Chicken Mince Cocktail Samosas
Fernando Vargas
How often do you rant because you decide to make something that takes up hours of work, leaves you in throws of misery, & yet plants a BIG smile on your face afterwards? After so much of a sugar high, a savoury platter does feel good. I wanted to try making savoury tuiles too for the Daring Bakers challenge for January ’09, but somehow, it never ‘happened‘. All I managed were the sweet version here. Happily though, these crisp, yummy pastry bites called SAMOSAS ‘happened’ a short while ago though. 
These are wonderful, crisp, deep-fried, YES deep-fried, Chicken Mince Cocktail Samosas. Samosas are typically Indian street food, & you will find fresh samosas being fried at every corner you go around, or at a ‘Halwai’ – an Indian sweet-maker, baker & deep-fryer! LOL. Usually stuffed with a mixture of boiled potatoes, peas, raisins, cashew nuts & cottage-cheese, given a mighty kick with Indian masalas/spices & some green chilies thrown in, samosas are deep-fried Indian pastry. They are very enjoyable indeed on a cold winter day, even better on a rainy day. As most street food in India is usually vegetarian, it isn’t often that you will find non-vegetarian fare on the street. 
Yet, chicken mince is a popular & much loved filling in this Indian pastry, often served as cocktail snacks at parties, especially weddings. The normal accompaniment is a Green Chutney, or a Tamarind Chutney. My kids devour these absolutely delicious bites with a Yogurt-Coriander-Garlic Dip! Aaaaaah, the flavours of Asia! 
This recipe is a wonderful one, that comes from my dear friend who is knee deep in snow in Ukraine at the moment. We were chatting some time back, & she was groaning under the weight of having to make 40 samosas (regular big sized ones) for a school fund-raiser. She volunteered (stupidly) to make them, & then she saw herself rolling pastry till kingdom came. I told her she was a fool to get talked into doing all the dirty work… blah blah blah blah blah… Pretty soon, one fine day, madness struck me, & I decided to make them. Lunacy hit me in greater proportions though, because I talked myself into making small mini samosas, or ‘cocktail samosas’ as they are called. Mini samosas = Much more work! 
Roll, baby, roll…
O woebegone me. I cursed myself, cursed her, cursed whichever poor soul crossed my path that day. It ain’t no easy task to roll so many small ones out, & then try & stuff the blighters…but HEY, I did it! What satisfaction once I was all done. Be forewarned that it is a load of hard-work, & you can use spring roll wrappers to make life easier for you. But once done, & a batch fried, it was well worth every bit of effort. Scrumptious treat in every bite. The mince was delicately flavoured; no spices/masalas; just right! These are best served hot, just like French fries…
CHICKEN COCKTAIL SAMOSAS
Filling
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Rub the clarified butter into the plain flour with your fingertips to distribute it evenly. Gradually add water & bring the dough together. Knead it till its firm & smooth, & leave to rest for about 30 minutes.
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A firm dough is important to get a crisp, thin, almost translucent pastry.
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Heat 2-3 tbsps of oil in a pan. Sweat the onion & garlic for 2-3 minutes, till translucent.
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Add the mince & saute on high heat till cooked through & dry.
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Add the coriander + green chilies + salt to taste. Make sure the water is completely dry or the samosas will get soggy.
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Once done, cool the filling completely. (The filling can be made a day in advance)
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Pinch a small piece of dough, make a ball & roll it out as thin as you can (dust with as little dry flour as possible).
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Cut out circles with a 3″ cookie cutter. To make triangles, half the circles. To make semi-circles or small balls, leave them uncut.
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Place a teaspoon of filling in the centre of each & fold as desired, sealing the edges firmly with a little water. Make sure you seal them well, or the filling will spill out while frying.
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Heat the oil in a deep heavy bottom pan/wok/kadhai to almost smoking (just like you do for doughnuts), & fry in small batches till light brown. At this stage you can remove from oil, cool & freeze for later use, or continue to fry till golden brown. Once golden brown, place on paper towels for 5-10 seconds for extra oil to be absorbed. Serve HOT with a chutney, green or tamarind, or with a Cilantro-yogurt dip.
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Recipe for Green Coriander-Mint Chutney here
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Recipe for Yogurt-Coriander-Garlic Dip here
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Note: The recipe makes a largish batch of almost 60-80 small samosas, so you can use half, & freeze half for later.
