Brazil, the land of colourful carnivals, the Amazon rainforest, and most importantly Football. Soccer legends such as Pele, Ronaldo and Robinho all hail from this football crazy country. Brazil is currently ranked by FIFA as number one in the world and is the bookies favourite to lift the World Cup trophy in South Africa this year.
But, you are all aware that we are not here to discuss Brazil’s plaudits in Football – we are here to discover the delights of Brazilian Food!!
Brazil is a vast country – it’s the fifth largest country in the world to be exact, bordering every country in South America except Chile and Ecuador. Colonised by the Portuguese in the 15th Century, Brazilian food has a Portuguese influence to it. The dish that I have chosen is popular in both Brazil and Portugal.
Coxinha is a tasty little Brazilian snack often eaten at parties. It is made out of chicken which is shredded and cooked with a variety of spices, encased in a batter and deep fried. It is shaped to resemble a chicken drum stick and is literally translated to ‘little thigh’. We thought that these would make excellent little scrumptious treats to munch on whilst watching Brazil take on the world at Football.
INGREDIENTS:
3 chicken breasts
½ chopped onion
2 chopped cloves of garlic
6 tablespoon margarine
2 beef stock cubes
salt
ground pepper
3 cups plain flour
8oz cream cheese
2 eggs
Bread crumbs
PREPARE:
Put the chicken breast, chopped onion, garlic, beef bouillon, salt, ground pepper, margarine and 3 cups of water in to a pressure cooker. Place the pressure cooker in medium-heat. Chicken is ready 10 minutes after the regulator starts to blow steam.
(If you don’t have a pressure cooker, cut chicken breast into 2-inch cubes and cook with the same ingredients in a saucepan over medium-heat for about 30 minutes or until done.)
Scoop the chicken breast from the broth. Finely chop chicken breast to make the coxinha filling.
You can increment the filling with parsley, green onions. But do not add liquids to the filling.
Bring exactly 3 cups of the remaining broth to boil. Add the 3 cups of flour into the boiling water and stir vigorously with a wood spoon for about 1 minute until it becomes a dough. Take dough out of pan. When warm, knead dough until it becomes smooth and dissolve the flour lumps (about 10 minutes).
Flatten dough with a rolling pin to about ¼-inch thick and cut medium size circles with a biscuit cutter. Place the dough in your palm, place a small cube of cream cheese and a teaspoon of chicken filling previously prepared.
Dose the ingredients according to the size of the dough circle you cut so that you can close the dough with the filling inside. Knead scraps and re roll, repeat cutting circles until all dough is used.
Fold and close the dough in a shape of a drum stick Grease hands if necessary.
Baste the filled dough with egg whites and roll them over breadcrumb.
Deep-fry the snacks 350 °F for about 8 minutes or until golden brown.
SERVING SIZE: 60 bite size coxinhas or 30 mediums – to serve pop these little chicken bites into baking cases – YUM!!!!
Send us your pictures of Coxinhas that you have made at home.
