Spicy Egg Chitoi Pitha for a Winter Evening: Ingredients and Method

Winter is pitha season in Bangladesh, when homes across the country make rice cakes of many kinds. One of the most popular is chitoi, usually eaten dipped in syrup or with a bhorta (mash). On 29 December 2025 the lifestyle desk of Jagonews24 published a recipe for a spicy version of it: egg chitoi. It needs no meat, since the egg broken on top gives it its flavour, and it can be made quickly for a morning or evening snack.

Chitoi is one of the most common rice cakes in Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, where it is also called ashke pithe. Banglapedia lists chitoi among the pithas known all over the country. According to Banglapedia, most pithas are sweet and a few are hot, and the pitha season begins in late autumn, when farmers harvest paddy. Winter pithas are considered the most delicious because date-palm juice and molasses are available then.

The basic ingredients of chitoi are rice flour, water and salt. The batter is poured into a special clay mould and cooked under a lid; brass and aluminium pans are now used as well. Plain chitoi is eaten with molasses, or soaked in milk sweetened with molasses.

• Rice flour: 2 cups
• Flour (maida): 1 tablespoon
• Ground black pepper and chilli flakes: to taste
• Baking powder: 1 teaspoon
• Eggs: 1 per pitha
• Chopped onion, green chilli and coriander leaves: as needed
• Salt: to taste
• Lukewarm water: as needed

• Mix the rice flour, salt and enough water into a smooth batter of medium thickness.
• Lightly oil a chitoi mould or a non-stick pan and pour in some batter with a round spoon or a small bowl. Wait a little.
• When bubbles start to appear on the surface, break an egg on to the pitha.
• Sprinkle ground pepper and chilli on top, then add a little salt and chopped coriander.
• Cover with a lid and cook for 5 to 6 minutes.
• When the pitha is fully cooked, take it off and make the rest the same way.

The original recipe lists flour and baking powder among the ingredients but does not say at which step they go in. Jagonews24 suggests serving the spicy egg chitoi hot with shutki (dried fish) bhorta or coriander bhorta.

An egg left runny on top of the pitha can be a health risk. In its egg safety guidance, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advises cooking eggs until both the yolk and the white are firm and cooking foods that contain eggs thoroughly, to prevent illness from Salmonella bacteria. It also advises keeping eggs refrigerated and washing hands, utensils and work surfaces with hot, soapy water before and after they touch raw eggs. So at the end of the covered cooking time, check that the yolk has set before taking the pitha off.

Photo: Ferdous / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Sources: Jagonews24, Banglapedia (Pitha), Wikipedia (Chitoi pitha), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)