Chicken Puffs

Yay! The weekend is here again. Thanks to the public holiday on Monday earlier this week; the work week has been a short one. Don’t misunderstand me, I love my job, but I totally love the weekend and time with my family more! JJJ Baaah who am I kidding, a weekend for me just means this; 

Right getting back to business, to kick off an awesome weekend, here’s a recipe for some awesome chicken puffs. Who doesn't love these chicken puffs. Every time we go back home for the holidays and we walk into a bakery, the first thing I’d order is a chicken or egg puffs. I absolutely loved these as a kid. And am sure so did every other kid that grew up in Kerala. Ahh, brings back such fond memories, don’t you agree?These do take a bit of time to make and assemble if you’re doing a bulk lot like I did, but the  end result is totally worth it!

And there’s also a little bonus recipe at the end for what you could do with any leftover pastry strips you have. Chackochi loved those little puff pastry bites I made and gobbled up quite a few of them. Try out these recipes and relive your wonderful childhood memories J

Happy Weekend people!

Chicken Puffs

Ingredients

Chicken thighs - 3

Puffs pastry sheets -  4

Onion - 1 medium

Ginger paste - 1/4 tsp

Garlic paste - 1/4 tsp

Chicken masala – 1 1/2 tsp

Pepper powder as needed

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Garam Masala - 1/4 tsp

Soya sauce - 2 tblsp

 Egg -  1 (optional)

Instructions

1. Thaw the puff pastry, as needed, separating the sheets at room temperature. Thaw until completely and evenly moist, but not dry.
2. Cook the chicken in a pressure cooker with the soya sauce, turmeric powder & pepper powder. After cooling down, shred the chicken and keep it aside. Reserve some of the chicken stock.
3. Heat oil in a pan and add onion and salt. Sauté well. When it turns light brown, add ginger-garlic paste and mix well. Add chicken masala, garam masala and pepper powder into this mixture. Once the raw smell goes, add the chicken to this and mix well. If the mix is on the dry side, add a bit of the chicken stock and combine well. Keep aside.
4. Heat the oven to 190 degrees C.
5. Meanwhile, cut the pastry into medium sized squares. Don’t worry about wasting the pastry, I have a quick recipe to use those up too, just scroll down .
6. Spread the masala mix onto the puff pastry. lengthwise. Rub all the sides of the inner part of the pastry with a bit of water so that it acts as an adhesive. Fold the puff pastry over the masala and seal it. Place the puffs about 2 inches apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
7. Whip up the egg in a bowl. Brush the top of the pastry with the egg wash. This will give the puffs a nice golden color when baked.
8. Bake it until it has puffed up nicely & golden brown.  Take care not to overcook or else the bottom of the puffs may burn. Serve warm. Yum!

Sweet Puff Pastry Bites 

Now for those little strips of left over pastry, just roll or fold them up into little shapes as you like, bake until golden. Once cooled, dust them with some icing sugar to coat and devour! Yummy, yum yum!