Tandoor Classic · Stuffed Flatbread
Amritsari Kulcha
Photo: Vivekvaid / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Amritsar's stuffed flatbread has been baked the same way for roughly 200 years, evolving from Mughal-era naan into a dish so identified with the city that 'Amritsari' is now shorthand for it anywhere in India.
A leavened maida dough is stuffed with spiced mashed potato, then pressed onto the inner wall of a clay tandoor and baked until blistered and smoky. Vendors split it open, load it with butter, and hand it over with a bowl of spiced chickpeas, tamarind chutney, and pickled onion.
Why it's made this way: The bread grew out of Mughal-court flatbreads reworked in Punjabi kitchens with a potato stuffing, and its tandoor-baked, butter-loaded, chhole-side format became so tied to Amritsar's roadside dhabas that the city's name now travels with the dish wherever it's sold.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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