What You Are Making
Walk past almost any chaat cart in the monsoon months and you will hear a pressure cooker rattling away with corn inside, or smell cobs blackening on a coal grill. Corn chaat is the most relaxed member of the chaat family. There is no frying to manage, no sweet chutney to simmer, no sauce to blend. A scoop of tender kernels goes into a bowl or a paper cup, a little chopped onion and tomato follows, then lime, a spoonful of chaat masala and a pinch of salt, and the vendor shakes it all together. It shows how far lime and chaat masala alone can carry a humble ingredient. The same carts frequently sell bhutta, the grilled cob rubbed with butter, chilli and spice, so the two are often cooked in the same place.
With so little going on, the corn itself does nearly all the work. Fresh, sweet, in-season kernels barely need help. Older corn, with its starchier, blander flavour, benefits from a heavier hand with the lime and the masala to make up the difference.
The Dish’s Backstory
Corn chaat has none of the long, argued-over history attached to pani puri or bhel puri. It is a practical, more recent street snack that spread with the roadside chaat carts multiplying in Indian cities across the twentieth century. Vendors simply took the familiar lime-and-chaat-masala treatment and applied it to a cheap, filling ingredient that was easy to find. You will see it sold everywhere without strong ties to any single city, though the vegetables and garnishes vary from one stall, and one kitchen, to the next.
At the Stove, Step by Step
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Prep
Cook the corn
Boil or steam whole fresh cobs for about 8 to 10 minutes, until the kernels give easily under a fingernail. Let them cool a little, then slice the kernels away from the cob. Frozen kernels only need 3 to 4 minutes in boiling water. If you want a smokier result, hold whole cobs over a flame or lay them on a hot grill, turning now and then until they carry a few charred spots, and cut the kernels off afterwards.
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Prep
Mix in the vegetables
Put the corn into a bowl together with the tomato, onion, cucumber if you are using it, green chilli and coriander.
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Assemble
Season and turn
Pour in the lime juice and add the chaat masala, cumin, chilli powder if wanted, and salt. Fold gently until everything is coated, then taste. A good corn chaat is sharp with citrus, and the savoury, sour notes of the masala should come forward instead of hiding behind the corn.
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Serve
Top and eat at once
Spoon it into bowls or cups and add sev for crunch if you like. Serve immediately. Salt and lime keep pulling water out of the vegetables, so the longer the bowl waits, the wetter and duller it becomes.
Stand-ins If You Are Short
You can change the vegetables to suit the kitchen. Pomegranate seeds, boiled chickpeas or diced bell pepper all belong here as well. Without chaat masala, blend roasted cumin powder with a pinch of black salt and a little amchur for a reasonable approximation. A spoonful of minced raw mango in place of some of the lime juice gives a stronger sourness, a habit you will find in North India while mangoes are in season.
Dial the Chilli Up or Down
Heat comes from the green chilli and the optional chilli powder, and you can set each independently. Drop the fresh chilli completely for a chaat that is tangy and savoury with almost no fire. Chaat masala tastes sour and salty rather than hot, so using more of it deepens the flavour without raising the heat much.
Where It Goes Wrong
Dressing the bowl too early causes the most trouble. Once the vegetables meet salt and lime they shed water, and within 20 to 30 minutes a crisp chaat has become a watery one. Under-seasoning is next: the dish needs a bold hand with masala and lime or it tastes like boiled corn with chopped vegetables stirred in. Overcooking the corn is a third problem, especially with frozen kernels, which turn mushy after a couple of minutes at a boil; they only need enough time to heat through and lose their raw edge. And if you grill cobs for smokiness, avoid a heavy char that dries the kernels. A light, uneven blackening gives flavour and keeps them juicy.
Leftovers, Kept and Revived
Keeping: Cook the corn and chop the vegetables up to a day in advance, keeping them in separate containers in the refrigerator, but combine and dress them only shortly before serving. A finished corn chaat does not keep well and is at its best within 30 minutes to an hour. For a crowd, put the seasonings and lime on the side so each guest can mix their own bowl. That protects the texture and lets everyone choose how sharp they want it.
Reviving: Corn chaat is eaten cold or at room temperature and is not warmed up. If the corn was cooked earlier and chilled, you can warm it briefly before mixing it with the other ingredients, but the finished bowl is served cool.
Handle This Part Carefully
Wash all fresh produce well before chopping. If you boiled the corn ahead of time, cool it quickly and put it in the refrigerator instead of leaving it on the counter. After it is dressed with lime and fresh vegetables, treat the chaat like any fresh salad: keep it chilled if it will not be eaten right away, and throw it out if it has stood at room temperature for more than about two hours.