Paneer Kathi Roll Recipe: Crispy Paratha with Spicy Filling

This recipe turns out incredibly delicious. First, I’ll share how to make the paratha that is the most important component of a Kathi Roll—crispy, crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. After that, I’ll share the simplified recipe for the Paneer Kathi Roll filling, which gives the perfect, delicious feeling of Paneer Kathi Kebab.

Let’s first see how the dough for the paratha is made.

For the Paratha Dough:

1. I’m taking two cups of maida (all-purpose flour). You can also use 1 cup maida and 1 cup wheat flour.
2. Add 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 teaspoon salt to the flour.
3. Mix these dry ingredients well.
4. Once mixed, add 2 tablespoons of ghee (clarified butter). After adding the ghee, mix it in well with the flour.
5. Important: Do not overmix. You don’t need to mix it like you do for samosa pastry. Just mix lightly until the ghee is incorporated. This will give our paratha a slight crispiness.
6. Now, I’m adding warm water to it. You need to add lukewarm water gradually and make a soft, pliable dough.
7. Add water slowly and mix the flour with the water. Add water only until the dough comes together. The dough should feel slightly sticky. We need to make a soft dough; a little stickiness is okay, it will go away when we knead it.
8. Once the dough has come together, I’m transferring it to a platform for kneading.
9. You can see the surface is not smooth at all and is quite sticky. We need to knead it well to make it smooth and work out the stickiness completely.
10. Knead the dough well for 10-12 minutes. You can see how I’m stretching it with one hand. This process of stretching and kneading develops the gluten in the maida, which gives the dough elasticity. This will make the dough very good and your parathas will turn out fantastic.
11. If you knead for 10-12 minutes, you will slowly see that it won’t stick to your hands or the platform anymore, and its texture will become very smooth.
12. Once the dough no longer sticks at all, make a smooth ball like this, tucking the edges inward. You can see how the dough has completely changed, it’s become very smooth and is no longer sticky.
13. The dough needs to rest for 1 hour. Place the dough ball in a bowl and apply a light layer of oil on top so the surface doesn’t dry out.
14. To let the dough rest, cover it with a damp cloth.

Preparing the Filling (While dough rests):
A Kathi Roll has Kathi Kebabs cooked on skewers over charcoal. I’m simplifying this recipe so you can make the perfect, delicious-tasting filling easily in a pan without any hassle or skewers. Let’s see how to make it perfectly in a pan.

For Marinating the Paneer:

1. In a bowl, add 2 tablespoons of mustard oil.
2. Add 1 tablespoon Kashmiri red chili powder and mix it well with the oil. You can see I’m mixing it well. Mixing the chili powder with oil first gives a very good color to the marinade.
3. Once mixed, add the rest of the spices:
   • 1/2 teaspoon garam masala
   • 1/4 teaspoon black salt
   • 1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
   • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
   • 1/4 cup thick, hung curd (Greek yogurt)
   • Salt to taste
4. After adding all these, mix the marinade well. Use a whisk and mix thoroughly. Ensure there are no lumps from the yogurt. Make a smooth marinade.
5. You can see the color is already very appealing. Now, to give it a smoky flavor, I’m using a piece of lit charcoal for smoking.
6. Place the lit charcoal in a small bowl. Add a little ghee on top. The ghee will cause the charcoal to smoke.
7. Place this bowl into the marinade bowl. Cover immediately with a lid. Let it smoke like this for 2-3 minutes. This process replicates the smoky flavor of charcoal cooking (tandoor/seekh) at home.
8. After 3-4 minutes, remove the lid and take out the charcoal bowl.
9. I have 250 grams of paneer, cut into cubes. Add all the paneer to this marinade.
10. After adding the paneer, mix it gently with light hands, coating all the paneer pieces well with the marinade.

