Black Pepper Chicken Bun 黑胡椒鸡肉面包

Soft sweet milk bread with juicy black pepper chicken filling held in the well of the bun.

I prefer bread filling which showed texture of ingredients in a flavourful thick sauce. Some bakeries offered meat-filling bun but minced every solid ingredients, and presented them as a soft lump of filling. I came across a so-called "teriyaki bun" which was stuffed with a greyish-brown lump of teriyaki flavour meat paste. Totally not pleasing at all 😏

At home, I tried to put in extra effort by baking a meat-filling bun which was not only pleasing to the taste, but also to the eyes 😋The filling was made up of bit-size chicken fillet, onion and capsicum in a smooth black pepper sauce. These black pepper chicken buns earned 3 thump-ups from my family 👍👍👍

Black Pepper Chicken Filling (150g)

Ingredients

75~80g poached chicken fillets

1/2 onion, chopped 洋葱，切碎

1 tsp chopped garlic 蒜头，切碎
1 tbsp green capsicum, diced 青椒, 切粒

1/4 tsp coriander, chopped 芫荽，切碎

2 tbsp oyster sauce 蚝油

1/2 tsp light soy sauce 酱清

1/2 tsp rock sugar cubes 冰糖粒

1/2 tsp coarse black pepper 粗粒黑胡椒

50ml water 水

Salt & sugar to taste 盐和糖调味

1/2 tsp potato starch 太白粉

20ml water 水

Directions

1. Rinse chicken fillets and set aside.

Add 1 slice of ginger and about 1 stalk of white scallion, to about 400g of water, and heat till bubbles start to gather at the bottom of the pot, and light steam can be seen.

Submerge the chicken fillets in the hot water, turn off the heat, and let the chicken fillets simmer for about 10 minutes, or till tenderly cooked.

10 minutes later

2. Cut the poached chicken fillets into fine bits and collect about 75~80g for later use. Cover and keep in the fridge till needed.

3. Heat about 2 tsp of olive oil in a pot at medium heat. Saute the garlic till golden and fragrant before adding the coarse black pepper.

Stir in the onion, continue to stir fry till the onion slightly softened.

Add in the green capsicum and stir-fry till fragrant. Push the ingredients to one side of the pot.

add in oyster sauce, light soy sauce,

 and rock sugar. Cook till the sauce bubbles.

 When the mixture starts to bubble, pour in the water and bring to a light boil.

Mix the potato starch and water, before adding gradually to the sauce. When the mixture starts to thicken, turn off the heat.

Toss in the poached chicken cubes and mix well together with other ingredients in the pot.

The mixture should be thick enough to hold together.

4. Transfer to a bowl and cool down. Set aside.

Sweet Milk Bun Dough (294g)

Ingredients

95g fresh milk 鲜奶

10g condensed milk 炼奶

1/4 tsp instant dry yeast 速发干酵母

140g unbleached bread flour 无漂白高筋面粉

10g superfine wholegrain flour 超细全麦面粉

20g fine sugar 细砂糖

15g beaten egg 蛋液

1g salt 盐

10g unsalted butter 无盐牛油

Directions

As the quantity of the dough was relatively small, so I preferred to hand knead it instead of using a breadmaker.  

1. Sprinkle instant dry yeast over the mixture of fresh milk and condensed milk. Cover and set aside for about 15 minutes.

2. Mix the rest of the ingredients, except the butter, in a mixing bowl.

Pour in the milk-yeast mixture from (1) and mix into a lump.

Cover and let the mixture rest for about 15 minutes.

3. Knead the dough till smooth, then knead in the unsalted butter.

Stop kneading after the dough has achieved window-pane when stretches out.

Shape the dough into a ball,

 place in a slightly-oiled bowl, spray some water, and cover with a lid. Let the dough proof for about 1 hour or till double in size.

4. Turn out the dough onto a floured work top, flatten and divide into 5 portions.

Shape the doughs into small balls, cover and rest for about 15 minutes.

5. Take a dough ball, roll out to about 5mm thick,

use a small glass to cut out a round dough from the centre.
The size of the glass opening should be close to the base of your paper mould.

Remove the outer ring, and roll the cut-out dough to the shape of your paper mould base. Place the rolled dough into the paper mould.

Gradually pull and extend the outer ring dough,

Turn 2 to 3 rounds,

and place into the paper mould.

Let the shaped doughs rest in a closed oven for about 10 minutes.

6. Take out the shaped doughs, pull the ring dough slightly to open it up.

Fill the doughs with the black pepper chicken filling.

Arrange the doughs in a baking tray and proof in the closed oven for about 20 to 30 minutes.

After the proofing, sprinkle some bread flour over the dough. and preheat the oven to 180°C

7. Bake at the middle rack of a preheated oven at 180°C for about 10 minutes, then lower the temperature to 170°C for about 5 to 8 minutes, or till the buns become golden.

8. Let the dough cool down slightly before consumption. Keep the unconsumed buns in the fridge and reheat them before serving. Enjoy 😋

Garnish the buns with green scallions (optional).

Baked on 31 Aug 2017