Chicken and mushroom dumplings

How to make dumplings or chicken and mushroom empanadas .

This recipe with chicken that I present to you today is one of what I call of use or recycling. Some dumplings that my mother usually makes when we go to eat outdoors .

A classic that rivals at the table with its potato omelette , its fantastic Russian salad or stuffed eggs .

These dumplings are one of those recipes inherited from my grandmother Lucrecia. I had them written down in a small notebook that my mother now has, although the mushrooms are an addition. At home we are fascinated by its flavor and it perfectly matches chicken, a great combination.

I used to prepare them with the leftovers from the roast chicken I made on Sunday, that’s why it has a recycling recipe. Although if you can’t wait to have leftovers from a Sunday roast, as in this case, you can always buy a little chicken breast.

As you already know, all these recipes are not only a family inheritance but we have turned them into meals that little by little you have been introducing in your weekly menus. With which I am much more than grateful. My grandmother if she were still with us, surely she would not believe it …

You can bake these chicken dumplings, but in this case, they are Trangallán- style , fried. As they were made in one of the most emblematic bars of the Ourense wine area, now disappeared.

That corner where Manuel Losada and his wife served dumplings and where I put on my boots with the zorza , bonito, my favorite cockle or chicken dumplings (similar to this one), the montaditos of loin, bacon and cheese. It was a fix of my tapas by Rúa Lepanto.

The dough is almost the same as those who have ever had the opportunity to eat them on the spot will see.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Do you dare to prepare them at home?

Preparation of the stuffing of chicken and mushroom dumplings

1. We are going to prepare our dumplings with chicken breast, although you can take advantage of the remains of a roasted chicken or a chicken stew.
2. We cut the chicken into small pieces more or less equal. You can replace the breast with thighs (without the bone), they will be juicier.
3. Crush the garlic clove in a mortar and add a tablespoon of white wine. We stir until there is a paste. We marinate the chicken pieces with the previous pasta and season to taste with a little pepper and salt.
4. Steps 1 and 2 should be done the day before to leave the chicken covered tightly in the fridge overnight.
5. We fry in a pan with a little olive oil and reserve the chicken with its juice. In this process we only pass the chicken a little so that it does not get too dry.
6. Chop the onions, bell pepper and mushrooms into small pieces. Add more oil to the pan and sauté the onion and pepper over very low heat, which softens but does not brown. We add the mushrooms after 10 minutes and then the white wine and reduce it. The whole process takes about 20 minutes.
7. When the sofrito softens, add the chicken with its broth. We rectify salt and pepper and reduce it but leave it with broth so that the dumplings are juicy. This process takes about 5 minutes.
8. We introduce the hard-boiled egg into small pieces. We stir all the filling. Let cool to make the dumplings.

Preparation of homemade pastry dough

1. The dough we have used is the one we make at home for Galician empanadas. In the empanada dough post you have all the secrets to make it perfect for you.
2. We flour the kitchen counter and roll out the dough with the rolling pin until it is 2 or 3 millimeters thick.
3. We cut the dumplings with a cup (I use one of the breakfast cups) of about 20 cm. diameter.

Preparation of chicken and mushroom dumplings. Filling

1. We add the filling to each empanada, 1 tablespoon of filling in each one. It is very important that the filling is cold so that the dough holds up well when frying.
2. We paint the edge of the empanada with the help of a cooking brush and beaten egg.
3. We cover with the other half well stretched and seal it by the edges, braiding the bottom over the top with the help of a fork. You can see the photos of the step by step of the braiding and thus they will be perfect. We reserve.
4. If you want at this point you can freeze some and so you will have them ready for any day that you feel like.

Frying the dumplings and final presentation

1. When we have all the dumplings ready we will proceed with the frying.
2. For frying we are interested in oils with a high smoke point that oxidize (burn) less. This depends on the quality of the oil that we use, I recommend an extra soft virgin olive oil, for example an arbequina.
3. These oils will allow us to fry at high temperature and we will make the interior juicier.
4. When we have all the chicken dumplings prepared, heat plenty of oil in a frying pan and fry them at medium-high temperature.
5. Always in small batches so as not to excessively lower the oil temperature.
6. It is important that the oil is not very hot when frying, so we avoid that they are very toasted on the outside and raw on the inside. We cook them 2 minutes on each side.
7. We remove the dumplings once ready to a tray with kitchen paper to absorb the excess oil. And they will be perfect to eat, do not be anxious and let them cool.

Here you have a step by step in photos where I show how to prepare this recipe for chicken dumplings and mushrooms .  Do not miss any detail so that they come out perfect.