Kottu (aka Kottu Roti) is one of the best Sri Lankan street foods and an insanely popular dish in Sri Lanka. A delicious and very comforting easy-to-make one-pan meal. And a great way to use up leftover chicken curries, and vegetables. Here is an easy step-by-step picture recipe with a lot of info+tips so that you can make the best Kottu easily at home. Hope you’ll give it a try.
Kottu Roti; About the name
The name ‘Kottu Roti’ is derived from the Tamil language meaning ‘chopped bread’. The dish is believed to have been first created in the Batticaloa or Trincomalee around the 1970s as a part of Tamil culture. (kottu=chopped, roti=bread).
Sinhala: චිකන් කොත්තු, චිකන් කොත්තු රොටී, කොත්තු රොටි; Tamil: கொத்து ரொட்டி
Alternative names: Koththu, Kotthu, Kothu, Kottu roti, koththu roti, kotthu roti, Kothu roti
Kothu Parotta (Kothu Paratha) is a variation of Kottu Roti, found in South India.
About Sri Lankan Kottu ( Kottu Roti)
Kottu is traditionally made with a flatbread called “Godamba Roti” and is typically made from recycled day-old Godhamba roti. So, this dish usually starts with chopping Godambe Roti and then chopped pieces of Roti are mixed with meat (beef, chicken, or mutton), eggs, onions, garlic, vegetables, curry gravy, and spices. Meat and eggs are not added for a vegetarian or vegan version. You can choose what you want in your kottu. It is usually served with a separate bowl of curry sauce and more chili flakes.
Sri Lankan Kottu; entertaining Street Food
What makes kottu so special is not just the taste of the dish but also the art of preparation. Sri Lankan Street vendors often use sound to attract customers, so they usually choose a much louder method to make them.
Kottu is prepared by chopping the ingredients with two blunt metal cleavers on a hot griddle, creating a distinctive, rhythmic sound. This unique sound, the clitter-clatter of metal cooking blades as the street vendors make kottu, can be heard a lot coming from roadside food stalls around Colombo (or any other urban part of the country), mostly in the evening even from a fair distance away.
Everything you want to know
ABOUT Making kottu at Home
Making chicken kottu at home is healthier than buying it
Making kottu at home is surely healthier than buying it. However, you might be wondering how can I make that at home if you’ve seen kottu roti being made by street vendors in Sri Lanka. Yes, I know most of us don’t have such a large hot griddle in our homes.
Don’t worry, luckily, it’s really quite simple to make Kottu at home in a regular large frying pan or a big wok. You just “stir-fry” everything together instead of chopping and mashing it. That’s how I make it at home and I found that a tong is a really helpful item for mixing Kottu.
A very flexible recipe
This recipe is very flexible, and it is just a basic guide for you to get an idea about what kind of dish it is, so feel free to adjust it as you like. If you have anything left over like bread, meat, curry, and vegetables, just experiment with them. You really can’t go wrong.
Ingredients
Most versions of Kottu contain ginger, garlic, onion, fresh chilies, curry leaves, cabbage, carrots, banana peppers (or bell peppers), and leeks along with chili powder/chili flakes, besides the chopped Godamba roti. You can add your choice of meat, curry gravy, and/or eggs. That means you can make your own ‘Kottu version’ as you like. If you are a vegetarian/vegan, you can also make a vegetarian/vegan-friendly version.
Godamba roti (Godanba roti)
Godamba roti is a simple Sri Lankan flatbread usually made from wheat flour, salt, and water. It is the one typically used for making kottu roti and is very similar to Roti Canai from Malaysia, Paratha from India, and Murtabak from Singapore. It is sometimes available at ethnic grocery stores, or you can make it at home. You can also serve them just plain with some curries or as a wrap with a savory filling.
Substitutes for Godamba roti
You can also make Kottu with homemade or store-bought roti canai, paratha, flour tortilla, or naan. Now I usually make my Kottu with store-bought roti canai as it is very convenient and readily available. Roti Canai is a popular flatbread in Malaysia and very similar to Godamba Roti but a bit sweeter.
Chicken curry (gravy) For Chicken Kottu
In this recipe, I used my Sri Lankan-style spicy chicken curry gravy to flavor the Kottu and then I served Kottu with chicken curry. Here, I have shared the two chicken curry recipes, so you can make one of them if you like. However, as I mentioned before, the good thing about Kottu is that you can also make it with your choice of curry or gravy. And if you don’t have curry or gravy, then just experiment with your choice of seasoning and spices instead of adding gravy.
