Adai Recipe, How to make Adai

Updated on July 3, 2026 by Raks Anand 83 Comments

Adai is a traditional South Indian breakfast with rice, lentils and dry red chillies as main ingredients. Adai is a protein packed pancake - tasty, filling and nutritious too. In this post, lets see how to make a perfect adai with step by step pictures, quick video, tips and tricks for beginners to get best results.

You can make this for breakfast or dinner like we always do. Great option when you have guests over.

Check out my Godhumai adai and milagu jeeraga adai recipe in this website.

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About Adai
Adai Ingredients
Step by step pictures
Top tips
My notes
Variations
FAQs
Storage
Serving suggestions
Recipe card

About Adai

Adai is a popular South Indian tiffin, breakfast or dinner item, prepared with rice, mixed dals and dry red chilies as main ingredients. Though each household has it's own favorite ways of preparation, this is our Thanjavur orappu adai (we call it orappadai in our slang, orappu in Tamil = spicy). As the name suggest, this is supposed to be spicy.

I learnt adai from my mom, she makes the best adai ever, many of our guests too have appreciated. All my life I try to recreate that magic she makes with her adai, learning the small nuances that makes it irresistible.

We usually make Adai thicker than dosa, that's why it is adai. In villages, they make it by just patting, not poured with ladle. My periyamma also makes equally tasty adai, popular amongst our relatives! She is one of the greatest cook who can cook with ease as well as everything turns out spot on. I still remember my holidays I spent with my cousins with overdose of food!

Why I love this?

It's thick (justice for the name totally), coarse with perfect texture from dals, fluffy (in Tamil, we say - pola pola nu irukkum), soft and crispy all at the same time.

We make only with small onion and add it generously, which lends the main flavour to adai.

The crispy outer that is golden fried in generous peanut oil is the favorite part that I get excited for!

Adai Ingredients

Here are the simple ingredients you need to make adai.

Rice - I like to add both Idli dosa rice (parboiled rice) and raw rice (eating rice) for crisp texture. But you can make with just idli rice too like my mom.
Chana dal - Kadalai paruppu - Main ingredients that gives lovely, softness to the adai.
Toor dal - Thuvaram paruppu - red lentils - Gives firmness and flavour.
Urad dal - Gives soft and moist results.
Moong dal - Optional, adds moisture, flavour.
Dry red chillies - Use best quality for good results.
Asafoetida - I believe this is one of the main flavor.
Small onion - Pearl onion - Chinna vengayam - Without this, I wouldn't make adai itself, it's that important.
Coriander leaves - Optional but gives a fresh flavor.
Curry leaves - For aroma.

Please check my Recipe card below for quantities.

Step by step pictures

1. Firstly, wash and soak rice and dal separately for 3 hours. Grind the red chillies with salt, asafoetida (hing) and then add rice drained from water. After that, add little water as you grind as needed.

2. Then blend it to a coarse paste (like rava) and transfer to a bowl. After that, drain water from dal and add to the grinder jar. Use water very less and then, use the pulse option to grind dal coarsely.

Make sure to wipe the sides in between and lids for even grinding. Do not grind smooth. It should be very coarse like we do for dal vada. Even one or two whole dal seen would not hurt.

3. Then mix both the ground items well and set aside. You can keep up to 3-4 hours, or even make immediately. But standing time at room temperature yields better flavor, taste.

5. Just before making adai, add the chopped onion, chopped cilantro, curry leaves and mix well. The batter should be thicker than our idli dosa batter. So adjust water as needed.

6. Heat a tawa/ griddle or pan and spread little oil and spread one ladle full of batter as thick adai, make a small hole in the middle and again pour little oil around. Let it get cooked for sometime. Turn over the adai and cook the other side too till golden brown. (you can cook covered with a lid, before flipping)

These adai are crispy outside and soft from inside as we grind it coarsely. Enjoy with your favorite chutney or avial which is popular combo!

Top tips

Recently when my Mom visited me, she told do not chop the onion too fine, let it be chunky which adds texture, flavour to the adai. I totally agree with her as I could see the difference prominently.
We always grind rice and dal separately, dal being ground coarsely. As far as I know, if we grind rice and dal together and a bit smooth, make it thin then its called adai dosai. But we all like the Adai version better. You can see a beautiful thin Adai dosa here.
Most importantly, make sure to grind rice coarse, if you grind smoother, the texture differs. You may not get crispy as you want. Same applies to dal too.
Make sure you adjust the batter consistency, it it is too thick, it will be hard to spread. Cook in medium heat or low heat for crispy results.

My notes

For lovely orange hue, grind red chillies first with salt so that it gets ground and gives the colour. You can even add a teaspoon of Kashmiri red chilli powder if you want.

Depending upon the quantity, I at times transfer the ground rice mixture and grind dal separately if it is more. If the quantity is less, I top the dals over rice and give it a grind as I have done in the video.

Be generous while using oil as adai is meant to be cooked with slightly generous oil. In fact, they make a hole in the middle to make sure add oil in middle which also helps in cooking thoroughly.

Don't be stingy with perungayam (asafoetida). Use solid asafoetida dissolved in water for authentic flavors.

Though you can use any type of pan, I love to use pure iron tawa or cast iron tawa for best crispy results. If you are using nonstick tawa, just make sure to cook in low heat for long time.

Variations

Add finely chopped coconut or grated coconut.
You can add drumstick leaves to this same Adai and make it murungai keerai adai.
Add finely chopped vazhaipoo for a tasty and healthy twist.
If you like fennel flavor you can add fennel seeds while grinding. You can also add cumin seeds for digestion purpose.
Add legumes along reducing dal quantity. Example, chickpeas, black eyed peas. But the taste differs drastically. I at times add masoor dal too in place of moong dal.
My mom says they don't even add urad dal or moong dal those days. So you can try that too.
You can pat the adai batter grinding it thick, instead of making it as batter.
My mother in law adds finely chopped carrot to the batter. She also saute onion and tempers with mustard, urad dal, curry leaves. I am too lazy to do all that and it tastes so different from my mom's version. So stick to this always!
You can add chopped spring onion for a twist.
If you like this, you will also enjoy my Thavala adai.

FAQs

Should the batter be fermented?

We need not ferment the adai batter, but resting the batter for few hours (3-6 hours) gives best taste from the slight fermentation.

Why my adai is hard?

You may have ground the rice smooth or used less dal to rice ratio. Adding more toor dal also makes adai dense. Add lots of onion to make the batter texture better.

How much long should I soak the rice and dal?

From one hour to 6 hours you can do as per your convenience. If you soak just for an hour, I suggest to rest the batter for at least an hour to 3 hours for better resuts.

Storage

You can store adai batter for couple of days and it taste really good too. I prefer to take only a portion of the batter needed and mix other ingredients to it. The rest of the batter meant to store in fridge. This way it doesn't turn sour fast.

Make kunukku and enjoy, if the batter is thick enough.

Serving suggestions

Adai's best companion is Avial. But we at home never make avial, we eat with just jaggery or nattu sakkarai (நாட்டு சக்கரை) and butter. Maximum we make is coconut chutney at in-laws place.

Recipe card

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5 from 23 votes