Kurnik is a national dish of Russian cuisine. This is a multi-layered pie with a combination of several fillings at the same time, one of which is made from chicken meat. Traditionally in Russia, kurniks were baked for weddings and other important celebrations. This cake is usually domed in shape. Kurniks are made the size of a hat and must be decorated with decorative dough elements.
Kurnik dough recipe
To make the dough for a traditional chicken chicken, you will need:
- 200 grams of butter;
- 250 grams of sour cream;
- 400 grams of flour;
- 1 egg;
- salt.
To make the dough, grind the softened butter until it is white, add sour cream and continue to grind until smooth. Then add the sifted flour and salt, knead a light plastic dough and let it rest for 20 minutes.
Kurnik fillings recipe
For the filling you will need:
- 1 chicken for about 1.5 kilograms;
- 100 grams of buckwheat;
- 5 eggs;
- 200 grams of butter;
- 50 grams of dried mushrooms;
- dill greens.
Buckwheat in the filling can be replaced with boiled rice or potatoes.
Boil the chicken in a little salted water. When the chicken is done, remove from the broth and cool. Then remove the meat from the bones and cut it into small cubes.
Soak the dried mushrooms in cold water for 3 hours. Then boil them in the same water until tender. After that, catch the mushrooms from the broth and chop finely.
Before cooking buckwheat porridge, sort out the groats and grind the buckwheat with a raw egg, then sprinkle on a wooden board and dry. Make sure that the grains do not stick together. If this happens, rub the glued grains with your hand.
Boil 300 milliliters of mushroom broth, salt, add oil and add dried cereal. Stir well, cover the pan with a lid and place in an oven preheated to 180 ° C for 45 minutes.
Boil the rest of the eggs, cool, peel and chop finely. Combine cooked buckwheat porridge with chopped eggs and finely chopped dill.
Assembling the cake
Divide the dough into 3 equal portions. Roll out 2 pieces of dough into a flat cake that is about 1 centimeter thick and about the size of the bottom of a baking dish.
When spreading the filling, you should step back from the edge of the dough by 3-5 centimeters. This is necessary to firmly connect the bottom of the cake to the lid and pinch.
Grease the pan with butter and place the cake on the bottom. Put half of the buckwheat porridge mixed with herbs and eggs on it in an even layer, on top - pieces of boiled chicken, and then mushrooms. Then spread out the other half of the buckwheat porridge. Use the leftover dough to make a chicken lid and various figurines to decorate the pie. It can be flowers, leaves, braids and any other fantasy elements.
Cover the chicken with a lid, in the center of which make a hole for steam to escape while baking the cake. Pinch with a beautiful seam in a circle, decorate with flowers and dough leaves. Brush the surface of the cake with a beaten egg and place in the oven. Kurnik is baked for 30-40 minutes at a temperature of 180-200 ° C. When the cake is nicely browned, it is ready.
