Coxinha

Today is good day for recipes. I’m giving you the recipe for coxinha and I’ll talk a little more about it.

I already told you the coxinha story, so what am I missing? The recipe, of course!

Especially because I said that is easy to make, you can in fact make it anywhere in the world.

The important thing is to have the right ingredients. And what do I mean about that?

Well, the best chicken stock you can make is by using the whole chicken, with bones and all. And considering that you will use the chicken stock in the dough, then making a good one is very important. So, it’s a good idea to use a chicken with bones, or just the chicken breast, but with bones!

Second, the chicken should be cooked for a long time, but you don’t have to stay there all the time. Just be patient and check the pan every 20 to 30 minutes to add more water.

Third, some believe that there is no requeijão (a type of cheese spread) outside Brazil. Wrong! What is really hard to find is catupiry (another type of cheese spread), and that’s why my recipe doesn’t have catupiry, so anyone can do it.

If you find catupiry, just substitute in the recipe, in the same proportion as requeijão. Otherwise, use requeijão, because it works wonderfully.

Actually, in case you don’t know Arabs have a version of requeijão, very similar to the Brazilian one. So if you’re in Europe or in the US, just look for this type of cheese spread in specialty stores. Simple as that.

In case you can’t find anything like requeijão, use cream cheese. It won’t produce the same results, but it works in a way.

And lastly, about cornflour. The original recipe is made with cornflour, because corn is an american cereal (it originated here, throughout the continent), and for that reason it is easily found everywhere in the Americas. That’s why corn and corn products were and are widely used in a several recipes.

But it works with all purpose flour, actually, nowadays it is easier to find coxinha made with all purpose flour than with cornflour.

OK, enough with the explanations and descriptions! Let’s go to the recipe!

Chicken Coxinha

Ingredients dough

500g all-purpose flour, sifted

500mL chicken stock

250mL water

1 tablespoon of salt

Ingredients filling

750g chicken breast with bones

500g requeijão

2 large cloves of garlic

1 tablespoon of oil

1 tablespoon of salt

3 tablespoons of chopped flat leaf parsley

Coating and Frying

750g fine bread crumbs

400mL milk

3 eggs

Oil for frying

Method:

1. Start with the filling. In a pan, put the chicken with 1L of water and the salt and let it cook slowly at low heat for 2 hours. At every 20 to 30 minutes check the water quantity in the pan. If necessary, add more water.
2. After this time, take it off the heat and let it cool down. Put the chicken on a plate and keep the chicken stock.
3. Check that there is around 500mL of chicken stock, if you have less than that, add water to complete 500mL. If you have more than that, add a smaller quantity of water to the dough. The total volume of liquids (water+chicken stock) should be 750mL for the dough.
4. Put the liquids (water+chicken stock) in a pan and let it boil. Make sure you have the sifted flour and salt ready.
5. As soon as the liquids boil, add the dry ingredients and mix them well, until you have a homogeneous dough.
6. Take it off the heat and let them cool down.
7. Shred the chicken meat.
8. Chop the garlic. Put it in a pan with 1 tablespoon of oil and fry it until it’s golden. Add the chicken and mix it well.
9. Take it off the heat, then add the chopped parsley and mix it well.
10. Lastly, mix in the requeijão and set aside.
11. Lightly beat the eggs with the milk in a bowl. In another bowl put the bread crumbs.
12. Portion the dough into 30g portions.
13. Put one portion in the palm of your hand and make a disc. Then, add 3/4 of a tablespoon of filling to the center of the disc.
14. Close the dough, making a tip at the top, like a teardrop shape.
15. Dive the snack in the milk mix, then roll it in bread crumbs.
16. Repeat the process for all the other dough portions.
17. Put lots of oil in a pan, around 4 fingers high, and warm it up.
18. When the oil is hot, fry the coxinhas until they look golden.
19. Take them off and strain them in paper towel.
20. Serve them while they are still warm.

Nowadays there aren’t just chicken coxinhas, you can pretty much fill the dough with anything savory. So if you’re feeling a bit creative, try out your own filling and always use some kind of stock to prepare the dough. For example, if you want to make a vegan coxinha, use vegetable stock in the dough. And have fun creating your own flavors!