Alternate filling suggestions: Crumbled cottage cheese; boiled/mashed & spiced potatoes, any other mince; cooked/sauteed/mashed lentils. Maybe even a sweet filling like marzipan & poppy seed, dehydrated berries, raisins & firm cheese.
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Deeba @ PAB
About me: I am a freelance food writer, recipe developer and photographer. Food is my passion - baking, cooking, developing recipes, making recipes healthier, using fresh seasonal produce and local products, keeping a check on my carbon footprint and being a responsible foodie! I enjoy food styling, food photography, recipe development and product reviews. I express this through my food photographs which I style and the recipes I blog. My strength lies in 'Doing Food From Scratch'; it must taste as good as it looks, and be healthy too. Baking in India, often my biggest challenge is the non-availability of baking ingredients, and this has now become a platform to get creative on. I enjoy cooking immensely as well.
28 Comments
Purnima
AH..Paradise, its raining out, I m drooling at ur pics..how beautifully golden they hv turned! I m not in for hard work, though making this yum filling n baking it as puff wont hurt LOL..which is precisely what I wd do for today evening..:D I still have hrs to go! 🙂 THey look amazzzzzing Deeba! Very delicious, pretty dainty! Me too prefer veg. samosa. Tks for the recipe of filling n collage is such an art!
Elra
Oh, I can almost smell them all the way here. I’ll eat bunch of this with my favorite coriander-mint chutney of course.
Absolutely delicious, Deeba!
Cheers,
Elra
Komal-Nishka
So yummmmmyyy, my stomach’s rolling just looking at them.. 🙂
Snooky doodle
so so good!!! i’m drooling 🙂
Chhoti
Looks delecious hon!! Hard work alright.. :)) Gotta do a second round soon…though wish i had that mint chutney to go with it!lol chhoti
Latha
they are sooo pretty, Deeba:) i’m a vegetarian but you have given enough suggestions for fillings… i’m hungry again (we just had lunch). I cannot make it out clearly in the collage but how did you seal them so perfectly? please share the tip:)
meeso
You certainly did work your butt off with all those samosas, but I can tell just by looking that it was SO worth it! I like your three little shapes 🙂
Happy cook
For me making samosas takes hours and hours.
I have not made them for years.
My hubby and daughter always ask me when am i going to make them and i am like hell i don’t want to be in the kitchen for hours.
These ones look so yumm and crunchy delicious.
Manggy
Well, good that it paid off then 🙂 I love samosas, but I prefer a sweet chutney myself 🙂
lisa (dandysugar)
Mmm. These a really one of my favorite snacks. I tried making them once and it was work, I tell you! I think I might try again using your posted recipe. A delicous beautiful presentation once again!
noble pig
Okay I love samosas. I have never made them myself and have always wanted to. Very beautifully presented Deeba.
Dragon
These beauties are absolutely stunning!
Mary
in front of something really delicious i don’t think anyone will be worring about the calories….too nice, yummy …cheers!
Meg
Beautiful samosas. I am so impressed!
Netts Nook
I bet they taste as good as they look yum yum.
Rosie
Oooooo beautiful samosas Deeba! Even if the calories were huge i’d still try these little beauties!!
Rosie x
Bunny
Deeba these are wonderful! I love the pictures, you can see how wonderfully crisp and brown they are!
A_and_N
Considering the weather here, I’d love to have some now! 🙂
Nachiketa
Congrats, baker turned halwai…. 🙂
U even did shapes….
Awesome….
noobcook
so cute in all 3 shapes! I love savoury snacks like these 🙂
Bellini Valli
I would thoroughly enjoy these Deeba!D
Kate
i have such a weakness for samosa’s ! Mutton keema being my favourite, but these look equally great ! The step ny step guide is really helpful, specially for the non desi readers !
Mike of Mike's Table
Ooo this would be a dangerous thing for me to do at home. My wife and I are both suckers for samosas and I imagine I’d be on the hook to make these everyday. THey look amazing!
Clumbsy Cookie
I loooooooooooooove samoosas!
Vera
They look mouthwatering, Deeba!
Purnima
Deeba, inspired frm here, I tweaked the recipe for filling, stuffed it in pastry dough n baked it, chicken puffs came out lipsmacking tasty..tks to idea from you! I hv got ‘pls make some-more again’ frm people who had it! 😀 tks to you!! HUGS to you!
Arlette
Oh these are good, and sounds extremely delicious.
never tried meat version samosas
i bookmarked the recipe to try it one day.