Chicken Momo

What Chicken Momo is

Momo are steamed dumplings of minced chicken, onion, ginger and garlic folded into a thin wheat wrapper. The filling stays loose rather than compacted, so the first bite releases a mouthful of hot, gingery juice. They are judged as much on the achar served alongside as on the dumpling itself.

Dietary: Contains gluten

Allergens: WheatSesame

Where it comes from

Momo travelled into Nepal from Tibet and were adopted wholesale in the Kathmandu Valley, where Newar cooks reshaped the seasoning around local ginger, garlic and timur pepper. They are street food, family food and restaurant food at once — sold from steamer carts in the afternoon and cooked at home on holidays. In Japan, Nepali-run kitchens in Shin-Okubo and Shibuya made momo the dish most people try first.

How to eat it

Eat momo with your hands. Lift one by the pleated top, bite a small opening at the side and drink the juice before it runs out — this is the step most first-timers miss, and it is the reason the dumpling is juicy in the first place. Then dip the opened momo into the achar and finish it in one or two bites. Do not drown a whole momo in the sauce; the wrapper tears and the juice is lost.

Goes well with

• A glass of masala chai
• Thukpa for a fuller meal
• Plain yoghurt to cool the achar

Ingredients

• 300 g Plain flour — Low-protein flour keeps the wrapper tender.
• 400 g Minced chicken thigh — Thigh, not breast — breast dries out in the steamer.
• 1 large Onion, very finely chopped
• 4 cloves Garlic, grated
• 1 tbsp Ginger, grated
• 1 small bunch Coriander leaf, chopped
• 1/2 tsp Timur or Sichuan pepper, ground — The numbing note that marks a Nepali momo.
• 1.5 tsp Salt
• 2 tbsp Oil — Keeps the filling moist as it steams.
• 4 medium Tomatoes, for the achar
• 3 tbsp Sesame seeds, toasted
• 2 to 4 Dried red chillies

How to cook it

1. 1Make the dough and let it rest

   Mix the flour with about 160 ml of water and a pinch of salt until it comes together, then knead for five minutes until smooth. Cover and rest for thirty minutes. Resting relaxes the gluten so the wrapper can be rolled thin without springing back.

2. 2Mix the filling without compacting it

   Combine the chicken, onion, garlic, ginger, coriander, timur, salt and oil. Fold with your fingers rather than beating it — a filling worked too hard turns dense and loses the juice that should burst out of the finished dumpling.

3. 3Roll wrappers thin at the edge

   Divide the dough into pieces about 12 g each. Roll each into a circle roughly 8 cm across, keeping the centre slightly thicker than the rim. The thick centre carries the filling's weight; the thin rim makes the pleats possible.

4. 4Fill and pleat

   Place a heaped teaspoon in the centre. Pleat the edge around it, turning as you go, and pinch the top closed. A sealed momo steams; an open one leaks its juice into the basket.

5. 5Steam for ten minutes

   Oil the steamer tray so they release cleanly and space them apart — they swell. Steam over rolling water for ten minutes. The wrapper turns translucent and stops looking floury when they are done.

6. 6Make the achar while they steam

   Char the tomatoes in a dry pan until the skins blacken, then blend with the toasted sesame, dried chillies and salt to a loose, pourable sauce. It should be sharp enough to cut the richness of the filling.

Calories and nutrition

Per serving — 8 pieces with achar (about 280 g)

Approximate values for a typical restaurant portion, calculated from standard ingredient tables. Actual figures vary with the kitchen, the oil used and the portion served. Not intended as medical or dietary advice.

Where to eat Chicken Momo

• NEPALICO Shibuya Ten — Tokyo
• AANGAN — Tokyo
• KHUMBILA — Tokyo
• Sekuwagaru — Tokyo
• Nepali Banshagaru Indian Curry Sakura — Tokyo
• Isora Shinjuku Higashiguchi Ten — Tokyo
• asian dining Hotpot — Tokyo
• Spice Land Tokyo — Tokyo
• Curry House Himalaya — Tokyo
• Namaste Tokyo — Tokyo

Other dishes to read about

• Veg Momo — The vegetarian momo, where the filling has to be seasoned harder to carry itself.
• Butter Chicken — Tandoori chicken finished in a tomato and cream gravy — mild, and deliberately so.
• Lamb Curry — Bone-in lamb cooked slowly until the sauce thickens around it.
• Chicken Biryani — Rice and marinated chicken layered raw, then sealed and steamed together.
• Mutton Biryani — The same method as chicken biryani, but the meat sets the timing.
• Veg Biryani — Vegetables cut to hold their shape, layered with rice the same way as meat.