Coxinha (Fried Chicken Croquette)

Variations

• Coxinha com catupiry: with cream cheese alongside the chicken. Catupiry is a trademark dating from 1911 that has become effectively the generic name in this dish; a soft cream cheese is the nearest thing elsewhere.
• Bolinha shape: rounded, with no point. The dough and filling are the same whatever the shape.
• Mini coxinhas: one-bite size, the standard of a Brazilian party table (salgadinhos). Less filling for the surface area, so proportionally crisper.
• Vegetarian versions: jackfruit, mushroom or hearts of palm in place of the chicken. With no chicken there is no broth either, so the dough is made with vegetable stock and the savour has to be built back some other way (stocks and broth).
• Oven or air fryer: sprayed with oil and baked at 200C is widespread. The crust does not shatter the way a fried one does, but it works — and since the dough is already cooked, heating through is not a problem.
• The same idea elsewhere: empanadas and samosas wrap a filling in pastry and fry or bake it, and menchi katsu and gyukatsu share the breadcrumb coat. Only the coxinha cooks its dough first.
• Same country: pao de queijo, brigadeiro. The three together are the baseline Brazilian party table.
• The name and the legend: coxinha means "little thigh", and the shape imitates a chicken drumstick. The widely repeated story is that a cook in Limeira, Sao Paulo invented it for a royal child who would eat only chicken thigh — a good story with thin sourcing behind it.

Tips

• Cooking the dough on the heat is the whole dish. Flour beaten into boiling broth gelatinises its starch, which is what makes a dough that stays pliable when cool and can be pressed thin without tearing. An uncooked dough will not take this shape and will burst in the oil (thickening sauces).
• Broth, not water. By weight the dough is half the dish, so water makes half of it taste of nothing. Not throwing the poaching liquid away is rule one (stocks and broth).
• All the flour at once. Added in stages, the first part cooks before the rest and you get lumps. In while it boils, and beat immediately.
• Stop when it leaves the sides. Undercooked, the dough is sticky and will not shape; overcooked, it stiffens and cracks. One mass and a clean pan is the signal.
• Knead it warm. Cold dough cracks. Cool it only enough to handle, then work it, and keep what you are not using under a damp cloth (dough and gluten).
• Filling cold and dry. Warm or wet filling melts the dough from the inside. Cook the moisture off and let it cool; that is the order.
• Seal it with no gaps. A coxinha essentially fails in one way — it splits in the fryer, the filling comes out and the oil goes in. Press the edges together and leave no trapped air (wrapping and sealing).
• Chill 30 minutes after breading. Going into the oil firm is what holds the shape and keeps the coating on. Frozen at this stage they can be fried from frozen (freezing and thawing).
• Hold 175C. The inside is already cooked, so frying exists only to make the outside. Too cool and they take up oil in the little time they have; too hot and the colour goes past before the centre is warm (deep-frying, cooking oils).
• Do not crowd the pan. Once the oil temperature drops, the balance above goes with it. Three or four at a time, letting the heat come back between batches.
• Drain on a rack, not paper. On paper the underside steams and that one face goes soft.
• Reheat in the oven. A microwave turns the dough leathery. Eight minutes at 180C gets them close to fresh (reviving leftovers).