Coxinha de Frango com Catupiry

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy 4-liter pot for cooking the chicken
• •Wide heavy 3-liter pot or Dutch oven for the dough
• •Deep 4-liter pot for frying
• •Instant-read or frying thermometer
• •Spider or slotted spoon
• •Baking sheet for shaped coxinhas
• •Wire rack set over a tray

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook the chicken

   Put the chicken, water, quartered onion, bay leaves, and 1 teaspoon salt in a heavy pot. Bring to a boil, then lower to a gentle simmer and cook until the chicken pulls apart easily with two forks, about 25 to 30 minutes. This pot is doing two jobs: cooking the chicken and making the broth the dough will drink, so don't throw that liquid away.

2. 2

   Shred and strain

   Lift the chicken onto a plate and strain the broth into a measuring cup. You need 4 cups for the dough and 1/2 cup for the filling; if you're short, top up with water. Shred the chicken finely while it's warm, because fine shreds tuck into the dough instead of poking holes through it.

3. 3

   Build the filling

   Warm the oil in a wide pan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion and cook until soft and see-through, about 5 minutes, then add the garlic for 1 minute, just until you smell it. Stir in the tomato paste and black pepper until the paste darkens a little, then add the shredded chicken and 1/2 cup broth. Cook until moist but not wet, 3 to 4 minutes. The filling should hold together on a spoon; if it's soupy, it will burst the coxinha open in the oil.

   This is the refogado doing its work. Onion gets sweet, garlic gets fragrant, tomato paste loses its raw edge, and suddenly the chicken tastes like dinner instead of boiled chicken.
4. 4

   Finish and cool

   Turn off the heat and stir in the chopped parsley or scallions. Taste and adjust the salt. Spread the filling on a plate so it cools faster. Warm filling melts the requeijão too soon, and then you have leaks. Delicious leaks, but still leaks.

5. 5

   Cook the dough

   In a wide heavy pot, bring 4 cups strained broth and the butter to a boil. Taste the broth; if it tastes flat, add another pinch of salt. Add all the flour at once and stir hard with a sturdy spoon over medium-low heat. It will look lumpy and rude for the first minute. Keep going until it forms one smooth ball, pulls away from the sides, and leaves a thin film on the bottom of the pot, about 4 to 5 minutes. Cooking the flour long enough removes the raw taste and gives the dough the stretch to hold its shape.

6. 6

   Knead it smooth

   Turn the hot dough onto a lightly oiled counter and let it sit until you can touch it without swearing, about 5 minutes. Knead for 2 to 3 minutes, until smooth and flexible. Cover with a clean towel. Don't dust the counter with flour here; extra flour toughens the dough and makes the shell crack.

7. 7

   Portion the dough

   Divide the dough into 30 balls, about 2 tablespoons each, and keep them covered while you work. Same-size balls are not fussiness. They fry at the same pace, which means the first one and the last one both come out golden instead of one pale and one dark.

8. 8

   Fill and shape

   Flatten one dough ball into a round cup in your palm, leaving the center a little thicker than the edges. Add about 1 tablespoon chicken filling and 1 teaspoon chilled Catupiry-style requeijão. Pinch the dough closed over the filling, then roll and taper one end into the classic little teardrop. If it tears, patch it with a pinch of dough and move on. Drama is for people who don't have snacks to fry.

   Do not overfill. A generous heart is beautiful at the table and inconvenient inside frying oil. The filling needs room, or it pushes through the dough.
9. 9

   Bread the coxinhas

   Beat the eggs with the milk in a shallow bowl. Put the breadcrumbs in another bowl. Dip each coxinha in the egg mixture, let the excess drip off, then roll in breadcrumbs and press gently so the crumb sticks evenly. Set them on a tray and chill for 20 minutes. That short rest firms the dough and sets the crust, so the coxinha behaves when it hits the oil.

10. 10

    Fry until golden

    Heat 2 inches of oil in a deep pot to 170 to 175°C, 340 to 350°F. Fry 4 or 5 coxinhas at a time, turning now and then, until evenly deep golden, about 3 to 4 minutes. Crowd the pot and the oil temperature drops; then the crust drinks oil, softens, and cracks. A thermometer makes you calm. Without one, a pinch of breadcrumbs should sizzle right away and brown in about 45 seconds, not burn black.

11. 11

    Drain and serve

    Lift the coxinhas out with a spider or slotted spoon and drain on a rack set over a tray. Let them rest 5 minutes before biting, because the creamy middle holds heat and nobody needs a burned tongue proving a point. Serve warm, with molho de pimenta if your house likes it.

Chef Tips

• •Use the broth from cooking the chicken. That's not a detail, that's the flavor of the dough. A cube or packet tastes loud and flat, like salt wearing perfume, and it won't give you the same coxinha.
• •Catupiry-style requeijão needs to be firm, not runny. If yours is soft, chill it hard or pipe little teaspoons onto a plate and freeze for 15 minutes before filling. Cold filling stays where you put it.
• •Fine breadcrumbs make the classic even shell. Panko is lovely somewhere else, but here it gives a rough crust that doesn't feel like the bakery coxinha a gente knows.
• •The honest Tuesday shortcut: use leftover home-cooked chicken and a good unsalted boxed broth. It won't smell as rich as your own chicken pot, but it gets dinner moving. The shortcut I won't hand you is powdered chicken pretending to be food.
• •Freeze them after breading, before frying. Put the tray in the freezer until solid, then bag them. Fry from frozen at 170°C, 340°F, adding 2 to 3 minutes, and cut one open from the first batch to check the center is hot.

Advance Preparation

• •The chicken filling can be made up to 2 days ahead and kept covered in the fridge.
• •The dough can be made a few hours ahead, wrapped well, and kept at room temperature until shaping.
• •Breaded uncooked coxinhas freeze for up to 2 months. Freeze on a tray first, then transfer to bags so they don't stick together.
• •Fry frozen coxinhas straight from the freezer. Do not thaw, or condensation softens the crust before it reaches the oil.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 90g)