This is an in-depth article about throwing an Indian chaat party at home. It includes easy menu ideas, recipes, essential grocery lists, and decor inspiration for your next chaat party.
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Chaat is a category of Indian street food that is crunchy, sweet, spicy, and tangy! But who says that this type of food is only to be consumed on street corners? This article is a complete guide to help ease you into throwing a chaat party at home whether it is a party for one or for a large group!
3 details to decide before planning party
Throwing a chaat party or any type of party is all about planning! Here are a couple of details to nail down that will help you navigate through this guide and your chaat party.
1. What is your budget?
Ask yourself how much you realistically want to spend on your party. If you want to keep the price low, here are a few options:
- Throw a potluck: Decide the menu but assign your guests different items to bring to keep the price down.
- Make more items from scratch instead of buying from the store: Instead of buying store-bought chutneys or other items you can opt to make them at home. Don't worry, I have recipes for all of them down below!
- Reduce the number of guests: Reducing the number of guests at your party will also decrease the cost of your party.
- Don't sweat it on decor: Decor is the finishing touch but the food is the main attraction. Try to keep the decor budget minimal to keep the overall budget low. Down below you'll find decor ideas that vary in price depending on your budget.
2. How much time do you want to spend?
The next question to ask yourself is how much time you want to spend working on your party and during your party. If you want to reduce the amount of time you spend on throwing this party here are some options:
- Buy components from the grocery store: You don't need to make all the papdi, puris, and cilantro-mint and tamarind chutneys from scratch if you don't want to. I've linked the brands I recommend buying so you can have a semi-homemade chaat party that still tastes so delicious! But hey, if you do want to make everything from scratch, I've got you covered as well with all the recipes down below.
- Chaat-cuterie Board: Don't spend your time during the party assembling and making each chaat for your guest. Instead set out all the components in a chaat-cuterie board fashion where things are DIY.
3. What is the guest list?
If you have answered questions 1 and 2 above, number 3 will be easier to figure out. Deciding the guest list is really important when planning a party as it helps dictate how much food and drink you need. Here are general rules for figuring out how much food and drinks to prepare:
- ~2.5 drinks/person
- If you are making 1 chaat for the party, make sure to make enough servings for each guest to go for seconds. Ex: if the recipe says it serves 4 and there are 4 guests at the party, make sure to make twice the recipe for 8 servings.
- If you have multiple chaats, make enough so that everyone can have at least 1 serving or taste of each dish.
Chaat party menu ideas and recipes
I've compiled a whole menu including drinks, mains, and desserts for your chaat party. This list includes chaats that are traditional as well as fusion chaats. In addition, each recipe is categorized based on difficulty. Pick and choose the items that seem most compelling to you.
Drinks that pair well with chaat
Spicy Nimbu Pani
Difficulty: Medium
Description: This spicy nimbu pani can be a cocktail or mocktail that can be made in a large batch and is a drink that pairs perfectly with chaat.
Traditional chaats
Bhel Puri (Puffed Rice Chaat)
Difficulty: Easy
Description: This puffy rice chaat is all about buying ingredients, chopping a few veggies, and mixing it in the right proportion. It is such an easy recipe that you can have folks make on their own at the party or mix in front of guests as a party trick!
Papdi Chaat
Difficulty: Easy - Medium. This recipe is easy if you buy papdi from the store and a medium difficulty if you make the papdi from scratch. The papdi recipe is fairly straightforward and really impresses guests but it does require a bit of time.
Description: Papdi chaat is often dubbed Indian nachos! Ajwain (carom seed) crackers serve as the crunchy foundation that carries fluffy boiled potatoes and a combo of dahi (yogurt sauce), cilantro-mint chutney, and tamarind-date chutney.
Pani Puri
Difficulty: Easy - Hard. This recipe has a wide range of difficulty depending on how many components you make at home vs. buy at the store. The easiest option is to buy a pani puri kit which will have almost everything besides the boiled potato/chickpea filling. Next in difficulty is to buy the dried puris, which you can fry yourself, and make the spicy pani and sweet pani from scratch, all of which are pretty straight forward. The hardest option is to make the puris from scratch using this homemade puri recipe which is definitely time intensive but a really fun cooking project.
Description: Crunchy hollowed semolina balls called puris which are stuffed with potato and chickpea mixture and spiced water(s) called pani. This chaat is very interactive. Have all of the elements ready and your guests can assemble it themselves. Later in this post, in the decor section, I'll show how you can serve this chaat in creative ways.
Dahi Puri
Difficulty: Easy - Hard. Again, the range in difficulty is the same as the pani puri above. It depends on how much you decide to make vs. buy.
Description: Crunchy hollowed semolina balls called puris which are stuffed with potato and chickpea mixture and then topped with a combo of dahi (yogurt sauce), cilantro-mint chutney, and tamarind-date chutney. Make this chaat DIY or make to order so it doesn't get soggy on the day of the party.
