Firecrackers are an original classic dish of the Russian culinary tradition. At least 2 legends of the appearance of this wonderful dish are known. According to one version, these very tasty cutlets were invented by the cook of one of the princes of Pozharsky. By the arrival of the Grand Duke, this resourceful cook cooked cutlets from chicken meat because of the lack of veal at that moment in the kitchen. Another version is more real: this dish was invented by a spouse of the owner of a tavern in the city of Torzhok, a kind of Daria Pozharskaya, at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin even mentions these wonderful cutlets in his poems, which is not surprising - Torzhok was on the horse track from St. Petersburg to Moscow. Pozharsky cutlets - a delicious dish and quite difficult to prepare, and therefore requires a sensible approach. Meat for fire cutlets is used chicken or turkey. We will remember well that eggs and onions are not used for preparing fire cutlets.
We cook fire cutlets
So, chicken cutlets are fire. To prepare this wonderful dish we will need:
- 500 g of chicken meat (half from the legs, the second half from the breast, so it's better to buy a whole, well-fattened fat chicken);
- 2-3 tablespoons of natural (preferably rustic) butter;
- 2-3 tablespoons of natural milk cream;
- 1 cup of liquid cream or milk for soaking bread;
- 2-3 slices of white bread;
- 2-4 tablespoons vegetable oil for frying;
- ground black pepper;
- salt, herbs.
Preparation:
Chicken minced meat can be cooked in three ways: skip meat through a meat grinder, cut with a knife by hand or in a combine (blender, chopper). The latter two methods are preferable, since the meat mincer changes the structure of the meat undesirably. Bread should be soaked in cream (or good whole milk), and then squeezed, but not too much. Next, add bread to the chicken mince, along with melted butter, cream, dry spices and salt. Everything is thoroughly mixed. Now put the frying pan on the fire and warm up the oil (you can use melted chicken fat instead of butter). We form oval spindle-shaped cutlets (if in the middle of each place a tiny bit of butter - it will be especially delicious, the cutlets will be remarkably juicy and tender). Usually cooked fire cutlets with breadcrumbs, that is, they cut a cutlet in breadcrumbs before frying. Sometimes in the middle of the cutlets put a chicken bone from the shin or thigh - probably in order that the cutlet can be eaten by hand, the inn still.
Fry the patties correctly
You can fry cutlets from both sides (slightly turn them using a spatula), and then in the oven to bring to full readiness. To do this, lay a lightly fried cutlet on a greased baking sheet or in a special refractory ceramic, or glass. Form or baking sheet with cutlets put in an oven, heated to an average temperature. The temperature should not be too low, otherwise the cutlets can dry out. We will bake the cutlets until they are ready, which will be informed by the appetizing smell and golden-brown shade of cutlets. Well, classic fire pies from chicken are ready. This is a dish for a festive table, and therefore it should only be served hot (or warm) and freshly prepared. Cold and warmed fire cutlets lose their wonderful taste.
Pozharsky cutlets from turkey
You can cook deliciously delicious fire cutlets using turkey meat. In this case, everything is done in the same way as in the preparation of fire cutlets from chicken meat, only slightly increase the cooking time. Fire cutlets should be served with a simple side dish of fried, boiled or baked potatoes or crumbly buckwheat. It is also good to serve some rough and not too hot sauce, stewed vegetables, salted, stewed in sour cream or marinated mushrooms and / or classic Russian raznosoly. To fire cutlets you can serve strong berry tincture or a strong light table wine.