Chicken Croissant

I am not a professional chef, but cooking is my passion. I love to explore various types of food, and rather than buying it from store, or go to the restaurant to taste it, I always like it to prepare the same in my own kitchen. The inspiration has doubtlessly been my mother. My love for cooking and baking began since my childhood watching my mom preparing various type of dishes herself, even without having convenient gadgets. Like, I saw her to bake cakes in pressure pan since she did not have any oven. Gradually my own passion for baking grows by starting the same thing…. Cake in pressure pan !!!!

This time, I was ready to take a serious challenge in my kitchen. I planned to make Croissant. Croissant is a buttery, flaky, Vienna-Style Pastry named for its crescent shape. It is prepared by laminated dough and the process is very much time consuming. If you start preparing your croissant today, you may finally come up with your result in the next to next day!!! But, if you are patient enough, and have the guts to start your process, the final result is awesome!!!!

As usual, being a Chicken lover, I made my first batch of croissant with chicken filling. But, some of my friends have asked me for vegetarian recipes. Therefore, I am giving here the idea for vegan substitute also. The process for preparing the dough would be same in both the varieties.

  

Preparation Time – 24-26 Hours (Active Time: 2 hrs, Inactive Time: 22-24 hrs), Baking Time – 25 minutes, Serving – 10-12 Nos. of Croissant

Ingredients:

For Dough:

1. Flour- 3 ½ cup + 1 cup
2. Refined oil – ¼ cup
3. Salt- 1tsp
4. Sugar – 3 tbsp
5. Yeast – 15 gms
6. Lukewarm milk – 1 cup
7. Warm water – ¼ cup
8. Baking soda- 1 pinch
9. Salt- 1 pinch
10. Water – as required

For Lamination:

1. Butter – 150 gms
2. Flour- 2 tbsp

For Chicken filling:

1. Chicken – 400 gms (minced)
2. Onion – 1 large, finely chopped
3. Garlic – 2-3 cloves, finely chopped
4. Ginger paste – 1 tbsp
5. Grated carrot - ½ cup
6. Capsicum – 1, finely chopped
7. Salt – to taste
8. Sugar – 1 tsp
9. Turmeric- ½ tsp
10. Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
11. Garam masala powder- 1tsp
12. Tomato ketchup – 2 tbsp
13. Soya sauce- 1 tbsp
14. Oil – 2 tbsp

For egg wash:

1.  Egg- 1
2. Water- 1 tsp

Method:

Let prepare the dough first. For that, mix yeast and 1 tbsp sugar in warm water. Let it dissolve completely (approx. 5 mins it will take).

Mix salt and 2 tbsp of sugar in warm milk until sugar gets dissolved.

Mix flour with refined oil. Add the yeast mixture and the milk mixture into it.

Fold it into a smooth soft dough.

Cover it and place in the refrigerator for overnight.    

Next morning, prepare for the lamination process. For that, lightly melt the butter and mix it with the flour. Let it rest.

Bring out the dough from the refrigerator and roll it out on a lightly floured surface. Give it a shape of a 18” x 9” rectangle, shorter side facing you.

Apply the butter mixture into bottom 2/3 of this rectangle, leaving slight space at the border.

Fold the upper 1/3 of the rectangle, i.e, the unbuttered portion, over the middle 1/3. Then fold the bottom 1/3 portion over this. Therefore, you will get a 6” x 9” rectangle. This will be the first fold of the lamination.

Wrap it with plastic cover and refrigerate it for at least 2 hrs.

After 2 hrs, bring out the dough again. Place it on a lightly floured surface with the shorter side facing you. Roll it out again in the same fashion and again make the 3 layer folding (this time you don’t have to apply extra butter). Be cautious that butter doesn’t spill out from the dough. If butter starts to leak too much, chill it inside fridge for some time and continue the process.

So, you have completed your 2^nd turn now. Repeat the process of chilling the dough for 2 hrs and then rolling it out and folding it into 3 layers for at least 5-6 times.

After the final turn, chill your dough for at least 3-4 hrs (or overnight. In my case, it was already late evening when I completed my final turn. So I placed it in refrigerator for overnight).

In the meantime, anytime between 2 turns when you have 2 hrs of spare time, prepare the filling. For that, heat oil in a pan. Add garlic and onion. Stir occasionally until golden brown.

Add minced chicken, carrot and capsicum. Mix ginger paste and the other spices (except for ketchup and soya sauce). Cook it.

Add required amount of water, if needed. When the chicken is cooked and water dries up, add the tomato ketchup and soya sauce. Mix well.

Remove from heat and keep aside.

Now, start the preparation for making the croissant. For that, take the laminated dough out of the refrigerator. Divide it into two. We will work with one half at a time. Keep the other half in fridge during that time.

Roll the dough out again on the lightly floured surface to an 18”x 12” rectangle.

Then cut triangular shaped portion out of it. The height of the triangle should be at 2 ½ times the base (see pic. for reference).

Take one triangle and place it facing the base towards you.

Put the chicken filling near the base. Roll the triangle, covering the filling, starting from the base towards the tip. Keep in mind to maintain the tension in the dough while rolling it up. Bend the corners a bit to give it the desired crescent like shape. The shape will be like as shown in the picture.

When done, place the croissants in the fridge and work out the other half of the dough similarly.

Preheat oven at 200^o C. Beat 1 egg with a little amount of water.

Grease your baking tray with butter. Place the croissant on the baking tray. You must leave some gap between the croissants to allow them to rise freely during baking.

Brush the egg mixture on the croissants. It is called eggwash which results in a golden brown glaze over the croissants. Bake them at 175^o C for 20-25 mins.

If the browning starts too quickly, you may lower down the temperature a bit. Actually it is not possible to suggest the perfect temperature-time setting for an oven. It depends on the make and size of the oven. So you have to know the perfect setting by your experience only.

When done, wait for 5-10 mins. Then, just relish the super flaky, crispy and tasty croissants…. and nothing else !!!

Now, as I promised above, here is some idea for Vegan substitute.

For savoury Croissant, you can simple substitute the chicken with paneer. If you want to make a sweet croissant, which is also a very popular variety, you can use chocolate/ orange marmalade filling. And the eggwash can be substituted by refined oil…. Simple enough !! J