Coxinha – Brazilian Chicken Croquettes

It’s time for the FIFA 2014 World Cup in Brazil and everyone is excited. Well All Access Kitchen has decided to feature a quick and easy recipe/dish to try out if you are in Brazil or anywhere in the world.

What is this dish really?…Coxinhas are a Brazilian treat/snack, delicious balls of chicken that have been shaped into a drumstick  and fried.

Coxinhas were originally made with a chicken thigh, which its traditional shape is meant to resemble. In its modern processed form it may have originated in São Paulo in the 19th Century.

Other unconventional ingredients, generally used for home-made coxinhas made by aficionados, include peas, chopped button mushrooms, palmheart, carrot, as well as whole-wheat flour batter or even a vegetarian version of either textured vegetable protein (soy meat) or falafel with appropriate seasonings so its taste resembles a traditional coxinha more closely.

Prep Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Ingredients:

• 3 chicken breasts
• 4-5 cups of chicken broth
• 2 carrots
• 1 onion
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2-3 cups of flour
• 2 eggs
• 2-3 cups of very finely grated bread crumbs
• Vegetable oil for frying
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Combine chicken breast, chopped onion, carrots, garlic, salt, pepper, butter and 3 cups of water in a pressure cooker. Place the pressure cooker on medium-heat.
2. Bring liquid to a gentle simmer, and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until chicken is just cooked through. Check if the chicken is well done. Some of the breasts cook quicker than others, you can remove these earlier.
3. Set chicken aside to cool, and strain the broth/soup. Reserve broth.
4. Shred the chicken into very small pieces. Use a food processor fitted with the plastic blade for this step, or use your fingers.
5. Finely chop the second onion and the garlic. Fry the onion and garlic in 2 tablespoons of butter until golden and soft.
6. Add the hot onions and garlic to the chicken mixture and stir until everything is well mixed.
7. Measure the chicken broth/soup (you will probably have about 3 1/2 cups). Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a saucepan, and stir in the same amount of flour as you have broth (i.e 3 1/2 cups broth, add 3 1/2 cups flour).
8. Stir and cook for 2-3 minutes. Mixture will become a stiff dough. Remove from heat and leave to cool.
9. You can leave the chicken mixture and the dough for several hours or overnight. (optional)
10. To shape the coxinhas, take a piece of the dough about the size of a golf ball with floured hands. Roll it into a ball, then empty out the middle for the filling.
11. Press a golfball size (about 1 1/2 tablespoons) piece of the chicken filling inside the ball of dough, and press the dough closed around the filling. Shape into an approximate drumstick shape, flouring hands as necessary. Stand the coxinhas on a baking sheet, so that the pointed end sticks upwards. Repeat until you don’t have any dough left.
12. Whisk the eggs together in a bowl. Place the bread crumbs in a shallow pan (like a cake pan) and season with salt and pepper.
13. Dip the coxinhas in the egg, then in the breadcrumbs to coat. Chill the breaded coxinhas for 1 hour.
14. Fill a heavy-bottomed pot with enough oil to cover the coxinhas. Heat the oil then fry the coxinhas in batches until deep golden brown.

Serve warm.

Coxinhas are fun to make so enjoy!

Makayabo

Featured Cook: Nadine from Burundi

Ingredients:

• 500g Dry salty fish
• Spinach
• 2 Onions
• Garlic (either crushed or fresh)
• 1 Green Pepper
• Tomato paste
• Tomatoes
• 2 Maggi stock cubes
• Ground Peanuts
• 1 packet of Royco soup mixture (green chili pepper)

Method:

1. Wash all vegetables.
2. Soak fish overnight to get rid of the saltiness.
3. Fry the fish in a pan.
4. Cut down spinach and chop the onions the add to the pan/pot.
5. Once fried add the garlic, the green pepper and chopped tomatoes.
6. Then add tomato paste to make the mixture thicker.
7. And add the stock cubes, ground nuts and Royco soup mixture into the pot.
8. Let everything boil together.