Chicken Curry Puffs

 

One of the "standard" items that I usually serve whenever we have guests over at our house, are curry puffs. They are easy to make and can be prepared in advance, which is good because that means I just have to reheat them in the oven the next day. I should be thankful that frozen puff pastry is widely available these days. I can't imagine if I had to make my own puff pastry. I remember seeing my mum making puff pastry from scratch when I was little. Lots of folding and rolling. But the curry puffs she made were so terribly yummy as the pastry was delicate with many thin and crisp layers. I think she stopped making them for a while because they were a bit too unhealthy. Well, frozen pastry isn't too bad, and I don't forsee myself slaving over the kitchen counter making my own.

I did not type out the recipe for this because it's pretty basic. The filling is made from diced chicken and potatoes, cooked with star anise, cinnamon and cloves, curry powder and curry leaves, seasoned with fish sauce, soy sauce, salt and sugar. Oh, and of course, onions, garlic and ground chilli. Some people like to add peas and carrots, but I prefer to keep mine simple. The only tricky part is trying fill the pastry with as much of the filling as possible, and yet be able to seal the edges properly and not having them burst open during baking. As you can see in the picture below, one of them started to open up a little, but still not too bad. We usually eat up all the ugly looking ones anyway and save the better looking ones for the guests :)