Russian national cuisine is replete with a huge number of varieties of pastries with savory fillings. One of the most popular among them is considered to be a traditional henhouse. What is this unusual dish, the name of which is often mentioned in all kinds of literary works?
Description of Baking
Kurnik is an original Russian flavored cake, which has long been prepared in Russia. This dish was traditionally considered festive and was often served at weddings and other celebrations. The recipe for making a henhouse at home has been known since Ivan the Terrible. The main ingredients of the classic pie are chicken and cereal. By the way, the chicken tree owes its name to this bird.
True, over time, filling this pie became more difficult, it began to allow the use of other components: for example, rice, cheese, mushrooms, liver. And the recipe for cooking a chicken coop has survived numerous changes, on its basis a lot of different variations in the presentation of this dish have arisen.
Once this pie on the solemn table symbolized wealth and abundance. In those days, the coop was baked in the form of a kind of cone, decorated with a hole on top, from which fragrant steam came out. Inside the filling of the pie, it was customary to alternate with pancakes, which made it possible to prepare a pie with a layered structure.
In fact, the kurnik is a rather complicated dish. Its preparation requires certain skills, patience and enough time. However, do not hesitate, the result will exceed all your expectations!
Kurnik is considered to be one of the most delicious and popular dishes of Russian traditional cuisine. If you have never cooked it yet, be sure to fix it! Despite the fact that preparing a chicken coop according to the recipe will require some effort and time, this cake will certainly become your favorite dish. No wonder he is considered the "king" of Russian baking.
A bit about the ingredients
One of the main advantages of this pie is nutritional: you can quickly eat it, because the dish is extremely tasty and satisfying. Today, there are many simple recipes for making a chicken house at home: for example, from fresh, yeast and puff pastry.
The filling of baking can also be the most diverse and even multi-layered. Although traditionally for the preparation of this pie exclusively chicken in any form is used. It can be shins, and thighs, and fillets, and wings, and breast. By the way, pastries with chicken are considered easier for the digestive system, compared with pies, which are added to other varieties of meat. Therefore, it is best for the hostesses who are engaged in the preparation of the chicken house according to the recipe to prefer chicken.
The cake itself is a multi-layer baking. Initially, it was decided not to separate the layers, but to use exclusively the dough. And for preparing the filling, all kinds of cereals and millet were used.
Today, it is customary to prepare a kurnik in the form of a rather complicated design, in which, in addition to dough, pancakes are used to separate the layers. But the filling can be anything at all. As a rule, cooks from cereals choose rice, without fail boiled chicken, as well as all kinds of vegetables, mushrooms, pickles, berries and potatoes in addition to dishes. There are always a lot of fillings in a delicious chicken coop!
Cooking process
Today, in order to bake a fragrant cake, there is no need at all to wait for some kind of holiday. It’s enough just to adopt a suitable recipe for cooking a kurnik with a photo, stock up on appropriate products and do the process. However, keep in mind that it is advisable to make a pie on your day off, as this business is rather troublesome and lengthy.
If you still decide to take up cooking the chicken pot according to the recipe and treat your family to an original Russian dish, you should know that the process can be conditionally divided into several main stages:
- the manufacture of several varieties of fillings;
- kneading dough;
- baking pancakes;
- pie formation;
- baking in the oven;
- design and presentation.
However, do not be scared immediately! After all, something can be done in advance. For example, bake pancakes and cook the toppings. If you have stocks available, you will be able to form a pie pretty quickly. Most of the time is taken by the recipe for cooking a chicken puff pastry. After all, the manufacturing technology of such a dish is much more complicated and only by experienced chefs.
Traditional Cooking Recipe
In fact, the method of preparing this wonderful cake for decades has been passed on from mothers to daughters. That is why even simple recipes for cooking chicken coops have some differences regarding the proportions and ingredients. However, the concept itself remains virtually unchanged.
Products for the chicken house
To prepare an unusually delicious classic pie, you will need components for the dough, pancakes and toppings.
For minced meat you will need:
- approximately 1.5 kg of chicken;
- 400 g of porcini mushrooms or champignons;
- 2 small onions;
- 200 g of rice or millet;
- a small bunch of greenery;
- 2 eggs;
- seasonings to your liking.
For pancakes:
- 400 ml of milk;
- 7 tablespoons of flour;
- 1 tablespoon of sugar;
- egg;
- a pinch of salt.
