Chanar Jilipi is a very popular Bengali Sweet from India’s eastern state of West Bengal. Chanar Jilipi or Paneer Jalebi is an Indian sweetmeat made with fresh cottage cheese of cow’s milk mixed with semolina and flour, shaped into a ‘figure 8 knot’ followed by deep frying and soaking in a simple syrup. This is a very popular Bengali sweet dish and can be found at most of the sweet shops selling Indian sweets or Mithai.

Here, chana, that is, freshly churned homemade cottage cheese from cow’s milk is prepared into a soft dough to form pretzel-like shape before deep-frying. Once they turn golden-brown, they are removed from the oil and allowed to soak in sugar syrup.

Making Chanar Jilipi at home requires simple ingredients and a little bit of time & patience on your part.

In this article, I have shared step-by-step instructions and video on how to make chanar jalebi at home using homemade paneer. Along with that, I will also tell you the recipe for homemade chena or chenna (Indian Cottage Cheese) easily. You just need 2 ingredients for that, it’s that simple!

It is somewhat close to Bengali Gulab Jamun (which is also made out of chena or chenna) in terms of its taste and texture, and it is called as jilipi because of its shape.

There are quite a few references to Chanar Jilipi as Paneer Jalebi, however, I beg to differ. While the core ingredient remains the same for both the sweets, Paneer or Chana. However, they hugely vary in terms of texture and taste.

This is a small batch chanar jilipi recipe that gives around 10 pieces. So, if you want to make a bigger batch of it for entertaining guests, or you want to keep a few of these handy for those late-night cravings, just double the recipe.

How to make Chanar Jilipi – Ingredients list

• Cow’s Milk – alternate would be Buffalo Milk or any full-fat milk
• Lemon Juice – alternate would be White Vinegar
• All-Purpose Flour or Maida
• Semolina or Sooji
• Baking Soda
• Milk
• Ghee or Clarified Butter
• Sugar & Water to make the Sugar Syrup
• Green Cardamom pods to add flavour to the Sugar Syrup

Step-by-step instructions for this Chanar Jilipi recipe in Bengali style

How to make Chana at home?

All you need is some good quality full-fat milk and a milk curdling agent such as lemon juice or white vinegar.

Bring the milk to a rolling boil first. Once it is there, add the juice of a lemon into the milk. Here, I have used 600ml of Cow’s Milk and that required the juice of one golf ball-sized lemon. Add the juice gradually. Once you see that the cheese has curdled and whey left underneath is pale green in colour, stop adding the juice.

Turn off the heat. Take a cheesecloth and lay it on top of a sieve. Now, pour the contents of the milk pan into it. I would suggest you collect the whey underneath the sieve, as it is rich in nutrients. You can use it to knead the dough for chapattis or flour tortillas.

Gather the ends of the cheesecloth and let it sit on the sieve overnight to get rid of the moisture. If you live in a colder region, you may leave it on your kitchen counter, otherwise, keep it in the refrigerator.

1. Take the chena or cottage cheese in a mixing bowl and knead it for 8-10 minutes to make it smooth and supple
2. Add the rest of the ingredients in it like All-Purpose Flour, Semolina and Baking Soda and knead it again

3. Add Milk to make the dough moist and pliable to form the shape of Chanar Jilipi. it should be kind of a sticky dough as shown here. It took somewhere around 4 tablespoons of milk to get the perfect dough.
4. Add a teaspoon of Ghee to help you work with the dough

5. Divide the dough into 10 equal portions. Take each portion and roll it long on your kitchen counter
6. Once it is somewhere around 7cms, take the ends and bring them together at the centre. Pinch the ends tightly so that they do not unfurl while frying

7. & 8. Now, fry them in oil/ghee on very low heat. Once they turn brown, take them out and dunk them in Sugar Syrup. Let them soak for an hour or so before serving.

Looking for more Indian Sweets Recipes? Check these out.

• Instant Gulab Jamun recipe using Milk Powder
• Instant Kalakand recipe using Condensed Milk
• Instant Malpoa recipe
• Gajar ka Halwa recipe without using Khoya
• Instant Gajar ka Halwa recipe
• Atta ka Halwa recipe
• Kesar Peda
• Sweet Boondi
• Rasbhari
• Khaja or Chiroti
• Pranhara Sandesh
• Kesar Peda
• Elaichi Peda | Cardamom-flavoured Milk Fudge Recipe
• Kesar Motichoor Ladoo
• Balushahi
• Besan Ladoo
• Narkel Naru or Coconut Jaggery Ladoo

Have you tried this recipe? I would love to hear about it.
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