The coxinha is a popular food in many countries in South America especially Brazil,. consisting of chopped or shredded chicken meat fried in batter, molded into a shape resembling a chicken leg.
Coxinhas were originally made with a chicken thigh, which its traditional shape is meant to resemble. In its modern processed form it may have originated in Sao paulo in the 19th century.
In the book Stories & Recipes, Nadir Cavazin says that the son of Princess Izabel of Brazil (1846-1921) and the Count D’Eu, a child who lived in seclusion for having mental problems had a favorite dish, chicken, but only ate the thigh. One day, not having enough thigh, the cook decided to turn a whole chicken into thighs, shredding it and making the filling for a flour dough shaped into a drumstick. The child endorsed the results.Empress Teresa Christina, when she was visiting him, could not resist the tasty delicacy; she liked it so much she requested that the master of the imperial kitchen learn how to prepare the snack. So coxinha won over the nobility and became history.
The coxinha is based on dough made with wheat flour and chicken broth, which is filled with spiced chicken meat. The filling consists of chicken, tomato sauce, oniom , parsley, and scallions
, that is coated in wheat flour .Variants including potato are also commonly sold .It is shaped to roughly resemble a chicken leg. The dough used to coat the filling is often prepared with the broth of the chicken, enhancing the flavor of the coating.
Different variations of the original are becoming more prevalent today – for example, the coxinha mineira, for which the filling includes maize, so named because maize is deemed a culinary tradition in the state of Minas Gerais, as well as areas where the caipira and sertanejo dialects are spoken. Cheese coxinhas are also very common in snack bars. To mark the cheese coxinhas they usually have a toothpick where the bone would be in a chicken coxinha.
Traditional Cuisine Around The World 