Kitchening: Haitian Chicken Puffs

When I have a catering gig at twocities gallery, I do a massive search to find new appetizers. They're not the easiest thing for me to drum up off the top of my head and I like trying to recipes. I found these Haitian Chicken Puffs on a blog called First Look, Then Cook and they looks delish and something that Chinese and Foreigner taste buds would enjoy. Thankfully, I was right. They had a great combination of spices and veggies that I would never think of putting together on my own. Plus they use puff pastry which pretty much makes everything better.

Also, doesn't this picture make it look like I have a personal butler who carries around appetizers for me?

Haitian Chicken Puffs
slightly adapted from First Look, Then Cook 

Ingredients

• Cooking oil (I used olive oil but you might go for something with less flavor)
• 1/4  cup  chopped yellow or red onion
• 2  tsp minced garlic
• 1/2  pound ground chicken breast (hard to find here so I ground some chicken in my food processor. worked great)
• 1/4  cup shredded carrot
• 2  tsp  no-salt-added tomato paste
• 2  tsp  fresh lime juice
• 1  tsp  cider vinegar
• 1  tsp  chopped green onions
• 1  tsp  chopped fresh parsley
• 1  tsp  chopped fresh thyme
• 1/2  tsp  freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4  tsp  salt
• 1/8  tsp  ground cloves
• 1/8  tsp  grated nutmeg
• Tabasco sauce (or your choice of hot sauce), to taste
• 1  (14-ounce) package frozen puff pastry, thawed
• 1  large egg
• 1  tablespoon water

Preparation

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Coat pan with a tablespoon of cooking oil. Add  onion, and garlic to pan; sauté 3 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Add chicken and cook 5 minutes or until browned, stirring to crumble. Add carrot and cook 2 minutes. Add tomato paste and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add lime juice and vinegar, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Add green onions and next 6 ingredients (through nutmeg); stir well. Remove from heat; cool mixture to room temperature.

Add a few or more than a few drops of Tabasco sauce to the mixture, depending on your audience. Place cooled chicken mixture in a food processor; process until almost smooth (mixture will begin to clump).

Preheat oven to 400°.

Roll puff pastry into a 15 x 12–inch rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Cut puff pastry into 20 (3-inch) squares. Combine egg and water, stirring with a whisk. Brush egg mixture along edges of pastry squares; spoon about 1 scant tablespoon filling in center of each pastry square. Fold each pastry square in half; press edges closed with tines of a fork. Brush top with egg wash; arrange 1 inch apart on a baking sheet. Bake at 400° for 20 minutes or until puffed and golden brown.

Makes 20 small puffs.