Conversations & Creations · From my kitchen
Presenting … THE Chicken Bread! We had tea somewhere, and they served chicken bread with it. It was slightly raw on top, and the filling was a nondescript, overly spicy mass. But I craved the taste of chicken bread so much that I thought: now or never.
This is originally Shireen Anwar’s recipe. I guess almost all the chicken bread recipes you’ll find around Facebook are hers or modifications of it, and this one is too.
I’ve changed the dough ingredients to suit my own taste and experience. Since hers is widely available everywhere, I’m giving you my own ingredients and measurements, as well as my own filling.
Here goes, then:
Ingredients
- For the dough: 3½ cups plain flour, ½ cup Nido milk powder, 4 tablespoons soft butter, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon yeast, ¼ teaspoon caster sugar, 1 egg, lukewarm water as needed and 1 beaten egg for brushing
- For the filling: 500 g boneless chicken, 2 tablespoons butter, 2 tablespoons flour, milk as needed, salt, black pepper, white pepper, ground cumin and red chilli powder
Method
- Mix the flour, milk powder and salt. Rub in the soft butter until crumbly.
- Make a well in the centre. Add the yeast and sugar, then pour in lukewarm water. Cover and leave for 10 minutes until frothy.
- Add the egg and enough lukewarm water to make a soft, non-sticky dough. Cover and leave to rise until doubled; the original took about 2 hours.
- Boil and shred the chicken. Melt the butter in a pan, stir in the flour, then gradually add milk, stirring to make a smooth roux.
- Season the sauce with salt, black pepper, white pepper, cumin and red chilli. Taste and adjust. Stir in the shredded chicken, keeping the filling moist. Cool completely.
- Divide the dough into 6 portions. Roll each one out and add filling down the centre. Cut strips diagonally along both sides, then fold them over the filling in a criss-cross pattern.
- Brush with beaten egg. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 °C until cooked through and golden; use the top grill briefly for colour if needed.
The original notes do not give a milk quantity for the filling or an exact bake time; use enough milk to make a moist, thick filling and watch the bread as it browns.
