Breaded Chicken Bites

...or Chicken Breadcrumb, as they are apparently called.

I first came across these a couple of days ago, at my aunt and grandmother's place. My aunt had just finished steaming a plate of these "Bites", and according to both my sister and Ibu, they were apparently very tasty. Without any further ado, I just went and grabbed one, and indeed, they were delicious!

But apparently, they weren't quite complete yet. They still had to be coated in breadcrumbs, and then fried. But I am getting ahead of myself here. I should give you the recipe first. Here we go!

What you need:
4 slices of bread, crusts removed
100g boneless chicken, minced or cut into small pieces
40g cheese - or to taste!
- you can also add any other filling you like, eg carrot (cooked), sausage
3/4 cup milk (about 200 mL)
2 eggs
Seasonings - salt, pepper

Egg white, for dipping
Breadcrumbs, for coating

Tomato sauce
Parsley, chopped

What you do:

1. Cook the chicken - either by stirfrying, or boiling. Taste and season.
2. Rip the bread into four and soak in the milk, until disintegrated.
3. Add in the chicken and eggs, and mix until well-combined.
4. Prepare a steamer. Meanwhile, add the mixture into the molds (as shown below). Steam until the eggs are cooked and set. Repeat, until finished.
5. Remove the bites from the mold. Dip in egg white, and coat in breadcrumbs.
6. Deep-fry until golden-brown.
7. Serve with tomato sauce and garnish with parsley.
   

And that's that! Its so amazingly simple! You can actually eat them after the steaming step (as I did, when I first ate them) but at this point, their texture is kind of soft and squishy. Plus, they don't have any breadcrumbs on, so you would have to call them by a different name (although... the name of the recipe I translated this from was Ayam Bermangkukan Roti - Chicken in Bread Bowls? Breaded Chicken Bowls? Perhaps... ). But once you fry them, they get all crisp on the outside, yet soft and warm in the inside. They taste rather similar to our Cheesy Chicken Balls, actually - only you can't really taste the cheese with this (maybe because of the steaming). But these are much easier to make, so that's a point in its favour.



Anyway, the bowls can apparently be obtained from various shops in Brunei, such as Hua Ho or Sin Kiew Hin. They cost about B$1.50 for a dozen, so its not gonna be a very big invesment, hehe.

Now, the only thing left is to decide whether you want to fry them ... or bake them. Ibu Babah seem to be a bit on a health kick at the moment, and delight in scaring us by demostrating just how much oil can be found in fried foods. :P Ibu has been trying to get us to eat the baked version of these which, unlike the Chicken Balls, do not disintegrate in the oven. I had the baked version this morning, and really, they are still quite tasty. (Perhaps not quite as tasty as the fried version, but definitely a lot less oilier, and a lot more healthier!) Plus, the outside is nice and crisp, which is all that I am asking for, really.

We had a bit of a problem with the internal texture of our Bites, since they seem to be a bit too soft. That was either because we put in too much cheese *cough* or perhaps too much liquid, or maybe even that our chicken pieces were too big. I guess we'll do better next time, hehe.

Quote of the day: There are three types of friends: those like food, without which you can't live; those like medicine, which you need occasionally; and those like an illness, which you never want.