Discover the crispy charm of Thenkuzhal, a beloved South Indian snack. Dive into its history, ingredients, and learn how to craft these intricate delights in your own kitchen. Elevate your culinary skills and savor the traditional flavors of Thenkuzhal today
Step into the world of South Indian snacks as we embark on a flavorful journey to discover the delectable delight known as Thenkuzhal. This crispy, savory snack is a beloved treat in South India, often gracing festive occasions and special celebrations. Join us as we unravel the history, ingredients, and the art of crafting these intricately shaped delicacies. Whether you’re a seasoned cook or an enthusiastic beginner, you’ll find the allure of Thenkuzhal irresistible, and our guide will help you master the art of making this delightful snack in your own kitchen.
Discover the crispy charm of Thenkuzhal, a beloved South Indian snack. Dive into its history, ingredients, and learn how to craft these intricate delights in your own kitchen. Elevate your culinary skills and savor the traditional flavors of Thenkuzhal today
2tspOil (Hot Oil)We can also use butter at room temperature
1pinchAsafoetida (Asafetida / Hing)
Saltto taste
Oilfor frying
Instructions
Break the cumin seeds. You can put this in a mixer and grind it for a second. Don’t make it into a nice powder.
Dry fry the urdhal in a pan and grind it in a mixer to a nice powder. Sieve the urdal powder to get a smooth and nice flour.
Mix the rice flour, urdhal powder, cumin seeds powder, salt, hot oil and hing in a vessel.
Add water little by little and knead the flour into a soft chapati like dough.
Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan, and when the oil is hot add a little piece of dough to check for the hotness. When the dough raises immediately then the oil is ready for frying. Put 1 hand full of dough in a press, and close the press with Thenkuzhal mould. Squeeze the dough to a big circle.
Deep fry the Thenkuzhal in low flame till it is crisp and turns golden brown color. Take it out and place it in a oil strainer with a paper towel to remove excess oil and allow it to cool. Store it in a air tight container and serve.
The delicious Thenkuzhal is ready to serve.
Video
Notes
Urad dal flour and rice flour should be smooth without any lumps or coarse texture. if there are any lumps it may cause bursting in the oil .. and breaking of murukku
Thenkuzhal dough should be soft and squeezable. If it's very dry then the murukku will turn out red color. Make sure you keep the dough covered throughout to avoid drying of the dough.
I recommend making the dough in batches. It will help to keep the dough wet and soft. Otherwise the dough will dry and the murukku will not come in consistent color
While frying urad dal (to get the Urad dal flour), don't fry it till it become red.. as soon as the flavor comes stop frying it. otherwise the murukku also turn red
You can very much use store bough urad dal flour. Just dry fry it once in a tava before mixing it with the rice flour.
I have added oil in the dough mixture. This can be replaced with butter as well. The butter should be in a room temperature.
Please ensure enough oil to deep fry the thenkuzhal to ensure that we get uniform cooking
Store it in air-tight container and use it for upto one month
Nutritional Info
Nutrition Facts
Thenkuzhal Murukku Recipe
Amount Per Serving (1 piece)
Calories 78Calories from Fat 36
% Daily Value*
Fat 4g6%
Saturated Fat 2g13%
Monounsaturated Fat 1g
Cholesterol 9mg3%
Sodium 25mg1%
Potassium 43mg1%
Carbohydrates 10g3%
Protein 2g4%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
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Method with step by step pictures:
Break the cumin seeds. You can put this in a mixer and grind it for a second. Don’t make it into a nice powder. Dry fry the urdhal in a pan and grind it in a mixer to a nice powder. Sieve the urdal powder to get a smooth and nice flour. Mix the rice flour, urdhal powder, cumin seeds powder, salt, butter and hing in a vessel.
Add water little by little and knead the flour into a soft chapati like dough. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan, and when the oil is hot add a little piece of dough to check for the hotness. When the dough raises immediately then the oil is ready for frying. Put 1 hand full of dough in a press, and close the press with Thenkuzhal mould. Squeeze the dough to a big circle.
Deep fry the Thenkuzhal in low flame till it is crisp and turns golden brown color. Take it out and place it in a oil strainer with a paper towel to remove excess oil and allow it to cool. Store it in a air tight container and serve.
