Crispy Aloo Cutlets Recipe - Perfect Snack for Any Occasion

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Cooking With Anadi

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What Are Aloo Cutlets?

Aloo cutlets are a childhood favorite snack of mine! I have to admit, before making this recipe for you, I went my entire time in Canada without ever making them once. That’s eight years people! I don’t know why I’ve never tried cooking them!

It was on a whim, but I really wanted to make and share something so special. If you’re new here, you’ll know that I really love potatoes. Potatoes are my favorite veggie - and argue that they’re a starch, but I think they’re a veggie!

These cutlets are such a fantastic snack and they sure are special to me. You’ve got a really crispy outside and a warm and spicy inside! This is the perfect vegetarian cutlet that’s simple but loaded with goodness! You can also serve these potato cutlets as a delicious appetizer.

What I love about these potato patties are the fun shape, and that’s what makes them super cool. Of course if you were to shape them in the traditional disc they’d be just as tasty, but we eat with our eyes, right? These are like mozzarella sticks but with potato!

At the time of writing this, Diwali is soon approaching - on November 4th to be precise! Diwali is the Festival of Lights celebrated in Hinduism (also in Jainism and Sikhism), and many celebrations take place, including fireworks, gifts, feasts, and prayers. If you’re going to have a Diwali party, then this aloo cutlet recipe would be the perfect snack to serve your guests!

This recipe will show you how to make your super scrumptious potato mixture and how to fry them to a golden brown perfection! These are so easy and honestly out of this world! I really don’t know how I could have gone so long without making them!

So get out your ingredients and let’s get cooking!

Why Make This Potato Cutlets Recipe?

I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to make this potato cutlet recipe! Let’s go over why you need to serve them for the perfect party snack!

• Vegetarian (vegan if your bread isn’t made with butter!)
• Pillow-soft potato filling
• Crispy exterior
• Quick to make (even quicker if you have potatoes already boiled ready to go!)
• A great snack or appetizer for a special occasion or just for fun!

Because these Aloo Patties are so simple, we’d have this for snacks on a regular basis! With the potatoes already boiled, it only takes 15 minutes to get these patties prepped and cooked! Worst case, you can prep your cutlets while the potatoes boil and the oil heats up! Whether you have this for an every day snack or a special snack, these potato cutlets will totally disappear in no time!

Tips for the Best Potato Cutlets

• Use bread with lots of flavor, such as sourdough or atta to add variation to the flavors.
• Knead the mixture well and squeeze well to remove excess moisture for the crispiest final result.
• Do not overcrowd the pan to help maintain oil temperature.
• Serve right away for the best experience.

Tools Needed

• Mixing bowl
• Cutting board
• Chef's knife
• Wooden spoon
• Baking sheet
• Nonstick pan
• Tongs

Ingredients for Potato Cutlets

I think you’ll be quite surprised by how few ingredients are in these simple cutlets! This recipe is really designed for the potatoes to shine. Furthermore, there are actually NO SPICES in this Potato Cutlet recipe. Yes, you read that right! Is that different for me? Simplicity is key for these cutlets, and that means they can be truly enjoyed by all! The minimal ingredients make prep and cooking so quick and easy!

For all measurements with the full ingredient list, make sure to scroll to the bottom of this post for the FULL PRINTABLE RECIPE CARD, so you can save this recipe for later! This ingredient list isn’t very long, so this is a simple recipe to make for any occasion!

• Yellow Potatoes, boiled. The Instant Pot can help with this!
• Green chilies
• Bread
• Ginger
• Onion
• Salt
• Oil, for frying. Here I used peanut oil, but you could also use vegetable oil.

How to Make Potato Patties

1. In a bowl, add the onions, chilies and ginger.
2. In a separate bowl add slices of bread and then add water, enough to cover the bread. Let it soak for 5-10 minutes. Then squeeze the bread together into a ball and drain any excess moisture.
3. Add to the bowl with onions, chilies and ginger. Add boiled potatoes as well. Mash and mix this well. Season to taste with salt.
4. To form the cutlets, dip your hands in a bowl of water to moisten your hands to avoid the mixture from sticking. Take 1 ounce size balls and form into an oblong shape. Place on a plate/baking sheet and finish forming the rest of the mixture.
5. Heat up oil on medium to medium high heat and once hot, add the cutlets. Stir ever so often and cook until golden brown and crispy.
6. Serve hot with your favorite dipping sauce or chutney.

Serving Suggestions for Aloo Cutlets

These Aloo Cutlets go perfectly well with ketchup, and that’s my favorite way to enjoy them! However, you could also serve with Cilantro-Mint Chutney or Tamarind Chutney. If you want a drink on the side, I recommend a nice cold and refreshing Mango Lassi!

It is worth thinking about when you serve these, too. Aloo cutlets make a proper tea time snack next to a cup of chai, and they are an easy win with kids: the recipe calls for one to three green chilies, so you can dial the heat right down for younger eaters. Two of them tucked into a soft bun, or laid between slices of bread with a smear of green chutney, also make a very good sandwich.

