How to Make Coxinha

Coxinha (pron: co-SHEEN-ya) is a Brazilian street food, minced chicken wrapped in a soft dough, breaded and deep fried. Is there any part of that that doesn’t sound completely great? I’ll answer. There’s not.

coxinha recipe

The legend of how coxinha came to be is that a long time ago, there was a young Brazilian prince and, like every prince, he expected to be stuffed to the gills with his favorite foods all the live-long day. His favorite food happened to be chicken legs — drumsticks. When it came time for the palace cook to make his lunch, though, she found that she was short on drumsticks! Curses!

So she cooked up some chicken breast instead, wrapped it in a dough and shaped it into a drumstick (coxinha means “little drumstick”, sort of. It’s complicated.) and then deep fried it, just to be on the safe side. The little prince loved the result and so did his mother. And so will you.

In Brazil, coxinha are made in many sizes. Large ones, the size of a fist, are sold on the street for lunch and snacks. Small ones are made for parties at home. The basic filling always includes chicken, onions, garlic, parsley; sometimes tomato sauce or mashed potato. Street coxinha may include a salty. cream-cheese-like cheese called catupiry, but those made at home generally don’t have cheese. This recipe comes from a family friend, Tuany, who is from Maceió. It’s her mother’s recipe and was translated from Portuguese. I added my own notes to clarify the recipe for non-Brazilians like myself. 🙂

If you like, serve coxinha with molho rosé (“pink sauce”) a dip made from 2 parts mayonnaise and 1 part ketchup, mixed together with a little lime juice and salt if it needs it. Adjust the ratio to your preference.

For more Brazilian snacks, see my Pão de Queijo (Brazilian cheese bread) recipe and video and Brigadeiro recipe!

How to make Coxinha recipe video – scroll down for recipe

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Coxinha recipe – printable

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Coxinha

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2.3 from 3 reviews

  • Author: Hilah Johnson
  • Cook Time: 1 hour
  • Total Time: 1 hour
  • Yield: 30 1x

Ingredients

Scale
  • 2 pounds bone-in chicken (breast is usually used but I prefer a mix of white and dark)
  • 6 cups water
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • 1 medium onion, diced small
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced
  • 2 tablespoons tomato sauce
  • 1 tablespoon white vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 2 tablespoons fresh minced parsley
  • 6 cups all-purpose white flour, sifted
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups plain breadcrumbs (Panko can be used but regular fine breadcrumbs are better)
  • 34 cups oil for deep frying

Instructions

  1. To begin, put the chicken in a large pot with the water and tablespoon salt. Cover and place over high heat. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer about 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the chicken from the broth and place in fridge to cool. Save the broth in the pot and set aside.
  2. Once chicken is cool enough to handle, remove the skin and bones and discard. Shred the meat very finely, using a knife or a food processor. You should have about 2 cups of meat.
  3. In a large skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat and add the onions and garlic. Cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the seasonings and the chicken and combine well. Turn off heat and set aside.
  4. Bring the pot of broth to a rolling boil, turn off heat and dump in the flour. Stir quickly with a big spoon. Mixture will be lumpy, but try to get all the dry patches of flour incorporated. Once cooled enough to handle, knead the dough for a couple of minutes.
  5. (At this point, both filling and dough may be refrigerated over night. Cover the dough tightly so it doesn’t dry out.)
  6. To shape the coxinha, pull off balls of dough about the size of an egg and flatten with your hands to make a circle. Scoop a teaspoon or two of filling into the center and pull the sides up to cover the filling. Pinch and twist the top of the bundle to make a drumstick shape. Place shaped coxinha on a plate.
  7. Once all are shaped, beat the eggs together in a bowl and dip each coxinha in the egg. Roll to coat in crumbs and set aside until all are made.
  8. (At this point, coxinha may be refrigerated over night.)
  9. When ready to cook, heat 4 inches of oil to 350ºF. Fry the coxinha a few at a time for just about a minute, until golden brown.
  10. Serve hot, but they are also good at room temperature.

Notes

Fried coxinha may be cooled and frozen for longer storage. To reheat, place on a pan in a 375ºF oven for about 20-30 minutes until hot throughout and crispy.

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coxinha recipe

13 Comments

  1. FoodJunkie on July 11, 2016 at 9:30 am

    These look really tasty and reminiscent of Lebanese Kibbeh which I love. There are suggestions the dish emigrated to from Lebanon to Brazil and was modified for local flavour. While I tend to lose patience with the time it takes to build dumplings and croquettes I will be looking to give these a try.

    • Hilah on July 11, 2016 at 12:45 pm

      Very interesting! Thanks for sharing! Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could create a sort of trade-map of different foods and how they traveled and changed over time?
      Hope you try these! I’m impatient, too, but these work for me b/c the parts can be made a day ahead and then assembled.

      • Andy on May 8, 2020 at 7:14 pm

        Say I were to used a store cooked chicken how much broth would I use? 6 cups Broth with 6 cups of flour?

  2. Melissa on July 11, 2016 at 5:41 pm

    These look so delicious I might have to try them sometime.

    Also, because I don’t like commenting on YouTube – I had to remark on your Canadian snacks “put it in my mouth” segment. I grew up/live in Washington in an almost-border town (about 60 miles from Vancouver) and grew up eating Old Dutch brand ketchup potato chips. I absolutely love them and whenever I meet people who didn’t grow up in this area they are so weirded out by the idea of them (but 80% of them love them once they have them). Anyway, I hope you liked them and someday you need to go to BC and try the Old Dutch brand because they are my personal favorite. Or maybe I need to send you some sometime ;). I also always thought Smarties were like M&Ms with a little better quality chocolate…? Not that that’s hard to do haha.

    Take care!

  3. Tiffany Mattingly on July 16, 2016 at 7:27 pm

    Hello from Kentucky,
    Looking forward to making this. I had these when I was in Rio about 4 years ago and they was delicious! 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing and wanted to let you know that my husband and I love your show.
    Take care and have a great day.
    Tiffany and James

    • Hilah on July 17, 2016 at 3:26 pm

      Thank, y’all! Hope you enjoy! Let me know if this coxinha recipe is close to the ones you had in Rio 🙂

  4. Erica on March 27, 2017 at 7:36 pm

    The filling was great but I guess I made the dough part too thick. The outside was crispy but the inside was still raw. 🙁






    • Yankee on June 3, 2020 at 4:49 am

      I tried them too and had the same issue, they were pretty thin but they still weren’t cooked, very disappointed

  5. Araceli on April 3, 2020 at 1:12 pm

    From nyc and I have a fave spot to get these and I Actually made these today with this recipe and it was a disaster. The dough did not taste like Brazilian authentic ones do. Also, there wasn’t flour to water ratios so you’re kind of stuck figuring it out for yourself (if you don’t want to make the amount in the recipe)






    • Hilah on April 4, 2020 at 10:13 am

      I don’t quite know what you mean by “disaster” – did the dough not hold together? Or they just don’t taste the same as you’re used to? The recipe came direct from a Brazilian friend so it’s difficult to argue “inauthentic”. Regarding the ratio, if you read the recipe carefully, it states 6 cups of broth (the water you simmer the chicken in) to 6 cups of flour.

  6. Jazmin on November 17, 2021 at 9:35 pm

    I made the recipe as it was said and inside the dough was very raw. I even let it fry up to 6 minutes and it was still raw … :(((

  7. Kimberly Costello on January 3, 2022 at 11:12 am

    Too much dough and not nearly enough filling- everything was very flavorful but this is a very labor intensive undertaking-






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