A crunchy snack made from rice flour and urad dal, spiced with sesame and cumin.
A Tamil snack at least a thousand years old — the word murukku means "twisted" in Tamil — common across the Tamil and Telugu home pantry and central to Diwali. The Sri Lankan Tamil version (kondai kadalai murukku) adds chickpea flour for a denser bite. Traditionally a cold-weather snack because the fried form keeps without refrigeration in tropical humidity.
A thousand-year-old Tamil snack — the word means twisted. Rice-to-urad-dal ratio is the dial: standard 4:1, more rice goes crunchier, more dal goes denser. Oil holds at 170°C; hotter and the spiral browns before the inside dries, leaving a chalky core.
A rice-flour and urad-dal dough piped through a star-shaped die into spirals, deep-fried until pale gold. Crisp at the first bite, then crumbly, with sesame seeds and cumin throughout. Mildly salty, faint chili if any. Stored in tins; stays good for weeks. Eaten with coffee, not as a meal — one or two coils, then stop.
The flour ratio is the dial: more rice = crunchier and lighter, more urad = denser and chewier. Standard is 4:1 rice to dal. Butter or ghee is rubbed into the dry flour first — fat-coated grains produce the characteristic short crumb. Oil temperature must hold near 170 °C; hotter and the spiral browns before the inside dries, leaving a chalky core.
Variations
Tamil plain murukku is rice-and-urad; Sri Lankan kondai kadalai murukku adds chickpea flour for denser bite; thenkuzhal is thinner and ridged; manapparai murukku (a Trichy district town) is the bigger, coarser-fried regional pride.
On the Palate
Where Murukku sits in the Indian flavor cloud
Ingredients
How it's made
5 steps · 1 hour
- 18 min
Mix rice flour, urad dal flour, sesame seeds, cumin, and asafoetida in a bowl.
- 28 min
Add melted butter to the dry ingredients and mix well.
Watch outRub the melted butter thoroughly through the dry flour before any water goes in — fat-coated grains give murukku its short, crumbly crunch; miss this and it comes out hard.
- 312 min
Add water gradually to form a smooth dough.
- 412 min
Shape the dough into spirals using a murukku maker.
- 520 min
Deep fry in vegetable oil until golden and crispy.
Watch outKeep the oil around a steady medium — hot enough that the spiral sizzles gently, not violently; too hot and it browns before the inside dries, leaving a chalky core.
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