Coxinha

When we visited Diogo's dad Manoel last year in Chicago, he brought me some to try. They were delicious. In a way, its like taking a big ball of bread, putting a chicken mixture in the middle, rolling it in breadcrumbs, then frying it. Or, in a slight way, like a hush puppy with meat in the middle. SO YUM!I found this recipe on southamericanfood.about.com. It worked out very nice :)

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds chicken breasts (about 4 halves)

4-5 cups of chicken broth

1 onion

green onions

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoons butter

2 cloves garlic

Juice of 1 lime

1 8-ounce package of cream cheese, softened

2-3 cups of flour

2 eggs

2-3 cups of very finely grated bread crumbs

Vegetable oil for frying

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Place the chicken breasts in a large shallow pot. Cover them with the chicken broth, adding water if necessary to make sure the chicken breasts are covered by at least 1/2" of liquid. Add the onion (peeled and halved) as well as the bay leaves and diced garlic. Bring liquid to a gentle simmer, and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until chicken is just cooked through (barely pink in the middle of the thickest part). It's necessary to cut into the chicken to tell when it is done. If some of the breasts cook more quickly, you can remove them earlier.Set chicken aside to cool, and strain the broth.

Reserve broth.

Shred the chicken into very small pieces. Stir the softened cream cheese and lime juice into the shredded chicken. Finely chop the green onion and add to the chicken mixture and stir until everything is well mixed.

Measure the chicken broth (you will probably have about 3 1/2 cups). If you have less than three cups, add more canned chicken broth to make 3 cups. Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a saucepan, and gradually stir in the same amount of flour as you have broth (so if you have 3 1/2 cups broth, add 3 1/2 cups flour). Stir vigorously and cook for 2-3 minutes. Mixture will become a stiff dough. Remove from heat and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

At this point, you can chill the chicken mixture and the dough for several hours or overnight.

To shape the coxinhas, take a piece of the dough about the size of a golf ball with floured hands. Roll it into a ball, then hollow out the middle for the filling.Press a golfball size (about 1 1/2 tablespoons) piece of the chicken filling inside the ball of dough, and press the dough closed around the filling. Shape into an approximate drumstick shape, flouring hands as necessary. Stand the coxinhas on a baking sheet, so that the pointed end sticks upwards. Continue until you run out of dough or filling.

Whisk the eggs together in a bowl. Place the bread crumbs in a shallow pan (like a cake pan) and season with salt and pepper. Dip the coxinhas in the egg, then in the breadcrumbs to coat. Chill the breaded coxinhas for 1 hour. Fill a heavy-bottomed pot with enough oil to cover the coxinhas. Heat the oil to 360 degrees. Fry the coxinhas in batches until deep golden brown.

Serve warm.

Though this recipe is a little taxing, and takes a lot of time as you can plainly read, it is no less delicious and should be given the chance!!

TF