Description
spicy and succulent chunks of chicken wrapped in crispy pastry
Ingredients
Units
Scale
- For Marination
- 650 grams - Chicken thigh fillet
- 2-3 tsp salt (adjust as per taste)
- 2 tsp - Tandoori powder (optional) *
- 1/2 a Lemon - Lemon Juice
- 2 tsp - Concentrated Tomato puree (I use Cirio brand)
- 1 1/2 tsp - Tomato Ketchup (I use Heinz)
- 1 tsp Olive Oil
- 2 tsp - Harissa paste
- 1 1/2 - Ginger Garlic paste
- 2 tbsp - Natural Set Yoghurt
- 75 ml (3 tsp) - Gin
- For Filling
- 2 - Brown Onions, medium sized and thinly sliced
- 1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder (optional)
- 1/2 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