Coxinha (pronounced Co-sheen-ya)

*Note: This is another one of my all-time favorites. I haven't had one of these for about 16 years. You can buy these at any good padaria in Sao Paulo. I think they're Lebanese in origin.

Ingredients :

3 boneless chicken breast ½ chopped onion 2 chopped cloves of garlic 6 tablespoon margarine 2 cubes beef bouillon salt ground pepper 3 cups all-purpose flour 1 (8oz) cream cheese 2 eggs Bread crumb

How to Prepare :

Combine chicken breast, chopped onion, garlic, beef bouillon, salt, ground pepper, margarine and 3 cups of water in a pressure cooker. Place the pressure cooker in medium-heat. Chicken is ready 10 minutes after the regulator starts to blow steam. (If you don’t have a pressure cooker, cut chicken breast into 2-inch cubes and cook with the same ingredients in a saucepan over medium-heat for about 30 minutes or until done.) Remove chicken breast from broth. Finely chop chicken breast to make the coxinha filling. You can increment the filling with parsley, green onions. But do not add liquids to the filling. Bring exactly 3 cups of the remaining broth to boil. Add the 3 cups of flour into the boiling water and stir vigorously with a wood spoon for about 1 minute until it becomes dough. Take dough out of pan. When warm, knead dough until it becomes smooth and dissolve the flour lumps (about 10 minutes). Flatten dough with a rolling pin to about ¼-inch thick and cut medium size circles with a biscuit cutter. Place the dough in your palm, place a small cube of cream cheese and a teaspoon of chicken filling previously prepared. Dose the ingredients according to the size of the dough circle you cut so that you can close the dough with the filling inside. Knead scraps and re roll, repeat cutting circles until all dough is used. Fold and close the dough in a shape of a drum stick (a little chicken drum stick in Portuguese translate to "coxinha"). Grease hands if necessary. Baste the filled dough with egg whites and roll them over breadcrumb. Deep-fry the snacks 350 °F for about 8 minutes or until golden brown. Place in baking cups and serve with guarana.