Braided Chicken Bread

I made this a while back and the recipe was requested by many….but I had gone almost dormant on my blog. A few days back I have started reposting, so thought I need to post this before dormancy hits me again. Basically, this recipe is just another way of making stuffed bread, I had earlier posted a recipe of rose buns, this time I braided the dough and tried a caterpillar shape too; the filling is different too.

Ingredients

For the bread

4 cups refined flour,
1 tsp salt,
2 tbsp milk or milk powder,
4 tbsp oil,
2 eggs,
1 tsp castor sugar,
½ cup lukewarm water,
1 tbsp instant yeast,
1 ½ tbsp butter

For the filling

1 ½  cups of boiled and shredded chicken,
2 small finely chopped onions,
1 teaspoon salt,
1 teaspoon crushed black pepper,
2 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves,
4 finely chopped green chilies or 2 teaspoon green chilli paste,
1 teaspoon garam masala powder,
2 tablespoon flour,
2 tablespoon butter,
1 cup milk

Method

First let’s prepare the dough…

Mix all the ingredients except one egg in a large mixing bowl.

Knead this into a dough and cover it with a cling film and leave it aside to rise till it doubles up. The time for this step will depend on the yeast you are using.

Once it doubles punch it down to let out the air and knead again. Divide into 8 balls and keep covered.

As you rest the dough, let’s make the chicken filling now…

Heat the butter and add in the chopped onions and saute till translucent, then add the flour, salt, crushed black pepper and garam masala powder.

Add the milk and cook till it thickens. At this stage add the boiled and shredded chicken, chopped green chillies or green chilli paste and the coriander leaves. Mix well and take it off the heat. Let it cool completely before you start assembling the bread.

To Assemble as a braid:

Take a ball of dough and roll it into a rectangular shape and proceed to prepare the braided bread in the manner depicted in the following picture.

To make it like a caterpillar fashion the dough in the following manner:

 

Beat the remaining egg and brush the prepared bread rolls with it to give them a nice glaze.

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees in the bake mode for ten minutes and bake the bread for about 20-25 minutes. Once out brush it with a little butter.

Note:

If you are using active dry yeast, you will have to proof it first before using.

For a vegetarian version, you can use mushrooms or mix vegetables for the filling instead of chicken.