1 chicken breast

1 chicken stock cube

½ leek chopped roughly

1 tsp red chilli flakes

1 small bunch of coriander finely chopped

1 small bunch of spring onion finely chopped

150 gms of pizzella cheese / Monteray jack or any other easy melting cheese of your choice, finely grated

½ tsp Spanish paprika

1 tsp finely minced garlic

¼ tsp black pepper

3  heaped tbs of cream cheese

300gms Ready made puff pastry

2 eggs, beaten

2 cups of fine breadcrumbs, very lightly salted with ¼ tsp salt

Oil for shallow frying and deep frying

Start by preparing the filling.

Fill a small pan with water, the chicken stock cube, the leek and the chilli flakes.

Once it reaches the boil, lower  the heat completely and place the whole chicken breast in the water to poach for approximately 6 -8 minutes.

Drain the chicken breast from the poaching liquid,  and set aside to cool for a few minutes. Using your fingers, shred the chicken into small pieces as shown.

Place a wide frying pan on a medium heat. Add a splash of oil and when hot, but not smoking, fry the garlic gently taking care not to burn. Add the spring onion and fry gently for only 2 minutes or until just softened.

Switch off the heat and now add to the pan all the rest of the ingredients for the filling – the cream cheese, the grated cheese, the coriander, the Spanish paprika and the black pepper.

  Combine all of these together  and the existing heat from the pan will melt the cheese slightly and create a sticky mixture as shown. This is your filling ready now. Set aside.

Now prepare your puff pastry discs. I like to roll all of them out  at once so that I can also fill them all at once. You have to work quickly though as puff pastry can become quite sticky as it starts to warm up. What I do, is roll these little circles in batches – placing them in the fridge as I finish the rest.

Roll out the puff pastry to a coin size thickness . You want the pastry to be quite thin , but be careful not to roll too thin that it tears. Cut out circles and roll the pastry circle a little more. You want to create a circle with an approximate 2 inch diameter as shown.

Once these are all rolled and ready, get the rest of the ingredients ready to finish off the dish. Place the beaten eggs in one dish and the breadcrumbs in another plate.

Place just a heaped teaspoon of filling in the centre of each pastry circle. Now bring up all the sides as shown, twisting and sealing the top so you have a little ‘pear’ shape. The filling should be incased inside and it should be easy for you to twist and pinch the top point – sealing everything inside.  Don’t stress about perfection, trust me, when these are all piled up in a plate, no one is going to notice if you do have a slightly odd shaped one – they taste so good – they’ll all be fighting for the last one!

Dip the little ‘pears’ first in the beaten egg and then cover generously with the breadcrumbs. Now if you are not ready to serve these straightaway, you can prepare them to this stage and just pop them in the fridge until you are ready to serve.

These need to be fried just minutes before serving, so when you are ready, heat a wide pan with some oil for deep frying . Toss in a breadcrumb and when it fries gently, you know the temperature is just right. Be careful not to make the oil too hot as it will burn the breadcrumb and not heat the filling – so keep it on a low-medium heat.

Fry batches of 5-6 Coxinhas at a go, not overcrowding the pan. These only need to be fried to a golden brown for 3 minutes or so – not much longer.

SERVE IMMEDIATELY whilst the filling is piping hot. I like to serve these with a very spicy chilli sauce for that perfect finish.  Thankyou Brazil for these little deights –  I know, without a doubt in my mind, you are going to love these !!!!!!!