To prepare the dough:
- 400 g flour;
- 100 g butter;
- egg;
- 50 ml of milk;
- 3 tablespoons of sour cream;
- a pinch of salt;
- soda on the tip of a knife.
Cooking
Knead the dough first. To do this, in a deep container, mix milk, sour cream, salt and soda, add melted butter. Beat all the ingredients well and gradually add the flour. Knead not too tight, but not sticky dough and divide it into two parts, one of which will be needed to prepare the base, and the second will serve as the dome of the future henhouse. You can leave a small amount of the mixture to decorate your dish.
Set the dough aside and start making pancakes. The mixture for them is prepared as standard, you need to bake 7-8 cakes. At least, so many ingredients are enough for so many pancakes. But the more layers you expect in your henhouse, the more cakes you will need. After frying the required number of pancakes, proceed to prepare the filling for the pie.
First of all, boil eggs and cereals, and also fry the mushrooms and onions separately. All this is desirable to do beforehand. Then make fillings in three separate containers.
In the first bowl, mix the cooked rice, fried onions and finely chopped greens. In the second container, put chicken, chopped into thin slices, fill it with a small amount of broth and add spices here. In a third bowl, mix the mushrooms and chopped boiled eggs.
Cake making
Lay a parchment on a baking sheet or ordinary pan and grease it with vegetable oil. Roll out one of the pieces of the deferred dough in the shape of a circle and place it on the prepared surface. Then lay out the fillings made in layers, alternating them with pancakes. In principle, you can arrange the components at your discretion. However, the traditional recipe implies a certain sequence: first rice is put, then chicken, and then mushrooms. Repeat the sequence until the last pancake. And then cover this whole structure with the rolled second part of the dough. Gently pinch the edges, firmly connecting the base with the canopy of the henhouse.
If you have some pastry left, make some delicate figures and decorate the top of the pie. Finally, grease all the pastries with whipped yolk. Another important point - in the middle of the already formed kurnik, it is necessary to make a hole in order for the steam to escape. Put the pie in the oven, heated to 200 degrees, and bake for half an hour. You can determine the readiness of the kurnik by the formed golden crust.
As a result, you will get an unusually beautiful, fragrant and amazingly tasty cake. Serve the chicken picker taken with the sauce. To prepare it, grind the butter and flour, dilute with hot chicken stock and add the cream. This mixture must be cooked over low heat until thickened. In addition, you can separately serve the broth with spices left over from cooking chicken.
The recipe for a chicken potato
Traditionally, this pie is cooked with cereals, but potatoes are a more satisfying product that goes well with meat and gives the whole dish a richness. Cooking this pastry is made from fillet, but for the sake of economy, you can completely replace it with other parts of the chicken.
Essential Products
So, for cooking potato hen you will need:
- a pound of meat;
- 4 large potatoes;
- as many onions;
- 0.5 kg of flour;
- 2 eggs;
- 200 g margarine;
- 100 ml of milk;
- salt and pepper to taste.
Cooking steps
Cut the fillet or other parts of the chicken into small cubes. Pickle the meat in a little black pepper and salt. While the chicken will be salted, start preparing the dough.
In a deep bowl, mix one egg with milk, add pre-melted margarine. Salt the mixture and mix well. Pour in flour a little and knead the dough. As a result, it should turn out to be quite elastic and oily, not sticking to the skin and dishes. Wrap the dough in polyethylene and put it in a cold place for about half an hour.
At this time, prepare the filling. Peel vegetables, cut potatoes and onions into small cubes.
Baking
After half an hour, separate more than half of the dough and roll it out with a thin layer, the dimensions of which will exceed the dimensions of the form. By the way, do not forget to grease it with vegetable or butter. Put the rolled cake into a mold so that it covers not only the bottom, but also the sides of the dishes.
Lay out the first layer of potatoes and salt it. Then follows the onion, and at the end - pickled chicken. Roll out the remaining dough and cover the formed pie. Gently cut off the excess on the sides, and pinch the edges. In the center of the top, make a hole for the steam to exit. With the yolk of the remaining egg, grease the entire available surface of the cake and put the chicken in the oven. Bake it at a temperature of 180 degrees for 50 minutes. About half an hour before the pie is ready, pour a couple of tablespoons of water in the middle. After the allotted time, take out the henhouse and serve it.