Braided Chicken bread

In case you guys haven’t noticed already, I am a big sucker for creating recipes from leftovers. This is probably because I can never portion correctly and cook for just 2 people.. I always end up either buying extra ingredients or cooking extra food. Former more often than the latter. In the case of this recipe, I had the second problem. I made extra kheema (ground meat), for a get together, and my husband refused to eat these leftovers a second time.. yep, I already fed him the leftovers once before.. but for the second time around, I knew I had to recreate this in a way that he would enjoy this meal, and I would too. So I revamped my kheema(ground meat), by mixing it with some sauces. It was originally a dry kheema(ground meat) dish. Then I stuffed this kheema(ground meat) inside a bread. Easy peasy isn't it. He devoured it, and I finally managed to finish my kheema too. Although, I used this recipe to finish off my leftover kheema(ground meat), this is also a great alternative to make with any kind of stuffing. It could even be leftover vegetables, you can use lamb, beef or turkey instead of the ground beef that I used or you could whip up some fresh stuffing and make this bread. Just one piece of advice would be, to use a filing that is slightly moist. Since you will be baking the bread with this stuffing, the stuffing might dry out if it doesn't have enough moisture. Having said that, do not make the stuffing so wet, or gravy-like, that all your stuffing runs out of the bread and makes it soggy. So without wasting much time on my wet-dry saga, here is the recipe! I follow this bread recipe to the tee - and it never disappoints. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Ingredients: 

• For the dough: 
• All purpose flour - 4 cups
• Instant yeast - 1 tbsp
• Fresh milk - 2 tbsp (You could also use powdered milk, same quantity)
• Salt - 1 tsp
• Oil - 4tbsp
• Eggs - 2 (1 for the dough and 1 for glazing later)
• Powdered sugar - 1 tsp

• For the chicken filling:
• ground chicken - 1 lb
• Onion - 1/2 cup, finely chopped
• Tomato - 1/2 cup, diced
• Green chillies - 3, chopped
• All purpose flour - 1 tbsp
• milk - 1/4 cup
• Oil - 2 tbsp
• Cumin powder - 2 tsp
• Hot sauce - 1 tbsp
• Garlic powder - 1 tbsp (you can substitute with fresh garlic
• Ranch - 2 tbsp
• Salt
• Pepper
• Cheese (optional)

Directions: 

1. For the dough, mix together the flour, salt, sugar, milk, yeast, oil and egg. Knead it to a medium soft dough with slightly warm water. I used about 3/4 cups of water. But make sure you little water at a time, so you don't end up with a runny dough.
2. Leave it covered to rise for an hour. 
3. In that time, get your filling ready. To make my filling, I made my kheema(ground meat) previously. Recipe for that was to take some oil, roast some jeera in it, then add onions and saute. Next add chillies, tomatoes & salt and cook until soft and the mixture is like a paste. Now add the kheema and cook until you smell the aroma of cooked kheema(ground meat).
4. For the filling for the bread, I added some oil to a pan. Once hot, I added some all purpose flour and roasted the flour. Then I added milk to it and mixed until it turned into a smooth paste. Next I added some garlic powder, cumin powder, hot sauce and ranch to it. Then I added my previously cooked kheema to this along with some salt and pepper. That was it, my filling was ready.
   
5. Once my dough was risen, divide the dough into 4 parts. Preheat the oven to 400 degree F
6. Roll out the dough into a rectangular shape about 1/3 inch thick. Slit the edges with a knife.
   
    
7. Put the filling in the centre (add cheese to the top if you like) and fold each side so they overlap each other. Similar to a braid
8. Brush the top with beaten egg and sprinkle sesame seeds to the top. Place on top of a greased baking tray. I usually cover my trays with aluminum foil before I place the bread on it
   
9. Bake for 30 minutes or until lightly golden brown at the top of the bread
10. Wait for it to cool before taking it off the tray. Your braided bread is ready to devour! 

I have made this bread and consumed it immediately. And have also, stored it and used it the day after. Either case, the bread stays soft and moist. If storing, please store in an airtight container and refrigerate. You can also make the dough and store it before hand. I have personally stored this dough for up to 3 days in the refrigerator and it has still worked out beautifully. Just make sure, you bring the dough to room temperature before rolling it out. I hope you enjoyed this recipe too! This is my basic stuffed bread recipe, and I will keep going back to it time and again.. Until then dear friends, Live, Love, Laugh and Eat.. Oh yes, EAT!