Chicken Momo – Steamed Chicken Dumplings

I’ve made momos every-day the past couple of days, they’ve been such a huge hit. I made a small batch of chicken momos as appetizers for the Sarakku party (Booze party) last weekend as I wasn’t sure all of them would like it. But surprise, the chicken momos were gone in a flash and they wanted more. I made a vegetarian version of the momos which went a little slow as most of them were non-vegetarians but the vegetarian momos were good too. These chicken momos are quite easy to make in that there are no complicated techniques and you can’t really go wrong with it unlike a genoise cake that I screwed up pretty spectacularly last weekend. You see, the last few days I’ve been cooking up a storm, mostly good with a few disasters thrown in. I quite enjoyed pleating up the momos into little round bags, but it takes some time. I couldn’t click the momos the day of the party; it was crazy. I made them again the next day by popular demand and managed to photograph them.

The chicken filling is super easy to make and is delightfully fresh and flavourful. The freshly minced ginger and garlic add loads of flavour and punch to the chicken. Use fresh ginger (not the hard, dried ones) for maximum flavour. Finish with chopped spring onions to give that Chinese-food touch. I made the filling the previous night and put it in the fridge. It keeps well for 3-4 days. If you have the filling ready, it is that much more quicker to make momos. I am sending these chicken momos to Srivalli’s Blogging Marathon for the theme – “Dallying with Dumplings”. Now you know why I made momos for the party last weekend. Menus will now be centred around the blogging challenges that I take up and my family will have to endure. This time they’re not complaining though.

Prep time: 20-30 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Makes: 20 Momos

Ingredients - For the filling

Minced Chicken – 250 gm
Cabbage – 4 tbsp shredded fine
Ginger – 2 tbsp minced
Garlic – 2 tbsp minced
Onion - 1 medium finely chopped
Soy sauce – 1-1/2 tsp
Green chilli sauce – 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Black Pepper powder – 2 tsp (adjust)
Spring onions – 2-3 finely chopped (green & white separated)
Oil – 2 tbsp

Ingredients - For the cover

Maida – 1 cup
Salt to taste
Water as necessary
Oil – 1 tbsp

Method

1.      Mix Maida and salt in a medium bowl, make a well in the centre, add water little at a time and mix well. When it all comes together, knead well into a soft, smooth dough. Then add the oil and knead again for a minute. Cover the bowl with a plate and let rest while for about 15 minutes or more.

2.      To make a filling, heat oil in a kadai/skillet. When hot add the chopped onions and white or pink part of the spring onions. Reserve the green part of the spring onions for the garnish. When the onions turn translucent, add the minced garlic and ginger and sauté for a minute. Then add minced chicken and shredded cabbage and mix well. Add soy sauce, chilli sauce, salt and black pepper powder and mix well. Cook covered for 8-10 minutes till the chicken is cooked through.

3.      Open, mix well, taste and adjust seasoning. Let cook for another 1-2 minutes uncovered. Switch off. Add the green part of the spring onions and mix well.

4.      To make the momos, pinch a small ball of dough and roll out with a rolling pin into a small disc about the size of a poori. To make perfect uniformly sized rounds, use a metal lid with sharp edges to cut off discs from your rolled out dough. Keeping the disc on the rolling board, place a tablespoon of filling in the centre of the disc and bring together the edges of the disc towards the centre and pleat like you would a saree. Pinch closed the pleated ends together at the centre. Repeat with the remaining dough and filling.

5.      Place in a single layer in a bamboo basket or idli steamer and steam for 8-10 minutes. Serve hot with tomato sauce or chilli-garlic sauce.

Notes:

1.      To quicken the rolling out process, roll out a big ball of dough into any hideous shape (it doesn’t matter) and then using the metal lid cut out several discs at one shot.

2.      You could try other shapes like the crescent shaped or triangular samosa shaped momos as well.

3.      The bamboo basket usually fits well inside a kadai or idli steamer. Pour about a cup of water into the kadai or steamer and place the bamboo basket on top. The basket should fit snugly into the kadai or steamer but not touch the water. The bamboo basket has a slotted base through which the steam enters. Alternately you can use an idli or idiappam steamer as well.

4.      To avoid the momos sticking to the surface, line the surface with parchment paper, or lightly oiled banana leaf.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#30