Quarantine Cooking – Chicken Momos

Momos hold a very special place in every street food lover’s heart. So, it came has no surprise when entire social media was filled with pictures from experiments with the momos during lock-down. Being a big momo fan myself, I decided to dive in and try a dozen. Luckily my insomnia helped me to get hold of a slot for minced chicken online. It was decided, chicken momos were happening in my kitchen. After a mildly successful experiment when a lot of people wanted first-hand experience, I decided to take my time and write about it in detail. At the start of the year, I had taken a resolution to write atleast one post per month, so when the opportunity presented itself with an easy update to the blog – I grabbed it with both hands. Yea, I am cheap like that. 

Anyhow, if you are here just for the recipe, do scroll directly down because I will probably ramble about for a paragraph or two before coming to the point. However, if you are as bored as a panda without a bamboo, then feel free to continue reading my momo timeline. 

I clearly remember when I ate momos for the first time. It was in Delhi roughly around 2006. I had never even heard about them but my sister sweared by them and how good they were. I hated them at the first bite. I was bewildered why someone would eat this raw-ish ball of flour and that burning-my-mouth-chutney. Fast forward few years with the influx of students from Ladakh, momos made their way into every corner of Jammu and my heart (and stomach). Back in college we had momos every day. Yep. I am not exaggerating; our canteen had in-house soya-filled dumplings and spicy watery chutney. They were fabulously drowned with bottles of cold drinks. And if some day we missed out on eating them in college, we had this epic joint called Momo Hut. It was a very shady place, always dark inside but they served the best-est mutton momos. I have never had amazing melt in the mouth momos ever after that. Sadly, the joint is closed now.

We have successfully Indianized momos - tandoor momos, fried momos, kurkure paneer momos etc etc. While all of them taste good, for me – those mutton momos hold the highest place. Closely followed by these chicken momos I had in Mcleodganj. Third place is for kurkure paneer momos. So, with the decision of making momos at home came a big responsibility of atleast matching up to the big guns and the big expectations from ahem the husband. Thankfully it was not that bad. 

Now I did a lot of improvisations to my recipe. You can choose to follow the same or like me watch atleast 5 videos of the recipe and then follow little bit of everything.

Chutney
This is the most important step. Because what are momos really without that fiery chutney. You will need :

10 Red Dry Chillies (soaked in water for atleast 2 hours)
4-5 Garlic Pods
1 Teaspoon Sugar
1 Teaspoon Oil
2 Blanched Skinless Tomatoes

First take the red chillies & garlic and grind them till the chillies are finely done. Next add the sugar and oil. Lastly add the tomatoes and grind everything to a smooth paste. The consistency of this chutney will be a little watery, you can choose to cook it a little. Just a simple saute saute till the consistency becomes of your liking.

I kept the chutney as-is though, as it reminded me of the canteen-ki-chutney. You can also skip the tomatoes for that schezwan chutney like flavor. 

Stuffing
Chicken Mince (Cup full)
Pepper (2 Teaspoon)
Spring Onions ( 1 Cup including the greens)
Finely chopped garlic (1 teaspoon)
Salt (swad anusar)

Mix everything up and done. As easy as that.

Dough
All purpose Flour (1 cup)
Ragi flour (1 Tablespoon)
Baking powder ( 1 pinch)
Salt (1 pinch)
Water (well, obviously)

I know what you must be thinking, what is the ragi doing in there? That’s a futile attempt for my conscious to make it a little healthy. Knead the dough until it is soft and spongy. Let it be for 15-20 minutes before using.

Now that all ingredients are ready, let's start.

1. Make really tiny balls with the floor and bhelo it into small sized rotis. Make sure to keep the edges thin. 

The balls, momo base and raw momo chilling side by side. For some reason gas lighter is also in the picture.

2. Now add the chicken mince and seal like you would close a Gujiya. 

The Chicken Mince

3. Once all momos are stuffed, you will need a steamer. Here’s an interesting bit of information - I don’t have a streamer. But that wasn’t going to stop me. 

4. So I made a jugaad of sorts with a patila of boiling water and a colander. 

The jugaadu steamer

5. If you too don’t have a steamer, don’t forget to brush a little oil on the colander (I forgot, and it broke 5 out of 12 momos).

6. Keep the setup covered for like 10 mins. Keep checking. Turn the momos to other side. Keep for 5 mins. Switch of the gas. Let it rest. 

And Voila, you are done.

I was a little skeptical about adding the raw chicken, but it was cooked splendidly. 

Do try and let me know. 

Love:
Sepo

P.S Apologies for the abysmal quality of pictures. In my defense, while cooking, I wasn't aware I would write and post about it.