Chicken Dumplings Recipe (Pelmeni)

A traditional and delicious recipe for hand-made Russian pelmeni filled with a chicken, flavored with onions, garlic and spinach! Watch this video to learn how to make the perfect pelmeni! They are cheap and tasty – and you’ll recall your childhood. You will have enough for about 6 dinners with this recipe, so if you are up for suffering through the process once, you will have a nice stash of these in the freezer. 

Serve these in a good quality chicken broth, or boil and butter them up, then dip in sour cream or ketchup.It is so common to eat pelmeni ( dumplings) everywhere in Russian speaking countries. They are lovely on a cold winter day. The dough is what really makes pelmeni what they are. When making the dough it's important to not overdo with the liquid. The dough has to be dense and elastic, so that later it could be rolled out very thin. 

Ingredients 

For the dough

1 large egg

100 ml of water

100 ml of milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

400-500 gr of plain flour

2 tbsp of olive oil

Chicken Filling

1 kg of chicken breasts

1-2 medium onions

2-3 garlic cloves

egg yolk

1 tbsp of salt

1 tbsp of pepper

spinach or chives ( optional)

2 Bayleaves 

Butter 

Beef or Vegetable Stock 

Directions

Step 1 : Add flour into your stand mixer. 

Step 2 : Whisk together eggs, water, milk, oil and salt in glass or a jug. 

Step 3 : Combine your wet mixture with dry and keep adding in small amounts until your dough comes together. Knead the dough in your mixer for 5-8 minutes. 

Step 4 : Add flour to your flat surface, and then knead the dough by hand for another 3 minutes. 

Step 5 : Cover the dough with cling film and place in the fridge and let rest for at least 30 minutes.

Step 6 : To make the filling, add your onions, garlic, egg yolk, and chicken.. Blitz everything together until you get nice smooth mass.Then add spinach or chives and blitz again. 

Step 7 : Roll dough out on floured work surface into large circle or rectangle, to about the thickness of pasta sheets. Make sure you add four constantly onto the surface, dough and your rolling pin, as the dough will be sticky. 

Step 8 : Use 1 1/2 inch round cookie cutter and cut as many circles as possible. Place 1 teaspoon of filling onto each circle. 

Step 9 : Flour hands well and shape pelmeni by pinching together the seams, forming a semi-circle then bringing the two edges together. Place prepared pelmeni onto floured board until ready to cook. Use all the scraps of dough and roll out again. You can also use a dumpling mould to make pelmeni. Just use one sheet of rolled dough onto your mould, add the filling and then add second sheet and roll until pelmeni start to fall out.

Step 10 : If you want to freeze them for later, just place floured board into the freezer for 30 min and then in a plastic bag. Pelmeni will last up to 6 months in the freezer. 

Step 11: To cook pelmeni, heat a large pot of vegetable stock, add salt, peppercorn and bay leafs. Cook pelmeni in small batches for about 8 minutes. Once they raise to the top, they are pretty much done. Remove with slotted spoon into bowl. Add butter if you wish, mix well and serve with sour cream! Enjoy! 

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