Samsa is a very popular dish in Central Asian cuisine. It is often made with lamb and tail fat, as well as with chicken, pumpkin, or greens. The dough used for samsa is typically puff pastry. To make this dough, you usually start by kneading flour with water, then roll the resulting dough into a very thin, almost transparent sheet across the entire width of your table, brush it with butter or fat, and carefully roll it up into a log. All in all, it's not the easiest task. I decided to try making the puff pastry for samsa using a simplified method — and it paid off. The samsa turned out fantastic: thin, crispy, flaky pastry with a tender, fragrant chicken filling. Makes 14 pieces.
Ingredients:
- 250 g flour
- 100 g butter
- 700 g chicken (2 leg quarters)
- 200 g onion
- egg yolk for brushing
- sesame seeds for sprinkling (optional)
- salt
- pepper
How to cook chicken samsa
Make the dough. Place the flour and 1/3 tsp salt into a bowl. Grate the butter (straight from the fridge) on a coarse grater into the same bowl. Stir it into the flour occasionally to keep the pieces from clumping together.
Mix well, then pour in 100 ml of cold water. Gather the dough into a ball with your hands (do not over-knead). Refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer.
Cut the meat off the leg quarters and chop it finely (leave the fat in to keep the samsa juicy). From 700 g I ended up with about 500 g of chicken meat.
Place the onion and chicken in a bowl, add salt (I used 1/2 tsp), and season generously with pepper. Mix well.
Shape the samsa. Divide the dough in half and return one half to the fridge. Roll the second half into a thick log and cut it into 7 pieces.
Flatten each piece of dough with your hands. Then roll it out into a thin circle about 12 cm in diameter (dust with flour as needed).
Arrange the shaped pieces on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Add a spoonful of water to the egg yolk and beat together. Brush the pieces with the egg wash.
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