Chota (Guyanese Pancakes/Dosa) with Gluten Free Option

Chota or dosa (sometimes called dosay) is a sweet Guyanese pancake. Unlike American pancakes, it is not light and fluffy but somewhat dense, almost like a roti or flatbread. Serve this dosa recipe sweet or savory.

Guyanese Chota

Growing up in Guyana, my late grandmother Evelyn (who we called grammother) made the best chotas. Grammother had a way in the kitchen. She often made chotas for her grandchildren, for breakfast and sometimes for even for dinner. For breakfast, chotas were served with curries or stews that were mostly vegetarian. For dinner, it was served with a sliver of margarine or simply as is. Dinner was always a light meal when I was growing up. Chota hot off the tawa with a piping cup of cocoa tea is a memory forever engraved on my heart.

Why You’ll Love This Chota Recipe

• Quick & Easy: Prepare chota in just 20 minutes with a few simple step-by-step instructions.
• Simple Treat: These crepe-like Guyanese pancakes are sweet, tasty, and filling.
• Versatile: Enjoy dosa for breakfast or dinner, served sweet or savory.

Chota vs Dosa

When I shared chota on Instagram, a follower messaged me to say that they had never heard dosas referred to as chota. Chota is the Hindi word for small or tiny. After much conversation, we wondered if early Indo-Guyanese called chotas, chota dosa or small dosas? Since the size of Guyanese chotas are significantly smaller than the Indian dosa this made a lot of sense.

Ingredients for Chota

Prepare chota with pantry staples you already have stocked in your kitchen.

• All Purpose flour or All Purpose Gluten Free flour: Make this recipe with simple all purpose wheat flour or if you are gluten-free like me swap it for all purpose gluten free flour.
• Brown sugar: I love Demerara sugar or sugar in the raw, but any sweetener works.
• Baking powder: This helps them rise.
• Warm Water: Use to create a batter.
• Oil or ghee: Use this to cook the Guyanese pancakes.

Savory option

• Cloves of garlic: Grated garlic or 1 teaspoon of granulated garlic.
• Seasoning: Season the batter with onion powder, salt, and black pepper (optional).
• Scallions: Thinly sliced.
• Wiri wiri pepper: This is optional but adds heat if you prefer your pancakes spicy.

See recipe card for quantities.

How to Make Chota

Combine Dry Ingredients and Wet Ingredients

In a mixing bowl combine the all purpose flour (or all purpose gluten free flour if making it gluten free), sugar and baking powder and mix well. Then add the warm water and mix to make a smooth batter.

If you are making a savory chota, now is the time to add all of the ingredients for the savory option to the batter and mix well.

Cook Chota on a Preheated Tawa or Skillet

Bring a tawa or skillet to medium low heat and bring up to temperature. Once it’s hot, brush it with oil or ghee. Then use a 1/3 cup measuring cup to scoop chota batter and pour it onto the hot tawa or skillet. Use the back of the measuring cup or the back of a spoon to spread the batter out in an even circular motion

Cook on medium low heat until the top of the chota is almost completely dry. Then flip and continue to cook until golden brown. Remove from the heat and wrap them in a kitchen towel to keep warm. Repeat these steps until you’ve cooked all of the chotas.

Sweet Chotas

When grammother made sweet chotas they were unbelievably sweet. The sugar to other ingredients ratio must have been really high because I just remember how sweet these were. The batter for chota is simply flour, sugar, baking powder, and water. You can increase the sugar in this recipe to 1/2 cup for a really sweet almost dessert like chota.

These little pancake rotis were so delicious. we happily ate, dipping them in the enamel cup of tea or as a vessel to scoop up curry. The sweetness of the chota added a perfect balance to the spices in the curry. It was a match made in heaven.

Savory Chota

On occasion, grammother made a savory chota. She ground up garlic and herbs with her lorha and sill (a flat stone with a round stone that worked as a type of mortar and pestle). Then she added the herb paste to the chota batter. We ate savory chotas without any stews or curry.

I wonder if she did it this way when she simply didn’t have anything else to offer. As an adult this version of chota is my favorite. I keep my green onions whole for a bit of crunch but grind up my garlic and pepper in a mini mortar and pestle before adding to the batter.

Storage

These chotas are best if eaten fresh. You can store leftovers in a zip top bag in the refrigerator, but try to use them within three days of making. To reheat, use the microwave. Reheating them in the tawa or skillet dries the chota out.

Tips for the Best Chotas

• When pouring the batter for chota it is important to have an even pour. So the consistency of the batter is important. You want a smooth and somewhat thick batter but not a runny batter.
• Use a spoon or the back of your measuring cup to spread the batter out for even cooking.
• When making traditional American pancakes you look for bubbles then you flip with the batter still being a bit runny. But with chota you flip it when the top is almost dry and not so runny anymore.
• Keep your heat set to medium low so that your chota gets a nice golden brown color but doesn’t burn. There is nothing worse than a burnt chota!
• Remove from the heat and place in a kitchen towel to keep them warm. Unlike pancakes these are pliable and perfect for stuffing and rolling up in a little log, similar to Indian dosas.

Frequently Asked Questions