Chicken Samosas

This recipe makes lovely Chicken Samosas, with a spicy filling and a golden crunchy pastry, serve them with some yoghurt, raita and chutney. When making the filling think of a samosa as being a mini pasty, and as such all the ingredients need to be chopped equally small to scale down and be in keeping to be proportional.

Chicken Samosas Recipe

Makes 10 samosas

Recipe Ingredients:

• 2 large chicken breasts
• 1 tbsp medium-hot curry paste
• 1 tbsp yoghurt
• 300g potatoes (peeled cut into small dice)
• 2 tbsp vegetable or sunflower oil
• 1 small onion (very finely diced)
• 4 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 green chilli (de-seeded and finely chopped)
• 75g small peas (fresh or frozen)
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 10 curry leaves (roughly chopped)
• 2 tbsp coriander leaves (chopped)

for the spice blend

• 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
• 2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
• 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
• 1 tsp sea salt

samosa pastry

• 270g plain flour
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 tsp vegetable or sunflower oil
• 1 egg (separated)
• 100ml warm water (to bind)

for frying

• plenty of vegetable or sunflower oil for deep frying

Recipe Method:

In a small heat-proof baking dish mix in the curry paste with the yoghurt – put in the chicken breasts and coat them with the yoghurt and curry paste mixture, cover and leave in the fridge to marinate for an hour.

For the pastry: Separate the yolk from the egg white – reserve the egg white for later, cover and place it in the fridge. Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and stir in the salt. Using your finger-tips work in the oil and egg yolk, until the mixture has a breadcrumb-like texture. Gradually mix in the water to form a stiff and silky-elastic dough – adding more or less water to get a workable texture. Knead this samosa dough very gently for a few minutes, then wrap in clingfilm and chill in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 190°C

Put the marinated chicken in the baking dish in the oven for 20 minutes at 190C. Remove from the oven, leave to cool, then chop into tiny bite-sized chunks.

Peel and boil the potatoes for about 15 minutes, or until tender, covered in salted water. Drain them and set them aside to cool. When cooled dice them finely (they need to be small).

In a spice grinder (or pestle and mortar) add the spices for the spice blend – grind to powder.

In a heavy based, non-stick, frying-pan heat 2 tablespoons of oil and gently sweat the finely diced onion until it is soft and translucent (not brown). Add the spice blend and fry for a minute. Then add the minced garlic, curry leaves, and finely sliced green chili and sauté for another 2 minutes.

Add the diced potato and mix these in well, but gently, coating them in the spices. Fry over a low heat for another 5 minutes. Add the peas and cook gently for 3 minutes. Finally add in the chicken, the lemon juice and coriander – coat everything – cook for a few minutes, and check the spicing (adjust). Set aside to cool completely.

Making the samosas: Take the dough out of the fridge and roll out the pastry on a lightly floured work space to the thickness of 7mm. Take a small plate and cut round it and then cut the circle in half.

Pick up one half-disc of pastry and make a cone shape, making sure the edges of the cone overlap, then use your fingers to squash the edges gently together to seal them. Spoon some of the cooled samosa filling into the cone, until it is about three-quarters full – if you overfill them you risk them splitting open when frying. Brush the top edge with some of the reserved egg white and pinch the top edge together to seal in the fifing. Repeat until you have used up all the filling and all the samosas are made (between 10 and 12).

In a large, tall sided and non-stick saucepan (or a purpose built deep-fat fryer) heat the oil to 180°C. The oil needs to be deep enough to submerge the samosas in. ! Always be careful when deep fat frying and never leave it unattended ! Deep fry the samosas for about 5 minutes – until they are golden and the pastry has become crunchy. Remove with a wide slotted spoon or a metal draining implement – shake off the excess oil, and place on some kitchen paper to drain. Allow to cool and serve.