Here are two recipes for making mouth-watering Sri Lankan-Style Chicken Curries.
The Best Sri Lankan Spicy Chicken Curry (Step-by-Step)
The Best Sri Lankan Coconut Chicken Curry (Step-by-Step)
Cooked Chicken (curried chicken) For Kottu
When making Chicken Kottu in the usual way, you add some cooked chicken or curried chicken pieces to kottu and then serve it with the chicken gravy. However, I like to serve my Chicken Kottu with chicken curry (with chicken pieces in it, not just the chicken gravy) instead of adding chicken pieces to the kottu and serving kottu with chicken gravy.
It is totally up to you, to add or not to add chicken pieces to your kottu. You can also add roasted chicken instead of curried chicken or substitute the chicken with cooked/roasted beef, pork, mutton, or extra vegetables to make your own kottu version.
Kottu variation
No matter the ethnic, religious, or social group, kottu has enough variations to feed everyone. Hindus abstain from beef, Muslims do not eat pork and some Buddhists prefer chicken, and some people adhere to a vegetarian lifestyle.
Yet kottu can be customized to suit anyone. And instead of using bread/roti, you can also make them with Indiappa, noodles, or pasta. Here are some of the Kottu you will find in Sri Lanka. Vegetable Kottu, Roast Chicken Kottu, Egg Kottu, Cheese Kottu, Beef Kottu, Mutton Kottu, Fish Kottu, Sea Food Kottu, Indiappa Kottu, and the list goes on.
Sri Lankan chicken kottu
(Step-by-Step Recipe)
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 30 minutes
Servings: 2
Ingredients
300 g Roti Canai, chopped (or your choice of bread/roti)
2 tbsp oil
1 tbsp garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp ginger, finely chopped
Few curry Leaves, optional
50 g carrots, shredded
50 g leeks, sliced
50 g cabbage, shredded
1 small onion, sliced
2 green chilies, cut
2 fresh red chilies, cut
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 tbsp chili flakes/powder
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 eggs
Chicken curry, to mix and serve, as needed
Instructions
Chop the roti into small pieces.
Prepare the vegetables, spices, and eggs.
In a large wok or frying pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
Add garlic, ginger, and curry leaves. Sauté for one minute. Do not let them burn.
Add all the vegetables.
And stir-fry for a few minutes until vegetables are slightly cooked.
Cover the pan with a lid for about 2 minutes as it helps vegetables to cook faster.
Add tomato and mix with other vegetables.
Add salt, pepper, and chili powder/chili flakes and mix well.
Create a well in the middle of the vegetable mix and then add the eggs into this well.
Let the eggs cook.
When the eggs are almost cooked, add the shredded roti. Mix well. (In this step, you can also add chicken pieces and mix together if you like. )
Add the chicken gravy and mix until the shredded roti is completely coated with the vegetable/egg mix and curry gravy.
Chicken Kottu is ready.
Serve hot with chicken curry or gravy.
Sri Lankan Chicken Kottu recipe
Easy! Sri Lankan Kottu Roti (Chicken Kottu) Recipe
Ingredients
- 300 g Roti Canai chopped (your choice of bread)
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 tbsp garlic finely chopped
- 1 tsp ginger finely chopped
- 5 curry leaves optional
- 50 g carrots shredded
- 50 g leeks sliced
- 50 g cabbage shredded
- 1 small onion sliced
- 2 green chilies cut
- 2 fresh red chilies cut
- 2 tomatoes chopped
- 1 tbsp chili flakes or powder
- Salt & Pepper to taste
- 2 eggs
- Chicken curry to mix and serve, as needed
Instructions
- Chop the roti and prepare the ingrdients.
- In a large wok or frying pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
- Add garlic, ginger, and curry leaves. Sauté for one minute. Do not let them burn.
- Add all the vegetables and stir-fry for a few minutes until vegetables are slightly cooked.
- Cover the pan with a lid for about 2 minutes as it helps vegetables to cook faster.
- Add tomato and mix with other vegetables.
- Add salt, pepper, and chili powder/chili flakes and mix well.
- Create a well in the middle of the vegetable mix and then add the eggs into this well. Let the eggs cook.
- When the eggs are almost cooked, add the shredded bread. Mix well.
- Add the chicken gravy and mix until the shredded roti is completely coated with the vegetable/egg mix and curry gravy.
- Serve hot with extra leftover curry sauce.
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