Dear Aunty, I have been following all the festival procedures sited in this website. I have one more request if you give the no of servings it would be easy . thanks raje
Dear Aunty, Thanks a lot for this recipe. Tried this recipe today and it came out very well. And this is the first time I am trying out a bhakshanam. Thanks meena
Hello Aunty, Thanks for a wonderful and helpful blog. When I tried making this today, the thenkuzhal didnt remain whole. It broke into small piieces as soon as I put the dough in oil. what could be wrong? Is it the consistency? How do I avoid it next time? Thanks Savitha
Hello aunty, I tried thenkuzhal recipe today. I couldnt press the dough in complete circle… It broke into pieces… I fried these pieces itself as murrukku… It tasted good but was very very fragile… It would be very helpful if you would let me know where i went wrong.
Hi Rohini, sorry to hear about this. I guess you have made the dough very hard i.e you must have added little water. If the dough is very dry, it will make the dough brittle. So try one more time by adding enough water to make like a chapati dough and give a try.
Yes you are correct. We have to soak the rice for 30mins and then drain, dry and grind it to a nice powder. Sieve it twice to get a nice and smooth flour.
Dear Subbalakshmi, Your recipes are very good. Just like what we make at home. I have recommended your page to my daughter in US. Thank you. Sabarmathy.
Dear mami I tried this receipe today. It became brittle and broke completely into pieces. Need help to rectify. Vella Seedai and uppu Seedai and even small amount of coconut Seedai has come out very well. Thank you…
Hi Meenu, Sorry to hear about your try. There are 2,3 reasons why this would have happened. First the dough might be very dry, if prepared very dry, then while squeezing through the mould it will tend to break. Second is adding of ghee. If we add more ghee, it will make the dough brittle while frying. Third reason is the smoothness of rice flour and urid dal flour. We need to sieve the rice flour and urid dal flour together so that they are very smooth. Please try any of these and let me know your result.
Hi aunty, Is there any difference between normal murukku press and thenkuzhal press. Can this be made in a normal murukku press with three holes. If possible, can you add a picture of the press you are using..
hi subbu aunty, i tried this recipie today but i think 1/2 cup butter for 2 cups of rice flour was a little too much it started to separate in the oil completely due to the butter i think. what do i do? can i reduce the butter and see? will it be ok or do u think there was somethign else that i did wrong? please let me know. i follow ur recipies so much that i just go by your website these days i just love it.
Hi, Sorry to know that thenkuzhal has not turned well. There are two factors. One is the ghee/butter, if we add more the thenkuzha will split in oil. Another factor is the smoothness of the flours we use. If the flours are coarse, it may tend to break in oil. So please try once again considering these factors and let me know the result. Thanks.
sure aunty, let me try using less butter. i tried somas recipie from ur site and it turned out super good. i am planning to try mysore pak ( krishna sweets type) & jangri also. i love your recipies 🙂 and a big fan of your site
Thanks for the recipes. I tried Thenkuzhal, Murukku and Seedai from your website and everything came out really veryyyyy well. Special mention this is my first try on bakshanams 🙂
Seedai was the topper. I happened to make them so well that not even one did burst scaring me. The best ever Krishna Jayanthi we celebrated ever. 🙂
This recipe seems to be very easy to try. But could we not add just rice flour rather than soaking, drying and grinding raw rice? I am in a cold country and it might take forever to dry raw rice.
Your recipes are nice and very user friendly. I have a doubt. For preparing rice flour for murukku, I used to make it in mixie. If I like to get the rice flour grind from rice mill, what is the procedure?
No change in the murukku procedure. For rice flour, you can soak the rice in water for an hour, drain and spread it in towel allow it to dry. then grind it to a nice flour in rice mill
Dear Aunty,
I have been following all the festival procedures sited in this website.
I have one more request if you give the no of servings it would be easy .
thanks
raje
Dear Aunty,
Thanks a lot for this recipe. Tried this recipe today and it came out very well. And this is the first time I am trying out a bhakshanam.
Thanks
meena
can you post the recipe for mullu thenkuzhal because it is not showing up
Hello Aunty,
Is this Uraddhal quantity as a powder or as dry dhal itself? If its powder, how much should I use?
thanks
purnima
Hi Purnima
Its Uraddhal powder !. You can fry Uraddhal and make a powder. For 2 cups of Rice flour you would need 3 table spoon of Uraddhal powder.
you can try the plastic ketchup bottles as an alternative to thenkuzhal press.
Dear Mami
Tried thenkuzhal recipe came out well thanka a lot
awesome..
Hello Aunty,
Thanks for a wonderful and helpful blog. When I tried making this today, the thenkuzhal didnt remain whole. It broke into small piieces as soon as I put the dough in oil. what could be wrong? Is it the consistency? How do I avoid it next time?
Thanks
Savitha
Even i had the same issue… i tried adding little water and tried it was better but it was very fragile….
it will be very helpful if aunty could help us with amount of water and butter as this is affecting the crispness.
