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5 min
30/12/2025
The latest street food hacks that TikTok is trying out, like making papdi using store-bought chips/biscuits and creating quick and easy samosas ("cheat code"), are not all created equal. When deciding how best to use these popular hacks, we went through each one and selected those methods that substantially simplify cooking at home.
The objective of this article is to take you through the ever-changing world of TikTok food trends and make sense of it. We have done this by trying out some of the most viral street food hacks from India and selected the few that actually make cooking easier while still tasting like authentic street food. If it is making chaat from scratch within a few minutes, super crisping up your samosa without the mess, or recreating the texture of street food via shortcuts, these hacks allow home cooks to create the unique flavours of iconic street food with far fewer steps than traditional methods.
One major online trend is the use of any crispy, salty and neutral-tasting cracker (instead of making homemade Papdi) when creating your favourite types of chaat. You can find anyone using anything — from Monaco to water crackers — that people claim works just like making homemade Papdi, and believe it or not, the texture holds! The key is the volume of the cracker you use! So don't overload the base with too much stuff! If you only use a light smear of yoghurt and chutney and sprinkle with sev (very little) and then put it on the top of your cracker, the cracker will stay crunchy longer. The cheese-puffed papdi is not as authentic as the real papdi, but when you are in a pinch, trying to whip up 10 plates of chaat in record time, this method is a huge lifesaver.
The “mash in a bowl” technique for green chutney has been praised on TikTok for its simplicity and mess-free preparation. After cutting cilantro, mint, and chillies finely, mash them together in a hard-to-reach bowl, adding lemon juice (to soften) and yoghurt (to help bind). This method produces a chunkier chutney with a fresh flavour not present in the blended version, and while you will not achieve the restaurant-style smooth blending, the chunky flavour does suit quick preparation of chaat dishes and has a more 'herbaceous' taste compared to the blended versions.
Taking ready-made spring roll wraps and positioning the filling at one end, folding them up into triangles, brushing them with oil, and air-frying will yield the desired result of thin, crisp samosas in less than 10 minutes. The resulting product will not exactly match the texture of traditional samosas but will have a satisfying crunch. The main challenge to using this technique is ensuring your samosas do not dry out; brush them with a mixture of oil and water prior to air frying.
The TikTok community has embraced a unique method for making "sandwich pakora"—the process of taking a filled sandwich and dunking it in besan before deep-frying it. This technique is an excellent introduction to pakoras for those who are unfamiliar with making them. What's different about how you make pakoras this way is sealing the edges by using thick besan batter, and then dunking them in the hot oil. Because you are dunking it in hot oil, this allows you to create the fluffy, golden crust of a pakora while helping to prevent the stuffing from leaking. This is definitely how street vendors do it, and it requires very little effort on the part of the home cook.
There have been several viral TikTok videos showing street vendors using a large cast-iron thawa grill to create concentrated flavours in aloo tikki or chole and imparting a smoky flavour to all the foods they prepare. Using this technique at home is easy enough as long as your thawa is heated correctly. You can use a wide frying pan to cook and stir your mashed potato mixture with spices, butter, and chutneys. The cooking process caramelises the surface of the mashed potatoes while cooking the spices, butter, and chutneys into the potatoes. This process improves the overall taste of the dish and allows you to re-create the authentic street-style version of aloo tikki or chole, even when using pre-made versions from a grocery store.
Creators of TikTok swear that adding a teaspoon of leftover pickle oil to chaats, samosas, or sev puri brings the dishes to life in the most unexpected way. While the concept of adding pickle oil to these foods sounds outrageous, this simple tactic adds a punchy, tangy, chilli-forward flavour without any additional effort on your part. However, always remember to use very sparingly; a small drizzle goes a long way and keeps the dish from tasting overwhelming and still looking fresh.
This idea sounds crazy and has been dubbed the "Tiny Roti Hack." The concept is simple: cut up a few small (4"-5") rotis, air fry until crispy, and poke holes in the middle to make a homemade version of puris. The flavour of your DIY puris doesn’t taste like the traditional golgappa; however, you’ll be surprised how closely the crispiness of your puris resembles a golgappa. This hack isn’t meant to impress guests, but it’s perfect for those late-night cravings.
While TikTok is all about the chaos, some of the hacks they share for Indian street food can simplify the way we live our lives by simplifying recipes while keeping that authentic taste intact. By choosing the correct shortcuts on TikTok, you can very easily replicate that street-side-style food quickly (with a lot less cleanup!) in the comfort of your own home.
