will start oozing water especially after adding salt. So apply spices then salt and bake immediately
• The extra coating mix can be kept in an air tight container at room temperature and used next time. 

That’s it, our Baked Indian Spiced Potato Chips are ready. Serve them as appetizers/snacks or as a side dish with some Dal Rice and pickle . Enjoy!!

Happy Cooking!!
Shweta