Brazilian · Starter
Coxinha de Frango
- Advanced
- 60 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
Leads with richness that coats and comforts, fresh herbs arguing happily on top, opening aromatic and staying there.
Ingredients
- 600 g chicken thigh on the bone
- 1 litre water
- 150 g onion, halved
- 2 bay leaves
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 500 ml of the chicken poaching broth
- 250 ml whole milk
- 60 g unsalted butter
- 500 g plain flour
- 150 g soft fresh cream cheese
- 15 g parsley, chopped
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 250 g fine dry breadcrumbs
- 2 litres sunflower oil for frying
- salt and black pepper
Equipment
Deep-fry pot
The skills inside
Kneading doughThe bare simmer: holding liquid below the boilSalted water & the float testKeeping the cooking liquid
Allergen screen
Found: gluten · dairy · egg
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Poach the chicken with the onion and bay until it shreds under a fork; keep the broth and pull the meat into fine threads.
- Bring 500 ml of that broth, the milk and the butter to a rolling boil, tip in all the flour at once and beat over the heat until the dough leaves the sides clean and a film sets on the pan base.
- Turn the dough out and knead it while it is almost too hot to hold, until it is smooth and elastic with no cracks when you fold it.
- Flatten walnut-sized pieces, fill with the shredded chicken bound with cream cheese, garlic and parsley, and pinch each into a teardrop with no open seam and no trapped air.
- Roll through beaten egg then breadcrumbs and fry at 175C (350F) until deep gold and audibly crisp, about 4 minutes; drain standing point upwards. 4 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the techniques it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Kneading dough 57 recipes
- The work changed it: what began shaggy and rough is one smooth, cohesive mass, with nothing raggy hanging off it.
- The surface has gone satin and barely tacky, releasing cleanly from hands and board instead of leaving a trail.
- Worked to the point this dough asks for and no further: springy and elastic where structure is wanted, just brought together where tenderness is.
- Torn or cut open, the inside is uniform: no dry streaks, no unmixed pockets, no core of flour that never met the water.
- After its rest it rolls and shapes without snapping back. A dough that fights the pin needed more rest, not more force.
Where it goes wrong Sticking was fought with flour instead of technique or patience, stroke after stroke, until the dough had taken in far more than the formula asked; it turns tight and dry under the hands, and bakes dense however well everything else goes.
Keeping the cooking liquid 60 recipes
- It was actually kept: the liquid went into a container rather than down the drain, and the volume saved is enough to be worth using.
- It is clean: strained of solids and grit, and not clouded with the debris of whatever broke up in it.
- It tastes of what it cooked and tastes concentrated rather than washed out, and it is not so salty or so bitter that the only honest use is the bin.
- It was cooled quickly and stored cold, not left standing warm on the stove to be dealt with later.
- Used, it does the job the dish gives it (carrying flavour into a sauce, loosening the dish, or setting when chilled) rather than merely adding water back.
Where it goes wrong The pot was left to cool slowly on the stove and only strained the next day, so it soured overnight: what should have been the best ingredient in the dish goes in the bin, and the recipe gets water instead.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Chardonnay (village Burgundy)
- Also Right
- Chenin Blanc
- From the Taps
- Bière de garde
- Zero-Proof
- Verbena iced tea
Chicken is wine’s most agreeable partner. Match the SAUCE, not the bird: cream to oak, tomato to Sangiovese’s acid, herbs to Loire whites.
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