This recipe is for proper Punjabi style chicken samosas.
Who doesn’t love a good chicken samosa? They’re good at curry houses but it’s only the best restaurants and food stalls that make their chicken samosas like I’m going to show you below. Although you could skip to the recipe, you might want to look at the step by step photos I have for you below, which demonstrate exactly how these delicious chicken samosas and beef samosas are prepared.
What are Punjabi style chicken samosas?
When you try these chicken samosas, you’ll know there is something special about them. They are so much better than what you find at most curry houses.
What makes them ‘Punjabi’ is the way you prepare the samosa pastry and how you wrap the samosas along with the spices you use in the chicken filling and ajwain (carom) spiced pastry.
Do you have to make your own samosa pastry?
Yes, but you can cheat if time is an issue. These chicken samosas take a while to prepare but you will be well rewarded when they’re done.
If time isn’t something you have a lot of, go ahead and use shop-bought samosa wrappers. Your chicken samosas won’t be Punjabi samosas but they will still be delicious filled with the chicken. You will find step by step instructions on how to fold samosas with shop-bought samosa wrappers in my easy veggie samosa recipe here.
How do you cook Punjabi chicken samosas?
When you try this chicken samosa recipe, you will be making amazing samosas just like they are in the Punjab!
The prepared samosas are first lowered into hot but not boiling oil.
You then slowly cook them in the oil for about 8 minutes before raising the heat to high to finish them off.
If you think this might produce soggy and oily chicken samosas, don’t worry! This cooking technique gets the best, most crispy and flaky samosas.
How hot should you get the oil before you start frying?
You just need to heat sufficient oil in a large high sided pan. You know your oil is ready for cooking when you drop a piece of pastry in it and it rises to the top slowly with just a few bubbles around it.
If you have cooked chicken samosas in hotter oil in the past, please trust me here. You are headed for chicken samosa heaven.
Also don’t worry about overcrowding the pan. Cook as many chicken samosas as you can in one layer as you don’t want that oil to get too hot initially.
How do you cook shop-bought samosas and samosas wrapped in shop-bought pastry.
This oil is way to cool to cook shop-bought or samosas prepared with frozen wrappers. For homemade pastry, you will find it the perfect temperature.
For shop-bought samosa wrappers you should wait for the oil to get very hot so that when you add them, they bubble up quickly like you would if frying battered fish.
Why do you cook these chicken samosas in oil that isn’t really hot?
You do this to ensure that the pastry cooks through and the chicken filling becomes hot. If you just throw your samosas into boiling hot oil, they will cook quickly and look great on the exterior but the pastry will not cook through correctly. The filling may not be hot enough for your liking either.
Remember, you are using pastry that is thicker than the wrappers you purchase. This pastry needs time to cook through and become crispy.
Can you work ahead?
Yes you can. You can prepare the chicken samosa filling a couple of days in advance of folding and frying the samosas.
You can also prepare the pastry a day or two ahead of rolling it out. Just be sure to cover and store in the fridge until you’re ready to start cooking. Then you should allow the pastry to come to room temperature for easier rolling.
You can also prepare the whole chicken samosa recipe up to the frying step. Cover the uncooked chicken samosas and place them in the fridge until you are ready to fry.
Can chicken samosas be frozen?
Yes. For best results, prepare your chicken samosas but don’t fry them. Place the chicken samosas in an air-tight container in the freezer.
They keep for a good 6 months.
When you are ready to fry your samosas, take them out of your freezer and let them defrost completely before frying.
Can you do anything with leftover Punjabi samosas?
Yep and you are going to love this! You’ve simply got to try my samosa chaat recipe.
Samosa chaat is an excellent way of giving new life to leftover chicken samosas. Just heat them up in a low oven or give them another quick fry.
For that matter, samosa chaat is an amazing and memorable way to serve your freshly prepared chicken samosas.
What is the cooking process for chicken samosas?
- Prepare the chicken samosa filling. This can be done a couple of days ahead of cooking.
- Make the samosa pastry. You can do this one or two days ahead of cooking.
- Roll out the pastry and fold your samosas.
- Fry those samosas to perfection following the instructions below.
Do you have to make this exact chicken filling?
Absolutely not! Use this samosa recipe as a guide but feel free to add more or less of any ingredient to taste.
The thing is, you can fill these samosas with whatever you like.
What do you serve with these samosas?
Don’t serve these delicious samosas on their own! You need a good dip and I have you covered! Try mint and coriander chutney, curry house style onion chutney, Indian mint sauce , spicy yoghurt sauce and tamarind chutney.
Chicken samosas are of course a great way to start off a curry feast. Why not try some of these new one pot curry house style curries?
You might also like another good starter to go with those homemade chutneys. Try curry house style onion bhajis, baked onion bhajis or air fryer onion bhajis. Or go for a another firm favourite, lamb seekh kebabs or chicken seekh kebabs. While that oil is hot for your samosas, you might like to add a few chicken pakoras!
Step by step photos of wrapping and cooking chicken samosas
Pour you flour, salt and ajwain seeds into a mixing bowl. The add the oil.
