Chicken Momos

The other day we had a sudden craving for Chinese food. So we decided to dine at a good Chinese restaurant. I was quite excited imagining the momos and promised myself that I would have them for sure. Unfortunately, the restaurant menu did not include the momos. So momos remained as an unsatisfied craving for me.

Obviously I am not the type who will hunt down for momos further. Yes, I hunted them on the web and made them at home myself. My impression about preparing momos was a toiling task. But I realized that I was wrong after I made it. Less than an hour for fresh, steamed and hot momos. Oh boy... they were wonderful!!!

Momos are steamed dumplings with a filling inside. Basically it is a Tibetian dish, but widely found in Chinese menus. Now they are popular all over the world. Momos can also be fried or pan-fried for a more snacky version.

I loved that this recipe uses cooked chicken with stir fried veggies– it saves so much preparation time!  Use chicken breasts from a left over dinner, or buy rotisserie cooked chicken from your local deli.

INGREDIENTS:

For the momos cover:

 

1 cup all purpose flour

½ tsp oil

¼ tsp salt or as required

2 to 3 tbsp water for kneading or as required

 

For the stuffing:

 

1/2 cup shredded chicken

1 1/2 cups finely chopped vegetables (½ cup chopped cabbage, ½ cup chopped carrots, ⅓ cup chopped french beans and ¼ cup chopped capsicum)

2 small sized spring onions, finely chopped - reserve the greens to be added later

3 to 4 small garlic finely chopped

1 tsp soy sauce

½ tsp black pepper or as required

1 tbsp oil

Salt as required

 

HOW TO MAKE:

 

The outer cover of the momos:

 

1) Take the all purpose flour/maida, salt and oil in a bowl and mix it. Add water slowly and knead it to form a dough. Keep it aside for 30 minutes.

 

The Stuffing:

 

1)  Heat oil. add garlic. saute for 2-3 seconds.Add onions and saute for 10-15 seconds. Add the chicken and all the finely chopped vegetables.

 

2) Stir fry the vegetables on high heat for a minute.Add soy sauce, salt and pepper.

 

3) Add 1 to 2 tbsp of the spring onions greens and stir fry for a minute. Remove and keep aside.

 

Shaping and steaming the momos :

 

1) Divide the dough into equal small sized balls.

 

2) Roll each dough ball into a thin circle of about 2-3 inch diameter. Try to get the edges to be thin and the center to be thick.

 

3) Place 1 or 2 tsp of the stuffing in the center.Lift one side of the edge and start pleating.

 

4) Start folding and forming the pleats one by one. towards the end, join the pleats in the center.

 

5) Prepare all momos this way and steam them in a steamer or Idli steamer or a rice cooker or in a pressure cooker. If you do not have these, you can also steam them in any vessel with water filled below and the momos placed in a smaller dish on top of the water. The bigger dish with the water needs to be covered for steaming process.

 

6) Steam momos for 5-6 minutes. Momos are done when they have a transparent look and the dough is not sticky. If you overdo the steaming, then the dough becomes dense and dry.

 

7) Garnish momos with spring onion greens and serve them hot with a spicy sauce like schezwan sauce or tomato-chili sauce or chili sauce.

 

8) You can also deep fry them if you do not like steaming.