Thai Chicken Curry Puffs (Karipap) with Flaky Spiral Pastry

Curry puffs, or karipap, are a beloved Thai snack: a crisp, spiral-layered pastry wrapped around a savory curried chicken filling. This recipe from Aunt Maria's Kitchen shows how to make both the outer and inner doughs, how to fold them for that beautiful layered pattern, and how to make a fragrant curry-powder chicken filling. It makes about 24 puffs, and the results are well worth the wait.

Ingredients

Outer dough

1. 300 g (2 1/3 cups) all-purpose flour
2. 145 ml (2/3 cup) water
3. 20 g (1 1/2 tablespoons) granulated sugar
4. 1/8 teaspoon salt
5. 70 g (1/3 cup) rice bran oil shortening (or vegetable shortening)

Inner dough

1. 175 g (1 1/3 cups) all-purpose flour
2. 70 g (1/3 cup) rice bran oil shortening (or vegetable shortening)
3. Vegetable oil, for deep-frying

Chicken curry filling

1. 2 tablespoons rice bran oil or vegetable oil
2. 2 teaspoons curry powder
3. 100 g (3.5 oz) onion, finely diced
4. 200 g (7 oz) chicken breast, minced
5. 5 tablespoons sugar
6. 2 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
7. 1/2 teaspoon salt
8. 2–3 teaspoons ground pepper
9. 300 g (10.5 oz) sweet potato or potato, diced and parboiled for 5–7 minutes (tender but not mushy)

Note: adjust any of the filling ingredients to taste.

Instructions

Chicken curry filling

1. Heat the oil in a pan. When hot, add the curry powder and fry until fragrant.
2. Add the onion and cook until soft.
3. Add the minced chicken and cook through.
4. Stir in the sugar, fish sauce, and salt until well combined.
5. Add the pepper, then the parboiled sweet potato. Stir until the mixture is fairly dry.
6. Transfer to a bowl and let the filling cool completely.

Pastry

1. For the outer dough, stir the water, sugar, and salt together until dissolved. Pour into a bowl of the flour with a well in the center and knead until the dough comes together. Add the shortening and keep kneading until the dough no longer sticks to the bowl.
2. For the inner dough, put the flour in a bowl, make a well, add the shortening, and knead until smooth and well combined.
3. Cover both doughs with plastic wrap and rest for 30 minutes.
4. Divide the outer dough into 4 balls of about 125 g (4.4 oz) each. Divide the inner dough into 4 balls of about 50 g (1.75 oz) each. Rest for about 10 minutes.

Shaping the spiral layers

1. Roll a ball of outer dough into a thin sheet, place a ball of inner dough on it, and wrap it up completely. Roll into a smooth ball and rest for 10–15 minutes.
2. Roll the ball into a rectangle, then roll it up tightly like a jelly roll.
3. Roll it out into a rectangle again, about 7.5 cm (3 in) wide, rolling it out long to build up the layers. Roll the sheet thinner the first time for a beautiful spiral pattern, then roll it up as tightly as you can. If it is loose, the pastry may split during frying.
4. Repeat with all 4 balls and rest the rolls for another 10 minutes.
5. Cut each roll into 6 pieces and roll each piece into an oval.

Filling and frying

1. Spoon filling onto each oval. Dab the edge with water, fold the dough over the filling, and press the edges firmly to seal. Crimp the edge into neat pleats.
2. Heat the oil until hot, then fry the puffs over medium heat for about 5–7 minutes, until golden brown. Lift out and drain on a rack.

Tips

• Curry puffs are not as hard as they look. Once you have the pastry down, try other fillings such as taro, minced fish with long beans, or shiitake mushrooms.