Homemade Khinkali

1. Start by preparing the dough, because it needs to sit. Pour the sifted flour in parts into a deep bowl, make a depression and pour water into it, add salt.

2. Knead the dough. Add flour gradually. The dough should be stiff but elastic. Knead for about 5-10 minutes.

3. Place the dough ball on a floured surface. You don’t need to take a lot of flour so that the dough doesn’t become tight when kneading further.

4. For the filling, I will take a whole piece of pork neck. Pork can be replaced with beef, lamb or assorted meats. It is important to choose meat with layers of fat rather than lean meat, then the khinkali will be juicier. Many people add fat tail fat. As for me, pork neck is enough. Cut the meat into small pieces. You can use a meat grinder and grind the meat through it. I like the chopped meat filling better when you can feel the pieces.

5. Chop the onion into small cubes.

6. Wash the cilantro and chop as desired.

7. In a bowl, mix meat, onion, cilantro, pepper and salt. Knead the filling well with your hands.

8. Add water to the meat filling. This way the khinkali will be juicy inside and much tastier. Fill a large saucepan halfway with water and set to heat.

9. Divide the “rested” dough into 3 parts. Place two pieces back into the bowl under the film, and make a sausage from the remaining dough and cut into pieces of approximately 35-40 grams.

10. Roll out each piece of dough from the middle to the edges. Place a piece of dough on a saucer; this makes it easier for me personally to shape the khinkali and guide it by size. Place a little more than 1 teaspoon of filling in the middle.

11. An important element in creating khinkali is working on the form. Traditionally, Georgian housewives mold khinkali in such a way that there is a small “tail” of dough on the top.

12. It is believed that khinkali at the base, when approaching the “tail”, should have at least 18 folds, I have 22. Pin the edges of the dough at least 18 times, seal the top well.

13. The water warmed up and began to boil. You can salt the water if you wish, I don’t. Place some of the stuck khinkali into boiling water using a slotted spoon, this way there will be less splashing. At the same time, you need to make a water cycle so that the khinkali do not stick to each other. You can do without a slotted spoon, but you have to get used to it. The amount of khinkali you put out depends on the volume of the pan. I have a 3-liter saucepan, I put 4 pieces at a time to cook.

14. Cook khinkali after boiling water for 10 minutes each batch.

From this amount of dough this time we got 14 pieces. But I also needed only 400 grams of flour to knead the dough. I usually don’t cook everything at once; I freeze some.

15. Serve khinkali with ground black pepper and herbs. Add sour cream if desired.

I hope the recipe was helpful. Bon appetit!