And if ketchup and chutney are not what you are after, a bowl of thick plain yogurt loosened with a splash of water, salted, and finished with a few fresh herbs makes a cool, tangy dip that plays beautifully against a hot, crisp cutlet.

Aloo Cutlets vs. Aloo Tikki: What Is the Difference?

If you have searched for this snack before, you have almost certainly run into aloo tikki too, and the two names get used almost interchangeably. The difference comes down to shape and seasoning. Tikki are patted into round discs and are usually built on a spiced potato mixture, with garam masala or chaat masala worked through and sometimes green peas folded in. My cutlets are rolled into little oblong pins, and the mixture itself has no spices at all: potatoes, onion, green chilies, ginger, salt, and soaked bread to bind. That bread is quietly doing the job breadcrumbs do elsewhere, holding everything together from the inside instead of coating the outside. If it is the tikki version you are after, I have a Sabudana Aloo Tikki and a McAloo Tikki Burger on the blog as well.

Easy Variations to Try

This recipe is deliberately plain so the potatoes can do the talking, but it takes additions beautifully. None of these are in the recipe as written, so treat them as optional:

• A teaspoon of chaat masala or garam masala mixed into the mash, or a pinch of cumin powder and red chili powder, if you want that spiced tikki flavor.
• A handful of green peas (matar), lightly crushed and folded through the potato mixture.
• Chopped cilantro leaves and a squeeze of lime juice stirred in just before you shape the cutlets.
• Jalapeño or serrano peppers in place of the green chilies. Both give you a similar heat and are easier to find in most grocery stores.
• For a crunchier shell, roll the shaped cutlets in breadcrumbs before they go into the oil. A quick egg wash helps the crumbs stick, or a loose flour-and-water slurry if you are keeping them vegan.

Getting the Potatoes and the Frying Right

Two things decide whether these come out crisp or soft, and the first is the potatoes. Boil them until they are fork tender all the way through, then peel them while they are still warm, when the skins slip off easily and the flesh mashes smooth instead of lumpy. A potato masher gets you there faster than a fork. The second is moisture. Soak the bread for five to ten minutes, then squeeze it into a tight ball and drain off everything you can. Wet bread gives you a slack mixture that spreads in the pan; what you want is a mash stiff enough to hold its shape when you roll it.

For the frying, keep the oil at medium to medium high heat: hot enough that a cutlet sizzles the moment it lands, but not so hot that the outside colors before the middle has warmed through. Shallow frying is all this needs, so there is no reason to deep fry. Give them room, turn them every so often so every side browns evenly, and work in batches. Crowding the pan drops the oil temperature, and cutlets that sit in cooling oil come out greasy instead of crisp.

These are at their very best straight out of the pan, but you can get ahead. Shape the cutlets, lay them out on the baking sheet, cover them and keep them in the refrigerator until you are ready to fry; chilled cutlets hold their shape a little better. Leftovers soften as they sit, so bring them back in a hot dry pan or an air fryer rather than the microwave, which just steams the crust away.

Mashing, Seasoning and Portioning the Mixture

The binder in this recipe is bread, not bread crumbs, and it is the detail most people miss about aloo cutlets. Five slices are soaked in water, squeezed dry and mashed into the potato, so the bread ends up inside the cutlet holding it together rather than coating the outside of it. Squeeze harder than feels reasonable: any water you leave in the bread turns to steam in the pan and makes the cutlet fall apart. If you want a crumb coating on the outside as well, that is the variation above, and the two are not the same thing.

Mash by hand, and resist the food processor. A processor or a small blender works boiled potato so hard that the starch turns gluey, and the cutlets come out pasty instead of fluffy. A masher, or a fork if that is what is in the drawer, gives you the right consistency: smooth enough to hold together, coarse enough that you can still tell you are eating potato. The mixture is ready when a portion holds an oblong shape without cracking at the edges. If it will not hold, the bread is still too wet.

Before you shape anything, taste test the mash. Everything in it is already cooked, so tasting is safe, and this is the only chance you get to fix the seasoning. The recipe deliberately says salt to taste rather than naming teaspoons salt, because how much you need depends entirely on the bread you used; a salty sourdough needs far less than a plain atta loaf. One green chili and an inch of ginger is the heat as written, and both can be adjusted here too, or you can substitute jalapeno or serrano as noted above. Then take one ounce portions, a little under 30 grams each, and roll them into oblongs. That size matters for pan-frying: at medium heat a one ounce cutlet browns and heats through at the same rate, where a larger one colors on the outside while the middle is still cool.

Other Snack Recipes!

• Aloo Patties - Potato Stuffed in Puff Pastry
• Paneer Patties - Indian Cottage Cheese in Puff Pastry
• McAloo Tikki Burger
• North Indian Potato Samosa
• Sabudana Aloo Tikki