Recipe: chicken samosa cups

Dan Toombs, better known as The Curry Guy, wrote a wonderful book for chicken lovers. We have already shared his recipe for curry with chicken drumsticks, but these chicken samosa cups are also delicious. Perfect when you don’t feel like, or don’t have time, to make authentic Punjabi samosas. These samosa cups are an easy alternative and an excellent starter or snack with drinks. This recipe serves 5 to 10 people.

• Melt the ghee in a pan over medium heat. Stir in the cumin seeds and let their flavour infuse into the ghee for 30 seconds.
• Add the onion and salt and fry for about 5 minutes until soft and translucent.
• Stir in the garlic-ginger paste and bird’s eye chillies, fry for 30 seconds, then stir in the tomato, Kashmiri chilli powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and garam masala.
• Add the minced chicken and 250 ml water. Break the mince apart into loose strands as the water comes to the boil.
• Cook with the lid on for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Then remove the lid and simmer gently until the water has evaporated and the chicken begins to brown.
• Add the coriander and season with salt. Spoon the filling onto a plate and leave to cool while you make the filo pastry cups.

• Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place the filo pastry sheets on a clean work surface and brush each sheet with some melted ghee or butter.
• Make two neat stacks of three filo pastry sheets each. Use a round cutter of approximately 10 cm to cut as many circles from the pastry as possible. I usually get 12 circles, but it depends on the size of the pastry sheets.
• Lightly grease a 12-hole cupcake tin with melted butter or ghee and line each hole with a pastry circle cut from 3 layers of filo pastry. Divide the keema (the mince mixture) over the pastry and bake for 15 minutes, until the cups are crisp and the meat is hot. Place the samosa cups on a serving dish, garnish with the coriander and serve.