CHICKEN PYRIZHKY APPETIZERS:

CHICKEN PYRIZHKY APPETIZERS:  easier to make than vareniki! 

   

The dough pinches together very easily and you don’t have to worry about them coming apart.  Just stick them in the oven and voilà!   

DOUGH

2 tbsp butter

½ tsp sugar

½ cup lukewarm water

1 tsp yeast

½ cup milk

2 cups flour  (more if necessary)

1.        Melt butter and set aside.

2.       Dissolve sugar in lukewarm water.

3.       Sprinkle yeast on top.  Let sit for 5 minutes.

4.       Turn oven on to 350 degrees.  Time for 1 minute and turn off.

5.       Heat milk to lukewarm.

6.       Put one cup flour into large mixing bowl.  

7.       Stir together milk, butter, and yeast.

8.       Stir milk mixture into flour.

9.       Mix in the second cup of flour and knead to make a soft dough.

10.   Put back in mixing bowl, cover, and put in warm oven to rise for one hour.

11.   Grease a large baking sheet.

12.   Prepare the filling.

CHICKEN FILLING

based on From Borshch to Blinis by Catherine Atkinson

4 ounces onion

6 ounces chicken breast

1 tbsp canola oil

1/3 cup water  (or stock:  vegetable or chicken)

¼ cup chopped parsley (include stems as well as leaves)

1/8 tsp nutmeg

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

1.        Grind the chicken in a food processor.

2.       Chop onion finely in the food processor.

3.       Heat a frying pan on medium heat; then add oil.

4.       Fry the onion and chicken together for 8 to 10 minutes.

5.       Add the salt and pepper.

6.       Stir in the water.  Turn off the heat but leave the pan on the element.

7.       Chop the parsley.

8.       Stir parsley and nutmeg into the chicken.

ASSEMBLY:

1.        Roll out the dough and cut out 3 inch circles. 

2.       Place a teaspoon of filling on a circle and pinch together.

3.       Once the baking sheet is full, cover with a towel and leave in a warm place for pyrizhky to rise.

4.       Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

BAKING:

1.        Bake for 5 minutes at 425. 

2.       Lower heat to 400 degrees and bake 10 more minutes.  (Check after 5 minutes.  If they are browning too fast, lower heat again to 375 degrees.)

REHEATING:  Preheat oven to anywhere between 350 and 400 degrees.  Put pyrizhky in, uncovered, for 5 to 10 minutes.

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And now, a little more Leschyshyn history for you to chew on: 

When  my mother, Mary, was growing up,  a crock of butter was taken to a store and traded for bar soap and bluing and groceries such as flour, grits (Cream of Wheat), oatmeal, rice, Lily’s white syrup, Rogers’ corn syrup, sugar, raisins, and tea.  They also got bran –  finer bran was mixed into flour while coarser bran was fed to the pigs.