Cooking the Filling:

1. Heat oil in a pan. Let the oil get hot; the pan should also be properly hot.
2. Once the oil is hot, add the marinated paneer.
3. Cook this on high heat. You can toss the pan or stir with a spoon. Cook on high flame to get a slight char on the paneer for that smoky flavor (our marinade already has some). The paneer will cook very quickly. Paneer doesn’t need much cooking, but we want a good texture from the outside.
4. You can see the paneer is getting nicely charred. Cook the paneer like this for 2-3 minutes.
5. You can see the marinade has coated the paneer well and the color is very good.
6. At this stage, I’m adding the remaining ingredients:
   • 1/3 cup onion slices
   • 1/3 cup julienned (thinly sliced) capsicum (bell peppers)
   • 1/3 cup julienned tomatoes
   • A pinch of Kashmiri red chili powder (for color)
   • Add salt to taste if needed.
7. Now, just stir-fry everything on high heat. The onions, tomatoes, and capsicum should get a slight color; we don’t want to overcook them. The veggies should remain very crunchy, just slightly cooked.
8. You can see I’ve tossed it well and cooked it on high heat for just about a minute. Our Kathi Roll filling is now ready!

Making and Cooking the Paratha:

1. Take the dough which was resting. Divide it into equal parts. I’m dividing it into 5 parts. If you want smaller rolls, you can make 6 parts.
2. Once you have the dough balls, apply a little oil on the surface.
3. After applying oil, let these dough balls rest as well. At this stage, you need to let them rest for at least 15-20 minutes.
   • Important Tip: Whenever working with maida dough, let it rest well at every stage. When you make the main dough, rest it. After making the balls (pede), rest those too. The reason is, if you don’t rest it, the dough shrinks back when you try to roll it. Resting allows the gluten to relax, making it easy to roll and resulting in very good parathas or rotis.
4. Take one rested dough ball. Flatten it slightly. You can use your thumb to make a indent like I am, or just flatten it like you do for roti.
5. Apply a thin layer of ghee on top.
6. After applying ghee, sprinkle some dry flour on it.
7. Now, make a pleat. You can see how I’m making the pleat. Once you’ve made pleats like this, coil it into a spiral. Tuck the end underneath to form a ball again. This creates a layered ball (laccha).
8. Coat this ball in dry flour.
9. Now, roll it out into a paratha. Use light pressure. Use a rolling pin to roll it. Remember, Kathi Roll parathas are not very thick; they are slightly thin. Keep the thickness medium, slightly thicker than a normal roti.
10. Roll it out well. If you feel you need more dry flour, you can add it. If not, don’t use too much dry flour.
11. You can see I’ve rolled out a perfect paratha.
12. Now, to cook the paratha, heat a tawa (griddle). Place the paratha on the hot tawa.
13. First, cook the paratha dry (without oil). Use a napkin or cloth to press and rotate the paratha so it cooks evenly. It will get little spots in about a minute.
14. Then, flip it and cook the other side similarly, pressing with the napkin.
15. Once both sides are partly cooked, we need to shallow fry the paratha with a little oil. Add oil, flip the paratha, and press and rotate it to cook. Keep checking. Cook until it turns golden brown and crispy on one side.
16. Once one side is nicely cooked, add a little more oil, flip it, and cook the other side similarly, pressing and rotating for even cooking and browning.
17. You can see the paratha is crispy on both sides, cooked perfectly, and will remain soft inside. Our layered Kathi Roll paratha is ready.

Assembling the Roll:

1. Place the cooked paratha on a plate.
2. Place a generous amount of the prepared paneer filling in the center.
3. You can also add a little mustard sauce (rai ka tel) and/or green chutney according to your taste.
4. Roll it up tightly. You can wrap the bottom part in a paper or foil for easy eating.

Your delicious Paneer Kathi Roll is ready! It’s very tasty. I’ve simplified it a lot for you—making the paneer filling and this layered paratha. It’s very fun to eat. Make it this way. You can also create variations with different fillings according to your taste.