Samosa – A Classic Indian Snack

Samosa is one of the most popular snacks across the Indian subcontinent. This crispy, fried, or baked pastry, filled with a spicy, savory mixture, is now a widely loved chaat and appetizer. In this post, you’ll learn how to make samosas at home, including detailed step-by-step instructions and pictures for shaping and folding them perfectly.

A Must-Have on Every Menu

It’s hard to find a restaurant menu without a samosa listed on it. In my kachori recipe post, I mentioned that kachori is a close cousin of samosa—and the comparison fits well. Like kachori, samosas are stuffed with a flavorful filling and traditionally deep-fried. Baked samosas have also become popular in recent years, and I’ll be sharing that version in a separate post.

Jump to:

• A Must-Have on Every Menu
• Origin, Names, and Variations of Samosa
• Shaping and Folding the Perfect Samosa
• Ingredients required
• How to make samosas
• More chaat recipes
• 📖 Recipe

Origin, Names, and Variations of Samosa

Much like kachori, samosa is known by many names, including samoosa, samsa, and somsa. According to Wikipedia, samosas are believed to have originated in the Middle East, where they were called sambosa, before the 10th century. They were later introduced to the Indian subcontinent by traders from Central Asia during the 13th or 14th century.

Today, samosas come in many varieties depending on the filling, and mini versions—often called cocktail samosas—are popular party snacks. In this post, I’m sharing the classic samosa recipe made with a spiced potato filling.

Shaping and Folding the Perfect Samosa

Shaping a samosa into its signature cone shape is an art, but it becomes easy with practice. While my samosas may not have been perfectly uniform, they tasted delicious and worked beautifully for my samosa chole chaat recipe.

From a technical perspective, samosa shaping follows a simple geometry concept. An elliptical base cone works best, though a circular base also works well. Start by rolling the dough into an oval shape, cut it in half, and bring the straight edges together to form a cone. After adding the filling, flatten the base so the samosa can stand upright. Folding the center of the base edge slightly helps provide support before sealing. The step-by-step pictures and quick video make the process clear and easy to follow.

Here I am presenting the classic potato-filled samosa, served with green chutney and sweet chutney.    

Ingredients required

Filling:
I kept the filling simple and not overly spiced. While potatoes and onions are the base ingredients, I also added green peas and enhanced the flavor with fennel powder, red chili powder, and chaat masala. In addition, you’ll need oil and cumin seeds for tempering, along with salt to taste.

Outer Covering:
The outer covering is made entirely with all-purpose flour. You can also use whole wheat flour or a combination of wheat flour and all-purpose flour. I like to add a small amount of carom seeds along with oil while preparing the dough. Salt and water are needed for kneading.

Apart from these ingredients, you’ll need oil for deep-frying and sweet chutney, green chutney, or ketchup for serving.

How to make samosas

Preparing the outer covering

• In a wide mixing bowl, add the maida (all-purpose flour), salt, ajwain, oil, and baking soda.

• Mix well and make sure the oil is properly coated in the flour. This ensures crispy samosa.

• Slowly drizzle in water, mixing until the flour forms a stiff dough. Do not add more than 2 tbsps of water at a time. Add water on a required basis. Knead the dough for a couple of minutes, then cover it with a damp cloth and let it sit for a while.

Preparing the filling

• Boil the potatoes in your preferred method, either microwaving or pressure-cooking. Let it cool, peel the skin, and roughly chop them. Heat the kadai and add oil. Once the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds. As they start to splutter, add the chopped onion.

• Cook until the onion turns translucent. Now add the peas and cook for two minutes. Then add the dry masalas: fennel seed powder, red chili powder, chaat masala, and salt.

• Now mix them well and cook on a medium flame until all the water has evaporated. At this stage, add the chopped potatoes and mix well. Ensure the potatoes are coated well with the masala.

• Cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes, until a light brown crust forms.
• Turn off the heat, sprinkle in chopped cilantro, and mix well. That’s it. The potato filling is ready.

Shaping the samosas, filling, and frying

• Pinch off a medium lemon-sized ball of dough and roll it into an elliptical shape.

• Now cut them into two halves.

• Using your fingertips, spread a little water around the edges. This helps in sealing the samosas properly.

• Bring the open edges to the middle as shown in the image and press them together to form a cone.

• Seal the tip of the cone, then fill the inside with 2 tbsps of potato filling.

• Press the potato filling, making sure there is some space between the edges to bring them together. Now, slightly pinch or fold the edge, then bring the bottom edges together and seal them tightly. The folding helps the samosas to stand, and it acts like the vertebrae. :-)

• Now, heat the oil for frying. Meanwhile, follow the above steps and shape more samosas with the remaining dough.
• Once the oil is hot, bring it to medium heat and slowly drop the samosa into the oil.
• Fry it until slightly browned, then take it out and let it sit on a paper towel to absorb the excess oil.
• I fried about 3 samosas in one batch. Since samosas take longer to fry, you might need to increase the heat to reheat the oil.

• That’s it. Yummy samosas are ready. Serve hot with your favorite sweet or green chutney or with ketchup.

Recipe notes

• While preparing the samosa dough, you can add 2 tsps of ghee instead of oil.
• You can customize the filling as per your preference, adjust the spices, and create your own variations.
• Also, instead of garam masala, I add fennel powder and chaat masala. You can include garam masala too.
• Adjust the salt and spices as per your preference.
• Note about oil quantity for deep-frying: When deep-frying samosas, they need to be mostly submerged for even cooking and a crisp texture. In a small deep pan, about 2½ to 3 cups of oil works well for frying a few samosas at a time, while a medium kadai may require 3 to 4 cups. Using too little oil can cause uneven cooking and a hard outer layer, so it’s best to use a deep vessel and fry in small batches to minimize oil usage.

More chaat recipes

Loved this recipe?

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📖 Recipe

Update Notes: This recipe was originally posted in 2016 but now updated with new photos and step-wise pictures.