Mix the flour and oil with your hands. It will become crumbly. Time to add a little water.
Very slowly add water until you can work the flour into a firm, not soft dough ball. About 6 tbsp should do but you might need a little more or less.
Roll the dough out into a long snake shape and divide into 10 equal (roughly) sized pieces.
Roll one of the small dough balls out into a circular shape that is slightly flatter than a tortilla. No need to make a perfect circle!
Slice the circle into two equal halves. Take one of the half circles and wet the edges with water. Bring the corners together and overlap some to make a triangular shape. Lightly press to seal.
Fill the samosa pocket with the chicken mixture. Then make a small pleat opposite the seam.
Seal the top by pressing it together. A drop of water on your hand will help. The pleat in the back looks like this.
You can also use a fork to help seal the samosa. It also looks good don’t you think?
If you like, you can cover and place your samosa in the fridge to fry later or freeze them.
See how the samosas are just lightly bubbling in the oil? That is what you want. Then raise the heat after 8 minutes to brown them.
You are going to love these crisp and flaky chicken samosas!
Chicken Samosas
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp rapeseed (canola) oil or ghee
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 medium onion, very finely chopped
- 2 tbsp garlic and ginger paste
- 3 green bird’s eye chillies
- 1 medium tomato, finely diced
- 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder (more or less to taste)
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 2 tbsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 level tsp salt
- 500g (1 1/4 lbs.) minced (ground) chicken
- 3 tbsp fresh coriander (cilantro) finely chopped
- FOR THE SAMOSA WRAPPERS
- 250g (2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
- 65ml (1/4 cup) melted ghee or rapeseed (canola) oil
- 6 tbsp water
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cumin or ajwain seeds (optional)
Instructions
- Add 2 tbsp ghee or oil to the pan over a medium high heat. When visibly hot, stir in the cumin seeds and let them infuse into the oil for 30 seconds. Then add the finely chopped onion and fry for about 5 minutes or until soft and translucent.
- Stir in the garlic and ginger paste and chopped chillies and fry for another 30 seconds and then add the diced tomato and the ground spices. Stir this all up into a nice base masala.
- Now add the chicken and 250ml (1 cup) of water. As the water comes to a simmer, break the minced (ground) chicken down with a spatula or spoon until you see no lumps. This takes a bit of time but it is necessary.
- With the meat broken down and the water simmering, cover the pan to cook for about 15 minutes, lifting the lid from time to time to stir. After 15 minutes, lift the lid and continue simmering until all the water has evaporated and the chicken is beginning to brown in the pan.
- Add the chopped coriander and season with salt to taste and then transfer the filling to a plate to cool while you prepare the wrappers. Wipe your pan clean as you will need it to fry the samosas.
- TO MAKE THE SAMOSA WRAPPERS
- Pour the flour into a mixing bowl and add the salt, cumin/ajwain seeds and melted ghee or oil. Start mixing it all together with your hands. It will become crumbly. Add the water slowly. You are aiming for a stiff dough, not soft. Once you have your dough ball formed, place it back in the bowl and cover with a damp cloth for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, place the dough ball on a clean surface and roll it into a long cylinder shape. Slice it into 10 equal sized pieces and then form each piece into firm, smaller balls. Place one balls on a lightly floured surface and roll it out until you have a circle that is just thinner than a tortilla. If you pick it up, you should be able to see your hand through it.
- Slice the circle in half into two half circles. Be sure to keep the other dough balls covered so they don’t dry out while you work.
- Take one of the half circles and join the corners so that you have a cone shape. Press the seem so that the filling has no way of escaping and fill the cone with a few tablespoons of the chicken filling. Close the samosa by pressing the top together into a triangle shape. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- To cook, bring sufficient oil for deep frying to a simmer, slowly over medium heat. You do not want the oil too hot. If you put a piece of the dough in it, it should rise slowly to the top with only a few small bubbles around it. This is the perfect temperature.
- Add as many samosas as you can to the hot oil. They should not be boiling like crazy! Instead, the samosa should simply be floating in the hot oil with only a small amount of bubbles around them. Let these fry in the hot oil for about 8 minutes. Then turn the heat up to high.
- As the oil gets hotter, the samosas will begin to fry to a crispy golden brown. This slow frying method will get you really crispy and flaky samosas that are to die for! Each batch should take about 15 minutes but remember that if you are cooking several batches, you will need to cool the oil down some before adding each batch.
- Transfer the cooked samosas to a a wire rack. They should stay hot while you cook the remaining samosas so no need to cover.
Notes
ADDITIONAL FILLING INGREDIENTS: I like to make my chicken and meat samosas exactly that... chicken and meat. Many restaurants add other things to their samosa filling such as cubed potatoes, carrots and peas. This is a good way of cutting costs. If you add other ingredients, you can use less chicken or meat and also add different textures.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
10Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 125Total Fat: 7gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 3gCholesterol: 13mgSodium: 571mgCarbohydrates: 6gFiber: 1gSugar: 1gProtein: 1g