Monday 16 May 2011

Chicken Bread


I couldn’t appreciate the UK weather more; at least for the time being. UK has one of the worst weather histories where it becomes so unpredictable; it rains; wind blows, sun shines, all on the same day! But since past few weeks it has been so sunny almost every day. Even though it got chilly on and off, we had loads of sunshine with a very comfortable temperature. So unlike UK! It’s still May and usually we don’t get lot of sunshine during April- May and would have to wait until July. Long Days and short nights! I am so happy that I can shoot my pictures as late as 8:30 pm now at sun sets around 9 pm which is never possible during winter where the sun sets as early as 3:40pm!


Anyways, chicken bread was something that I have been eyeing for a long time at Fatii Naaz’s place. She is one of my Social Network buddies and I was flabbergasted by the variety of food she makes. I wanted to give this bread a try ever since I saw at her place and I have seen many great reviews from her friends and followers. I found this bread, a hassle free, easy and a fun to make recipe. I really enjoyed making the pleats on the bread and it looked stunning.


When it comes to bread making, I usually proof my yeast before kneading and have always been comfortable doing it that way. But in this recipe I haven’t done any yeast-proofing; instead all dry ingredients are mixed, which includes yeast and then is churned to dough adding wet ingredients. I was a bit sceptical doing it that way, but went ahead with the recipe as mentioned. And it works!



Chicken Bread
Serves 5-6 people

Ingredients for dough:
4 cups Plain Flour (630g)
1 tbsp Yeast
2 tbsp Powder milk
1 tsp Salt
4 tbsp Oil
1 Large Egg
1 tsp Caster sugar
1 1/3 cups Lukewarm water (Can add 1-2 Tablespoon if required)
1egg for egg wash
1 - 1 ½ teaspoons of sesame seeds for sprinkling

Ingredients for chicken filling:
750g Chicken with bone, boiled with ¼ teaspoon turmeric and shredded – around 1 ¾ - 2 cups
1 medium Onion chopped, ½ a cup, 70g
3/4 - 1 tsp Salt or as required
1 tsp Black pepper
2 tbsp Coriander leaves
2 Green chilies chopped
½ teaspoon Garam Masala Powder
½ of a small green capsicum finely chopped, 1/3 cup
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp Flour
2 tbsp Butter
¾ - 1 cup whole milk

Preparations:
For the dough:

1. In a bowl mix together flour, salt, caster sugar, milk powder and yeast. Mix well using a fork or a wire whisk.

2. Make a well in the centre and add a lightly beaten egg and oil and knead to a medium soft dough with water. Leave to rise for a minimum of 2 hours or until it rises to double the volume. Punch it back and divide the dough into 2 or 4 parts. If you want large loaf, divide to two parts, and if you want medium size loaf, divide to four parts. I divided into 2 parts but I got two massive loaves. I would be making these again, making sure to divide the dough to four parts and making 4 small ones.

For the filling and Assembling:



1. Heat butter in a saucepan. Sauté chopped onion and garlic till soft. Add capsicum and sauté again till it goes soft.

2. Add flour, salt, black pepper and sauté for 2-3 minutes on medium heat.

3. Take the pan off heat and add milk. Stir well using a wire whisk. Return back to heat and cook until it thickens for around 10 minutes by continuous stirring. Once it is thick, mix in shredded chicken, green chillies, garam masala and coriander leaves. It will be sticky at this point. But once it is cooled down completely, it will be fine.

4. Remove the filling from heat and let it cool down completely.

5. Meanwhile flour the working surface. I use a plastic sheet for this as it is easy to transfer the bread to the sheet for baking with ease. Roll the dough into rectangular shape to a thickness of 6mm – 1cm depending on how thick you like your bread. Place the filling in the centre of the dough, horizontally leaving around 2 ½ inch space on both ends.

6. Snip the edges with scissors or knife and fold each snipped part from each side so that they overlap each other, making beautiful pleats. Tuck the ends tightly. See the Pictorial representation for guidance.

7. Transfer the bread on a cookie sheet lined with baking paper. You can also place the rolled dough on the baking sheet, then do the filling and pleating on the sheet if you find harder to transfer the filled bread on to the sheet from teh work surface. Brush the top with 1 beaten egg, sprinkle sesame seeds and leave to rise for about 20 minutes.

8. Bake the bread at 190 degree C for 30 – 35 minutes or until it turns golden all over. Take it out of oven, brush all over with butter, whilst hot and let it rest for 5 minutes. Serve with roasted or boiled vegetables, Mayonnaise and ketchup.

22 comments:

Sumi said...

wow, its so beautiful :)

Rinku Naveen said...

Wow Shabs..This looks so good. Professionally done.
Do stop by my space when time permits.
Thanks

Reshmi Mahesh said...

Perfect looking bread...very delicious filling...

Sushma Mallya said...

wow Shabs thts a beautifully bake bread and lovely photography as well:)

Priya Suresh said...

Well done bread, looks marvellous and delicious..

Unknown said...

wow! the bread looks amazing! I'm kind of experimenting with yeast these days, I want to try this one also :)

Pushpa said...

Chicken bread has come out perfect.Awesome bake..

Khadija El Mary said...

wooooow! it's early in the morning and those photos make me feel hungrier than I am! Lovely technique and nice bread. Bravo!
Cheers,

Aarthi said...

This looks really good....And I have some awards waiting for you,in my blog..Please check that and collect that dear...
http://yummytummy-aarthi.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-first-awards.html

Hasna said...

hey...shabee...did u repost it.. or is it the same one??

btw...chicken bread luks awesome!!

? said...

Looks beautiful; and the filling could be tweaked in so many ways.

S said...

That looks really good...!!

Nitha said...

Lovely bread..

Mehjabeen Arif said...

Looks too good..

New to ur space and Happy to follow u

Do visit me as time permits
http://comeletseat.blogspot.com

Ushnish Ghosh said...

Dear Shabs
How are you? This is simply great , I can believe one can make this at home..looks so professional. But when you are at the kitchen it is possible for sure.I Dont bake any more so eating it virtually.
Have a nice week ahead

fatinaz said...

Thanks dear for trying :) Lovely MA looking super awesome !!! love u

Smoky Wok (formerly Tastes of Home) said...

very interesting bread! Thanks for sharing :)

Sanhita said...

You have a wonderful blog here. Tried this bread and it turned out awesome. I posted it on my blog.
http://tastebuds-sanhita.blogspot.com/2011/12/chicken-bread.html
Do drop in and check it out.
Happy Cooking!!

seena said...

Thanks shab, it looked so yummy I it tried with paneer filling and It came out well.

Anonymous said...

hai..it lukz so beautiful!!!

Prajna said...

This bread looks great.I want to skip egg and try it out. As I am vegeterian ,I want to add vegetable like gobhi or paneer. Can I do that ? what's the substitute for egg.

Noor Nazar said...

Made this today but used a different filling.. The bread was super soft and yummmmm! Thanks a lot for the post.

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