🍛 Food & Cuisine

Top 10 Punjabi Dishes Every Indian Must Try

Punjabi food is the most exported Indian cuisine for a reason — bold flavour, generous ghee, smoky tandoor and a heart-on-sleeve hospitality. These ten dishes are the canonical Punjabi greats. If you've never tried them, start here.

📅 May 27, 2026 👁 43 views 🏆 10 picks

1

Sarson Da Saag with Makki Di Roti
Winter classic

The signature Punjabi winter combo. Mustard greens slow-cooked with spinach and bathua, topped with white butter and paired with a hot maize-flour roti. Best eaten Dec-Feb when the mustard fields are in bloom.

Photo: w:en:User:Lokantha · Wikipedia/Wikimedia · CC BY-SA 3.0
2

Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)
Tandoori classic

Created in Delhi's Moti Mahal in the 1950s — tandoor-roasted chicken in a tomato-cream-butter gravy with kasuri methi. The most globally famous Punjabi dish, and rightly so.

Photo: Yuvraj Singh 97 · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
3

Chole Bhature
Breakfast classic

Spiced chickpea curry with a giant deep-fried bhatura. The Sita Ram Diwan Chand version in Delhi is iconic, but every Punjabi household has its own recipe. Best eaten freshly served.

Photo: Dheerajk88 · Wikipedia/Wikimedia · CC BY-SA 4.0
4

Amritsari Kulcha
Amritsari specialty

Stuffed tandoor-baked flatbread loaded with potato, paneer or onion masala, served with chole and tangy pickled onions. Eat it sitting at a roadside dhaba in Amritsar's old city.

Photo: Gaurav Nemade · Wikipedia/Wikimedia · CC BY-SA 2.0
5

Dal Makhani
Slow-cooked classic

Whole black lentils and kidney beans slow-cooked overnight with cream and butter. Takes 12-24 hours to make properly; the wait is the whole point.

Photo: Radhikamprabhu82 · Wikipedia/Wikimedia · CC BY-SA 4.0
6

Tandoori Chicken
Tandoor classic

Yogurt-and-spice marinated chicken roasted whole on iron skewers in a clay tandoor. Originated in the Punjab region; now the most recognised Indian dish abroad.

Photo: kspoddar · Wikipedia/Wikimedia · CC BY-SA 2.0
7

Rajma Chawal
Comfort food

Slow-cooked kidney beans with rice — the universal Punjabi comfort meal. Different regions disagree on whether to use Jammu rajma or chitra rajma. Both are correct.

Photo: Gaurav Nemade · Wikipedia/Wikimedia · CC BY-SA 2.0
8

Lassi (Sweet & Salted)
Yogurt drink

Thick, frothy yogurt drink served in a tall steel glass. Sweet lassi with rose syrup and a layer of malai; namkeen lassi with cumin and salt. Best from old-Amritsar lassiwalas.

Photo: Raksanand · Wikipedia/Wikimedia · CC BY-SA 4.0
9

Paneer Tikka
Tandoor classic

Marinated paneer cubes grilled with capsicum, onions and tomatoes on skewers. The default vegetarian starter at every Punjabi wedding from Ludhiana to London.

Photo: Meghana Mohanty · Wikipedia/Wikimedia · CC BY-SA 4.0
10

Pinni & Gajar Halwa
Punjabi desserts

Two winter desserts that belong on every Punjabi table — pinni (whole-wheat-ghee-jaggery laddoos) and gajar halwa (slow-cooked grated carrots with khoya and dry fruit).

Photo: AmanAgrahari01 · Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0