Dear mami,
I tried the thenkuzhal today. It came out very well. Thank you very much for the recipe.
Hello aunty,
I tried thenkuzhal recipe today. I couldnt press the dough in complete circle… It broke into pieces… I fried these pieces itself as murrukku… It tasted good but was very very fragile… It would be very helpful if you would let me know where i went wrong.
Thanks in advance,
Rohini
Hi Rohini, sorry to hear about this. I guess you have made the dough very hard i.e you must have added little water. If the dough is very dry, it will make the dough brittle. So try one more time by adding enough water to make like a chapati dough and give a try.
Thank you so much aunty for the reply…. Will try again correcting the mistake… 🙂
Rohini
To prepare rice flour, do we need to soak rice for 30 minutes, Drain , dry and then grind?
Hi,
Yes you are correct. We have to soak the rice for 30mins and then drain, dry and grind it to a nice powder. Sieve it twice to get a nice and smooth flour.
Dear Subbalakshmi, Your recipes are very good. Just like what we make at home. I have recommended your page to my daughter in US. Thank you. Sabarmathy.
Thanks a lot Sabarmathy. Your comments are very encouraging for me.
Dear mami I tried this receipe today. It became brittle and broke completely into pieces. Need help to rectify. Vella Seedai and uppu Seedai and even small amount of coconut Seedai has come out very well. Thank you…
Hi Meenu, Sorry to hear about your try. There are 2,3 reasons why this would have happened. First the dough might be very dry, if prepared very dry, then while squeezing through the mould it will tend to break. Second is adding of ghee. If we add more ghee, it will make the dough brittle while frying. Third reason is the smoothness of rice flour and urid dal flour. We need to sieve the rice flour and urid dal flour together so that they are very smooth. Please try any of these and let me know your result.
.hi aunty i have tried this at my home.mine is very hard would i know the reason mam
Hi, Please increase the quantity of butter. The butter is the ingredient which makes the murukku soft
Hi aunty,
Is there any difference between normal murukku press and thenkuzhal press. Can this be made in a normal murukku press with three holes. If possible, can you add a picture of the press you are using..
Thanks in advance
Hi We can use the press with 3 holes. There is another mould with star which is also used for murukku. But 3 holes mould is only used for thenkuzhal
Another question: Do you mean butter or ghee. since in ingredients list, you have mentioned butter. but in the comments section, you said ghee..
Sorry Betty, that is a typo. We need to use butter.
hi subbu aunty, i tried this recipie today but i think 1/2 cup butter for 2 cups of rice flour was a little too much it started to separate in the oil completely due to the butter i think. what do i do? can i reduce the butter and see? will it be ok or do u think there was somethign else that i did wrong?
please let me know. i follow ur recipies so much that i just go by your website these days i just love it.
Hi, Sorry to know that thenkuzhal has not turned well. There are two factors. One is the ghee/butter, if we add more the thenkuzha will split in oil. Another factor is the smoothness of the flours we use. If the flours are coarse, it may tend to break in oil. So please try once again considering these factors and let me know the result. Thanks.
sure aunty, let me try using less butter. i tried somas recipie from ur site and it turned out super good. i am planning to try mysore pak ( krishna sweets type) & jangri also. i love your recipies 🙂 and a big fan of your site
Thanks a lot Dear.
i used half cup of butter. It broke into pieces and it was very oily too. Is the butter too much?
Can I use the store bought rice flour is it fried rice flour or plain white rice flour
Hi, You can very well use store bought rice flour. I have made it many times and it has come out good.
Hii aunty,
Can I use readymade rice flour nd urad flour? Will it be tasty?
Sangeetha
Hello Aunty,
Thanks for the recipes. I tried Thenkuzhal, Murukku and Seedai from your website and everything came out really veryyyyy well. Special mention this is my first try on bakshanams 🙂
Seedai was the topper. I happened to make them so well that not even one did burst scaring me. The best ever Krishna Jayanthi we celebrated ever. 🙂
Hi Maami,
This recipe seems to be very easy to try. But could we not add just rice flour rather than soaking, drying and grinding raw rice? I am in a cold country and it might take forever to dry raw rice.
Thanks
Mami,
Your recipes are nice and very user friendly. I have a doubt. For preparing rice flour for murukku, I used to make it in mixie. If I like to get the rice flour grind from rice mill, what is the procedure?
No change in the murukku procedure. For rice flour, you can soak the rice in water for an hour, drain and spread it in towel allow it to dry. then grind it to a nice flour in rice mill
been following you since 2010 or so. Great recipes. Thanks. Rukmini -USA
Humble thanks 🙏🙏