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Nadiya Hussain’s Pulled Chicken Doughnuts

If you've never tried savoury doughnuts before, prepare to have your mind blown by Nadiya Hussain's mouthwatering pulled chicken doughnuts, as featured in her BBC2 series, Nadiya Bakes.

From the book

Nadiya Hussain

Introduction

Doughnuts filled with chicken, need I say more? But seeing as you’re here and I have your attention, I will. These doughnuts are filled with a quick-cooked shredded chicken, then fried and covered in a delicious savoury-sweet dust. If anyone didn’t know these were savoury, they could be fooled. This recipe is worth a try just to see the confusion and delight on people’s faces.

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Ingredients

For the bread:
550g strong bread flour, plus extra for dusting
175g unsalted butter, softened
60g caster sugar
1 tsp fine salt
14g fast-action yeast
4 eggs, lightly beaten
100ml cold water
1½ litres oil, to deep fry
For the chicken filling:
1 large chicken breast or 2 small (around 280g)
7 tbsp barbecue sauce (125g)
3 tbsp mayonnaise (60g)
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 small handful of fresh chives, finely chopped
For the savoury dust:
1 tsp garlic granules
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
1 tsp caster sugar
1 tsp dried coriander

Method

Prep time: 35 minutes, plus rising and chilling. Cook time: 40 minutes.

Start by making the dough. Put the flour in a bowl, add the butter and rub in until there are no big butter chunks remaining.

Now add the sugar and salt to one side of the bowl and the yeast to the other side. Mix thoroughly and then make a well in the centre. Mix the eggs and water in a jug, then pour into the well and mix with the dry ingredients until the dough roughly comes together.

If you are kneading the dough by hand, flour the work surface and knead for 10 minutes until the dough is stretchy and shiny. But I prefer to do it using a mixer, as the dough is quite sticky and buttery. When using a dough hook on a mixer it only needs kneading for 6 minutes on a medium speed.

Leave to prove in a warm place covered with a wet tea towel or greased clingfilm.

Meanwhile, make the filling by boiling the chicken breast in a small pan of water on a medium heat for 15 minutes until the meat is cooked through.

Once cooked, lift the chicken out of the water and leave on a plate until it’s cool enough to handle. Use two forks to shred and pull it apart. Now add flavour to your chicken by adding the barbecue sauce, mayo, chilli flakes and chives and giving it all a good mix around. Cover and set aside in the fridge.

Once the dough has doubled in size, tip out onto a floured work surface. Roll the dough into a sausage shape and cut out 12 equal portions of around 90g each. Making them the same size is important if you want them to fry evenly.

Have a lined and greased baking tray at the ready. Roll out a dough ball to about 12cm diameter. Add a tablespoon of chicken mix, not heaped, into the centre. Gently lift up the edges of the dough from all around the sides and seal the chicken inside, pinching firmly in the centre. Pop it on the tray, pinched side up.

Do this to the rest of them, then pop the tray into the fridge for 1 hour.

In the meantime, make the dust by mixing the garlic, cumin, salt, sugar and coriander.

Just before the hour is up, add the oil to a mediumsized pan. Make sure the oil is not higher than halfway up the sides. Heat the oil on a medium heat – if you are using a thermometer you want the oil to reach 150°C. But if not, you can drop a piece of bread into the oil and if it sizzles and rises to the top, the oil is ready.

Prepare a baking tray lined with kitchen paper to drain the doughnuts on.

Gently place a doughnut into the oil, pinched side up. Don’t overcrowd the pan, just do three at a time.

Cook the doughnuts gently for 6 minutes until golden brown all over. You don’t need to turn them, just occasionally push them down into the oil using a slotted spoon. When ready, take out and pop onto the paper to drain, then pop in the oven for 10 minutes to finish cooking through, removing the kitchen paper first. While still piping hot, sprinkle with the savoury dust. Do the same to all of them, frying and sprinkling.

Allow to cool down, then eat them lukewarm, or even totally cooled. All I can say is: you are welcome!

Reviews

5 out of 5 stars

2 Ratings

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4 Comments

    The dough is amazing but as I’m on Slimmingworld would this be OK done in the airfryer?

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    default user avatar The Happy Foodie Team

    Hi Arlene,

    Thanks so much for your comment and we’re so pleased to hear you like the dough in this recipe! As a general rule, we would advise frying the doughnuts to finish them, but if you are happy to experiment with air frying for a lighter doughnut, you should be able to finish them in around six minutes on 180 degrees. Let us know how you get on!

    Happy Cooking!
    The Happy Foodie Team

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    default user avatar Laura

    I haven’t tried yet, but could they be cooked only in the oven and not fry? Of yes, for how long and what would be the recommended temperature?
    Do you have a sweet version of this dough? Thanks in advance

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From the book: Nadiya Bakes

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