Coxinha

Coxinha is shredded chicken and cream cheese wrapped inside a dough shaped like a drumstick, breaded and fried until crisp. It's Brazil's most-ordered savoury snack, sold everywhere from bakeries and bars to street vendors, and its teardrop, drumstick-mimicking shape is as recognisable as the flavour itself.

What it really is

Chicken simmers, shreds, and mixes with a soft cheese — often catupiry, a mild Brazilian cream cheese — before it's enclosed in a dough made from the reserved chicken broth thickened with flour, which stays pliable enough to shape by hand. Each portion of dough wraps around the filling and shapes into a teardrop that narrows to a point, mimicking a chicken leg, before it dips in egg, coats in breadcrumbs, and fries until the outside turns deep golden and crisp around the soft filling inside.

The shape is deliberate and expected, not decorative. A coxinha that comes out round rather than tapered to a point reads as poorly made to anyone familiar with the snack — the drumstick shape is as much a part of the dish's identity as its flavour.

How it's served

• Hot, straight from the fryer, eaten by hand.
• As a snack, bar food, or party appetizer.
• Sometimes with a dab of hot sauce, though it's rarely necessary.

How to write it on the menu

• Flag the wheat, dairy and egg.
• Say what the filling is, since versions with catupiry, plain chicken, or other fillings all exist.
• Note the size, since bite-sized party versions and larger snack-bar versions are both common.

The ingredients, allergens and dietary notes listed here describe a typical recipe. They are not a binding declaration for any particular restaurant: recipes, portion sizes and the products used can differ.