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Arabian Chicken Kofta

These delightful middle-eastern kofta are very easy to prepare and taste amazing. I normally serve them as a full meal piled over roughly torn pieces of home-made pita bread, salad and a dipping sauce, plus some slices of lemon to squeeze over everything. They make for excellent finger food and can be served as a starter or as a side to any meal like pilau or even with fries.
Print Recipe
Servings: 18 Koftas
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Ingredients for Boiling Chicken
  • 250 gm boneless chicken I prefer mixing breast and thighs for this
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. black pepper powder
  • 1/4 tsp. garlic paste
  • 1/4 tsp. ginger paste
  • 1/4 cup water
Other Ingredients
  • 1 medium potato peeled, cubed and boiled
  • 1 egg lightly beaten
  • 1 small onion
  • 1 green chilli
  • 1 slice of bread toasted and roughly chopped (I normally use brown bread, but any will do)
  • 1 tbsp. mayonnaise
  • 3 tbsp. chopped coriander
  • 2 tbsp. grated mozzarella cheese
  • 1 tsp. lemon juice
  • 1/4 tsp. garlic paste
  • 1 tsp. black pepper powder
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. cumin powder
  • 1/4 tsp. turmeric powder
  • 1 tsp. red chilli powder or flakes optional for extra spicy kofta
  • 4-5 tbsp. oil for frying

Method
 

  1. Clean and cut the boneless chicken into big chunks and put them in a pan, add the rest of the boiling ingredients (salt, pepper, garlic, ginger and water) into it. Cover the pan and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes. Turn off the heat, drain the chicken cubes and allow them to cool.
  2. Grind the cooked chicken pieces in a processor. Pour out into a mixing bowl.
    Next shred the toasted slice of bread in the processor until it is all crumbled and add that onto the chicken.
    Put the onion, green chilli, garlic and coriander into the processor, grind until it gets chunky, not a complete paste. Then add that too into the mixing bowl.
    Blitz the boiled potato in the processor until mashed and dump it into the mixing bowl.
    Now add the mayonnaise, grated cheese, black pepper, salt, cumin, turmeric, lemon juice, chilli flakes and egg into the mixing bowl and mix everything up until well combined.
    Shape 15-18 small (approximately one and a half inch) balls from the mixture. You can refrigerate these balls for 30 minutes if you have the time. It helps them hold their shape a little better during frying.
    Heat 4-5 tbsp. oil in a frying pan, preferably non-stick. Add the kofta, keep the heat on medium and cover the pan. Do not crowd the pan, you can fry in two or more batches if needed. I use an 8″ frying pan and fry the kofta in two lots. Allow them to fry for 2 minutes, check and turn if they are golden on the bottom. Let them cook on the other side and then remove on to kitchen towels to drain excess oil. Remember, the chicken and potato used was already pre-cooked so all we are doing is cooking the egg that was mixed in them and getting a good outer colour. So do not over-cook them. 2-3 minutes per side is usually enough.
    Serve with accompaniments of your choice.
    Enjoy! 

Notes

  1. The chicken can be boiled even a day or more ahead, just keep it refrigerated (or frozen if it is longer than a day) until you are ready to make the kofta.
  2. You can freeze the cooked kofta to serve as and when needed. Simply allow them to defrost then reheat them on a lightly greased frying pan or in the oven/microwave until warmed through.