Chin-chin is one of the most delicious African snacks, most people use chin-chin to enter their visitors or just use chin-chin to keep their mouths busy. Most Africans do not know how to make chin-chin. Some chin-chin are too sweet, not too sweet, soft, soaked with oil, or even crunchy.
People sometimes find it difficult to purchase because most people do not stick to a particular recipe, imagine chewing a tasteful chin-chin today and a tasteless one tomorrow, it is just not encouraging. So have you been searching for how to make chin-chin to satisfy your own taste? This article is written to make it easy for you, all you have to do is follow the process and enjoy the delightful crunchy, and tasteful snack.
Ingredients for making chin-chin
- 8 cups (1kg) plain flour (all-purpose flour)
- 1 tin Milk
- 250g margarine
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons ground nutmeg
- 2 eggs (optional)
- Some water (only if necessary)
- Vegetable oil (for frying)
How to make Chin-chin
There are few steps you must take if you really want to know how to make chin-chin;
- Measure and Mix dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
- Measure and mix wet ingredients together except butter.
- Add butter to the dry ingredients and mix with your fingers until just combined.
- Pour in the other wet ingredients and mix together until dough forms. it should form a perfect dough but if it feels a bit stiff, add a Tablespoon of water or milk. if it feels too tacky, add a tablespoon or 2 of flour no more. DO NOT overwork the dough.
- Wrap in a saran wrap and allow to rest on the counter for about 5 mins. this allows flavors to blend in and develops the gluten which makes it easier during the cutting process
- Unwrap rested dough, you can roll out all the dough at once since the dough is small or you can divide it into 2 portions and roll individually. Roll out dough to about a quarter of an inch thick because the dough will rise when you fry them.
- With a knife or pizza cutter or even a dough divider cut dough across vertically and horizontally forming little squares.
- Put little squares in a bowl and sprinkle a little flour on them and shake to prevent sticking.
- Heat up oil. Fry till light golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and spread on a paper towel-lined tray to cool. Chin chin will be soft when hot but hardens as it cools.
Most people complain of soggy or oily chin-chin and they wonder why their chin is so oily, the next heading explains that.
Why does my chin-chin have so much oil?
There are many reasons as to why you have to eat a chin-chin soaked with oil and I will be enumerating some of those reasons here.
- The Oil wasn’t hot enough: before putting the chin in the oil, ensure that the oil is hot enough to fry a dough without getting soaked. When you fry with oil at low temperature there are 98% chances that the chin-chin is going to be soggy.
- The Oil wasn’t enough for the amount of chin dough being fried: Make sure to have enough oil for your frying, do not use a small quantity of oil for a big bowl of chin-chin.
- The Oil was jampacked with much chin-chin. You must note that overcrowding the oil lowers the oil temperature.
How to stop your oil from spilling while frying
Most people complain of how oil spills while frying, when the dough is thrown into the frying pan it bubbles with oil and this could warrant the use of more oil than plan what was planned for. This happens when you are frying with butter because most people enjoy crunchy chin-chin. but when it is fried with margarine it could rarely spill.
here is what you should do if you are frying with butter;
- If you are making a large quantity, use a large pot to fill in oil to accommodate large chin-chin dough for each batch then Change the oil after each batch.
- If you are making a small quantity, Use a large pot to accommodate the amount of oil needed to fry the chin-chin in one batch.
Enjoy your tasty crunchy chin.
