Pappu Billalu is a delicious deep-fried snack from Andhra. These snacks are made from rice flour along with other ingredients and deep-fried as flatten discs.
I got this recipe from my Aunt's diary. This recipe is different from what we normally make. So it was a crunchy treat over the weekend, making these and enjoying a deep-fried snack after a long time.
Pappu Billalu is the same as that Thattai in Tamil Cuisine or Nippattu in Karnataka. Anything deep-fried you have my attention and this is one of my favorite snacks. My memories of Pappu Billalu will always take me to my high school days when we used to go on vacation with our family friends.
Aunty's Mom used to make the best ones, one half would be with roasted peanut, the other with sesame seeds. Both used to be so delicious. I would be having an internal fight on which one to eat first.
Anyway, this reminded me of the same and I was taking a trip down memory lane, remembering those lovely days!
Recently I made a couple of other versions, Pudina Pappu Chekkalu and Palli Pappu Chekkalu.
Recipe
Pappu Billalu | Chekkalu ~ Andhra Snack
Ingredients
- 3 cup Rice Flour homemade
- 1 cup Roasted Urad Flour (powdered from roasting 3/4 cup Whole Urad Dal)
- 2 tbsp Groundnut Coarsely powdered
- 2 tsp Chana Dal soaked
- 4 to 5 Dry Red Chilies roasted and powdered
- 1 tsp Cumin Seeds
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 2 tsp Butter
- Curry Leaves handful
- Cooking Oil for deep frying
Instructions
- Soak Channa dal for 30 mins in water.
- Coarsely powder the roasted peanuts. Keep it aside.
- Wash and drain handful of curry leaves
- Dry roast the dry red chilies and let it cool.
- In the same pan, dry roast the whole urad dal till it becomes slightly brown in colour. Allow it to cool, then take the dry chillies and grind to a powder, then add the urad dal and powder again.
- In a wide bowl, take the homemade rice flour, powdered urad dal, powdered peanut, drained chana dal, slightly crushed cumin seeds, salt, and butter. Combine everything well and slowly add water to knead to a soft, yet stiff dough.
- Divide into small balls, on a greased sheet, pat it down as discs.
- Heat a kadai with oil, when it is hot, slide in the discs and cook on both sides.
- Drain on kitchen towel

Arthy shama says
Thattai used to be my favourite one too 🙂 My mother adds lots of curry leaves, and halved peppercorns for that extra crunch. Yours looks delecious 🙂
Pavani N says
Love these crispy & crunchy snack.
Suja Ilangovan says
My fav snack too. Yours look crunchy, Valli.