Sakkarai Pongal / Sweet Rice Pongal

Posted on Jan 11th, 2021

by Sowmya Venkatachalam

Categories:

4.22 from 33 votes

Sakkarai Pongal is one of the common and popular dish in Tamil Nadu and South India. We make this for many festivals and auspicious days for an offering to god (naivedhyam). There are different variations being followed in making of the Sakkarai pongal based on the family tradition, customs, taste and regions. One of the most common method in our tradition and in our home is given below

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 25

Total Time 30

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Reading Time: 6 minutes

Sakkara pongal (Sweet rice pongal) is one of the most common and traditional sweet most of us make. For festivals or auspicious occasions, it’s very handy to make sakkara pongal. Rice, moong dal, jaggery and ghee are the main ingredients for making sakkara pongal and all those ingredients are always readily available in our pantry. Rice and dal are first cooked and mashed which are then concocted with jaggery juice and ghee to get ghee-dripping, melt in mouth Sakkara Pongal!!

Tips for making Sakkara Pongal:

Ratio of rice+dal to jaggery is 1.25: 2.5. For 1 cup of rice and 0.25 cup of moong dal, we need to add 2.5 cups of grated jaggery. The quantity of jaggery seems more, but this ratio is a perfect measure with jaggery not overwhelming and not very bland.
The color of the pongal depends upon the quality and brand of the jaggery. Usually paagu vellam gives more dark brown consistency than regular jaggery.
Add 1/2 cup more water while cooking rice and moong dal. Also allow more whistles to make sure the rice and dal are cooked completely and mushy.
We can add milk and cook the rice and dal. It’s optional.
Jaggery has some impurities like sand in it. So it is always a good choice to first dissolve jaggery and then strain it to make sure there are no sand in the syrup.
Adding ghee in jaggery syrup is optional. But ghee flavored jaggery juice has more rich flavor.
We add milk to adjust the consistency. Do not boil the pongal in high flame after adding milk.

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Recipe Card to make Sakkarai Pongal

INSTRUCTIONS WITH STEP BY STEP PICTURES:

COOKING THE RICE & DAL

Heat a pan, dry roast moong dal till it gives a nice aroma. Take this roasted moong dal aside.

In a strainer, take 1 cup of rice and roasted moong dal. Rinse twice or thrice.

Add 4.5 Cups water and mix well.

Pressure cook the rice+dal allowing for 5-6 whistles. We need nicely mashed up rice and water. In temples and also in marriages, conventionally they cook the rice and dal mixture on the stove without using pressure cooker, so that way we feel a nice smoky aroma. But as we are going to do for our family, its a good option to cook in pressure cooker. Take the cooked rice+dal mixture and mash it well and set it aside.

PREPARING THE JAGGERY SYRUP

Keep a sauce pan on the stove, add jaggery along with 1/4 cup water and allow the jaggery to melt and dissolve completely. Set this melted jaggery aside.

Heat 2 tbsp of ghee in a heavy bottomed pan. Strain the jaggery juice and add it to the pan.

When the jaggery syrup comes to rolling boil, add the mashed up dal+rice mixture.

Keep the flame very low and add 1/2 Cup of milk. Adding milk is optional but it adds a nice flavor. But if we add milk then shelf life of the dish is only 1 day. So, if you plan to make sakkarai pongal in advance, then skip adding the milk. Do not add milk to the jaggery syrup it will become curdled. Add milk only after adding rice+dal mixture.

FINISHING PONGAL

Stir well so that the rice+dal mixture gets incorporated well with jaggery syrup. Add remaining ghee along with cardamom powder and stir well. Keep in low flame and allow the pongal to become little thick.

Meanwhile, in another pan, add a teaspoon of ghee and roast the cashews and raisins till they turn golden brown. Add the roasted cashews and raisins to the sakkarai pongal and give a final stir and switch off the flame.

The scrumptious Sakarai Pongal is ready for neivedhyam or to serve!

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Sowmya Venkatachalam

IT Engineer turned full time Food Blogger. I ♡ FOOD. I also love food blogging. Did you make a recipe? Tag @Subbusktichen on Instagram. I WANNA SEE!

28 Comments Hide Comments

for any pooja neivaidyam we dont use arw rice

south indians, use only Raw Rice for making PRASADAM, NEIVAIDYAM, at home and also temples.
BOILED rice is a cooked rice. Once cooked rice will not be further cooked and offered to GOD.

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chakkara pongal recipe

Sakarrai pongal turned yummy! My son enjoyed it! Thanks Mami

Its very delicious

Tried today came out very tasty!!

Nice

What is raw rice here?
the one that we grind for Dosa, or the one with which we cook rice? say Sona Masouri?

Raw rice is pachaarisi in tamil. Like you said, you can use the basmati or sona masoori

The rice we use for dosa or idly is puzhungal or boiled rice. Sons masonry is raw rice. Use daw rice for offering god.

I tried this, the milk split when I added to jaggery syrup. Any reason?

same here , the milk curdled – is this expected ??

Sorry to hear. Before adding milk, pls keep the flame in very low. if the flame is high the milk will curdle

Thank you for posting such detailed recipes with pictures, videos and precise descriptions. I am a novice in the kitchen but managed to make venn pongal, chakkarai pongal and kathirakka gothsu using your recipes!

Thansk Sneha for your kind words.

Just what I need for upcoming Pongal! Thanks for the comments on milk curdle/avoiding it. Love your videos, blogs and awesome recipe shots. I’m a fan!

Thank you so much Suma. Glad to hear from you

Thanks for taking the time to write this, Sowmya. Your blog has been immensely helpful. When exactly do we add the pachai Karpooram?

We can add a pinch when we add the cardamom

Hi nice detail recipe. In the pictures description there seems to be a missed line. After straining jaggery add the cooked rice then only the milk correct? You have mentioned above but in the picture it’s missing.