Chaats with a twist
Watermelon Burrata Chaat
Difficulty: Easy
Description: This fruit chaat is so refreshing and perfect for parties held in the summer! It is such an easy chaat to assemble ahead of time and will stay fresh throughout your party.
Indian Chaat Nachos
Difficulty: Easy
Description: These are American nachos with melty cheese that are dolled up with Indian spices like chaat masala and a combo of cilantro-mint chutney and tamarind-date chutneys. Who doesn't love a good tray of nachos at a party?
Crispy Kale Chaat
Difficulty: Medium. This chaat is better for small parties as it requires a lot of kale to get enough for one serving. However, if you plan ahead and crisp up the kale in batches ahead of your party, there is no reason you can't make it for a large crowd.
Description: This chaat is a play on palak chaat which is typically fried. This chaat instead uses the oven to bake kale into crispy kale chips ready to be topped with fresh veggies and a combo of tamarind date chutney and dahi.
Recipes that pair well with chaat
Aloo Matar Samosa (Potato and Peas)
Difficulty: Hard
Description: Who doesn't love a good samosa at a party? It involves a bit of folding and frying which puts it in the hard category. However, if you want a great baked option with the same flavors you can instead opt for my samosa pot pie which is great at feeding crowds.
Chicken Manchurian Wings
Difficulty: Medium
Description: Wings are always a hit at parties. These oven baked chicken Manchurian wings are a great option if you want to add a bit more protein to your menu while still keeping it to finger-food snacks.
Desserts
Kesar Mango Ice Cream
Difficulty: Easy
Description: This is a no-churn recipe that involves mixing a few ingredients and popping it in the freezer. It is super refreshing and pairs so perfectly with chaat.
Khajur Burfi
Difficulty: Easy
Description: This date and nut roll is a perfect dessert with no added sugar. It takes minutes to make and looks so great on a chaat-cuterie board.
Pineapple Kesari
Difficulty: Medium
Description: Kesari, also known as halwa, is a semolina pudding that is a warm and decadent dessert. The addition of pineapple adds acidity and makes it pair perfectly with chaats.
Essential grocery list for chaat party
If you haven't noticed already, most chaats have a similar set of ingredients which overlap! This is great news when it comes to buying groceries for chaat party. Here is a rough list of the ingredients that overlap across chaats as well as links to certain brands that I recommend.
- Potatoes and Chickpeas - You'll notice lots of the chaats (pani puri, dahi puri, papdi chaat) have a potato and chickpea mixture. You'll find the recipe for the potatoes and chickpea mixture in one of the recipes which you can make in bulk to share across the three!
- Three essential chaat sauces - tamarind date chutney, cilantro mint chutney, dahi for chaat - are in all chaats in some combination. Even my pani puri recipe uses them but then adds water to dilute them into a pani or spiced water! I recommend making the cilantro-mint chutney and dahi for chaat at home because you can make a large quantity pretty easily and at a way higher quality than store bought. Don't worry, I'll link all the sauce recommendations down below if you don't want to make them.
- Tomato and Red Onion - Most chaats have a fresh component which are the chopped veggies. The two classic veggies are red onion and tomatoes which are in almost every chaat! You can of course go off script and add cucumbers, bell peppers, and even corn.
- Chaat Masala - Chaat is nothing without the iconic spice blend that is chaat masala. You can also read more about this spice blend in this blog post.
- Kala Namak (Black Salt) - This ingredient is used in the nimbu pani drink and pani puri. It has a pungent smell but has a lip-smacking combo of sourness and savoriness to it that makes it essential.
Store-bought Items and brands I recommend
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Decor to take your chaat party to the next level
Chaat-cuterie board
Have your entire chaat party be in the format of a beautiful chaat-cuterie board. The decor is the food and the food is the decor.
Make DIY signs explaining the chaats
You can either free hand draw signs explaining the different chaats and how to compose them or use Canva to create the signs! In addition, you can buy little sign holders to label each item as a cute way of displaying the spread.
Creative ways to display pani puri
Pani puri is one of the chaats that really becomes an interactive part of the party. It involves assembling the puri which needs to be dunked in the pani or spiced water and then eaten immediately in a dramatic fashion. Here are different ways to serve the pani for a large crowd:
Use squeeze bottles
Use squeeze bottles, one with the sweet pani and one with the spicy pani, so that your guests can pour it into their puris.
Use shot glasses
Display the puri on top of glass or plastic shot glasses filled with pani on the inside.
Buy pani puri fountain
This pani puri fountain serves as a centerpiece show stopper at any party. Guests can simply bring their puris to the fountain to fill up with pani.
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I hope you take away some recipes and some inspiration for throwing your own chaat party!
Please leave a comment and star rating below letting me know what you thought of this article and if it was helpful to you! I always love hearing your questions and your comments 🙂
Sankalp Packaged Foods says
Thank you to the author for sharing such a well-written and informative article. I will definitely be bookmarking this page for future reference and recommending it to others who share my love for Indian cuisine.
Shri Repp says
Yay! I'm so glad that you found this helpful 🙂