Famous Russian pies have always been the pride of our national cuisine. Kulebyaki and pies with juicy fatty filling, made from magnificent yeast dough, browned in the oven, were served in the best Moscow restaurants, described in classical works of Russian literature, were and remain one of the main dishes at any festive feast.
Kurnik is a pie, the recipe of which was especially popular in the southern regions of Russia, the Don and Kuban, has been known since time immemorial. There is written evidence that a high multi-layer pie with chicken filling was served to the table by Ivan the Terrible. Complicated, consisting of several layers and a diverse filling, the main part of which was chicken meat, this cake was a symbol of abundance, hospitality and very often decorated a wedding table.
The classic Old Russian kurnik is a pie, the recipe of which had its own specific features. Its conical shell was baked from unleavened pastry. A complex filling consisting of meat, mushroom and cereal layers, which were transferred by thin pancakes , was enclosed in it, as in a kind of bag . A hole was left at the top of this complex structure so that the steam formed during baking would come out. When the cake was taken out of the oven and served with heat from the heat, it smoked like a volcano, they believe that this explains its name.
The classic henhouse - pie, the recipe of which can be found in old cookbooks, is difficult and troublesome to make. It will take a lot of effort and time to make it. But the result will be worth it. And, probably, a good housewife should try to bake such a cake for an important family holiday to win the guests.
How to bake a kurnik? At least three types of filling are used for this pie. One layer is necessarily made from boiled chicken meat, the second - from buckwheat or rice porridge mixed with fried onions, the third layer can be from mushrooms, boiled eggs, sour currants, etc.
Prepare a real Russian kurnik. Cake, the recipe of which was traditionally used for a wedding celebration. First, make a pastry for the shell. It is kneaded from two glasses of flour, a half pack of butter, an egg, three tablespoons of sour cream, a quarter cup of milk, slaked soda. Well-kneaded dough rolls into a bowl and refrigerates.
For the filling, boil the chicken, free the meat from the skin and bones and chop it finely. The second layer of filling we will have from boiled rice mixed with chopped fresh herbs, the third layer will be fried mushrooms with onions. All layers must be salted to taste.
We shift each layer of the filling with pancake. Pancakes are baked according to any known recipe, yeast or fresh. For the chicken, you need to bake nine pancakes.
After all the components of the cake are ready, it can be collected. We roll out the fourth part of the fresh dough into a layer, which should be a little larger than the pancake diameter. On top of the tortilla we spread the third part of rice, then pancake, on top on the pancake chicken meat, which again we cover with pancake on top. Spread a third of the mushroom filling on top, close it with pancake again, etc., until the whole filling is over. The topmost layer should be from the filling, and not from pancake. To make the cake more juicy, pour each layer of the filling with a small amount of sauce, which we cook in this way. Melt 50 grams of butter on a stove, add a spoonful of flour into it, mix and fry the butter and flour, then gradually pour the chicken stock into this mixture until a sauce of thick cream is obtained. At the last stage, add two tablespoons of sour cream or a quarter cup of fat cream to it.
Separate a little from the rest of the dough for decoration, and roll out the rest into a round layer and cover it with a slide of filling and pancakes, making a hole on the top of the "volcano". We decorate the kurnik with figures cut out of dough, grease it with yolk and set it to bake in light heat.
A simple recipe for a chicken coop for those who are not confident in their abilities or do not want to spend a lot of energy on culinary delights can be prepared with chicken and potato filling (a layer of boiled chicken and a layer of boiled potatoes, which are watered with sour cream sauce). In this case, for the pie itself, you can take both fresh and yeast dough.