Chicken tikka is nation's favourite dish and wherver you go in UK you will definitely see it on the menu of every takeaway and most Indian restaurants. Every family has their own recipe and style of making it and this dish is my version by wrapping it in a shortcrust pastry. I give you delicious Chicken Tikka Empanada , delicious morsels of chicken marinated with fragrant spices and Brockman's Gin. Empanada is a type of baked crispy pastry usually filled with savoury fillings of your choice, this is usually found in Latin American , South American and and lot of South Asian cooking too. We in Mangalore , southern state of Karnataka in India make a sweet version of empanada for Christmas so I thought of giving it a savoury twist by filling it with my spicy chicken tikka. I have given you a shortcut way of using readymade one to save time but ofcourse making your own is very satisfying too.
I created this recipe for Brockmans Gin. I not only love the blackberry notes to this gin but also their beautifully designed bottle. When they approached me to come up with a recipe, the first thing that came to my mind was summer barbecue party. The kind where you have many different kinds of finger food, cocktails, burgers, the works. You have to think really hard about what are you going to take to this party or if you are hosting one then the dilemma continues on what can you do differently. I can't imagine of anything to beat a crispy pastry filled with succulent bites of spicy chicken. Why not gets kids and adults involved too, it will be fun sealing and making patterns on pastry together. I usually marinade and freeze these so I can make them when short on time, they make a lovely accompaniment with any type of cous-cous , in a makhani gravy or even in a salad.
If you are pressed for time then you could serve the chicken with a side of lovely summer salad. Just put together some watercress, rocket leaves, olives, feta and cranberries; toss them with a honey mustard dressing. Hope you enjoy making them and have a lovely summer with a gorgeous cocktail to go with it.
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Chicken Tikka Empanada
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 50 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 mins
- Yield: 14 1x
- Category: Savoury
- Cuisine: Indian
Description
spicy and succulent chunks of chicken wrapped in crispy pastry
Ingredients
- For Marination
- 650 grams - Chicken thigh fillet
- 2-3 tsp salt (adjust as per taste)
- 2 tsp - Tandoori powder (optional) *
- ½ a Lemon - Lemon Juice
- 2 tsp - Concentrated Tomato puree (I use Cirio brand)
- 1 ½ tsp - Tomato Ketchup (I use Heinz)
- 1 tsp Olive Oil
- 2 tsp - Harissa paste
- 1 ½ - Ginger Garlic paste
- 2 tbsp - Natural Set Yoghurt
- 75 ml (3 tsp) - Gin
- For Filling
- 2 - Brown Onions, medium sized and thinly sliced
- ½ tsp - Turmeric powder (optional)
- ½ cup - Coriander leaves, finely chopped
- 2 tsp - Nigella seeds (optional)
- For Dough
- 2 x 320 g - Ready rolled shortcrust Pastry (I use JusRol)
Instructions
- Measure and prepare the marination in a bowl and keep aside
- Cut the chicken thigh fillets into thumb sized pieces and marinate them with the paste made in step 1 for minimum of 1 hour, preferably overnight.
- Fry thinly sliced onions till golden brown and towards the end add ½ tsp turmeric powder and sauté for ½ a minute more. If Turmeric is not available it is okay to leave this out. Once fried set them aside for later.
- Fry the marinated chicken on a really hot griddle pan until well done or alternatively roast it in the oven on 190 degrees for 30 to 40 mins or until cooked through. Take care not to overcook the chicken or else it will dry out as we need to use this inside pastry case.
- Once the cooked chicken has cooled down, chop it up in tiny chunks for ease of filling later
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (Gas Mark 6)
- Unroll each pastry sheet, then use a 10cm circle cutter to cut out circles of pastry (alternatively you can also use a breakfast bowl). You should get 7 from each pastry sheet if you re-roll the trimmings.
- Spoon 1 tbsp of chicken tikka chunks, some fried onions and chopped coriander leaves. Fold over one half of the pastry, and seal by pinching the edge with your fingers, until you have 14 empanadas. Take a fork and press it down the edges to make a pattern. Arrange on a baking parchment-lined tray, brush the rest of the egg over and scatter with Nigella seeds (if you don’t have this handy then substitute with cumin seeds or leave it out).
- Bake the shaped empanadas for 20-25 minutes until golden and crisp. Serve it Sriracha sauce or hot garlic sauce of any kind.
Notes
*Note - Tandoori powder is readily available these days from supermarket or Continental shops, if it isn’t available then you can leave this out
Keywords: chicken tikka empanadas
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