A Yummy Crispy Fried Tart, Old Recipe Find

  I have another recipe from my collection of old recipe cards and food packaging today. This one is simply called “Fried Tart.”

Fried Tart

At first I thought it would be something sweet because of the word tart, but it is actually a savory fried pastry filled with creamy chicken and green peas.

What caught my attention was the dough. Instead of making just one pastry dough, this recipe uses two different doughs: one made with flour, water and oil, and another made with flour and margarine. They are rolled together to create visible flaky layers.

It immediately reminded me of karipap pusing, or Malaysian spiral curry puffs.

The difference is the filling. Instead of potatoes and curry spices, this version has chicken cooked with onion, milk, black pepper, nutmeg and peas. So I imagine the flavor is softer and creamier—almost like putting a little chicken pot pie filling inside a fried flaky pastry.

The original recipe card uses Cap Kompas flour, but for the recipe below I simply call it all-purpose flour.

Fried Tart with Creamy Chicken Filling

Makes approximately 12 pieces

Dough 1

• 250 g all-purpose flour
• 25 g cooking oil
• 30 g granulated sugar
• 100 ml water

Dough 2

• 100 g all-purpose flour
• 50 g margarine

Chicken Filling

• 1 tablespoon margarine
• 2 tablespoons chopped onion
• ½ chicken breast, diced
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 150 ml milk
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 3 tablespoons green peas
• Oil, for deep frying

How to Make It

1. Make the first dough

Combine the flour, cooking oil, sugar and water.

Mix and knead until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.

Divide into 12 equal portions and shape each portion into a ball.

2. Make the second dough

Combine the flour and margarine.

Mix until evenly combined and knead briefly.

Divide into 12 equal portions and roll them into balls as well.

3. Prepare the creamy chicken filling

Melt the margarine in a pan.

Add the chopped onion and sauté until fragrant.

Add the diced chicken and cook until the chicken changes color and is almost cooked through.

Sprinkle in the flour and stir well.

Slowly pour in the milk while stirring so the mixture stays smooth.

Season with salt, black pepper and nutmeg.

Cook until the sauce becomes thick and creamy.

Finally, add the green peas, stir briefly and remove from the heat.

Let the filling cool completely before assembling the pastries.

4. Create the flaky pastry

Flatten one portion of Dough 1.

Place one ball of Dough 2 in the center and wrap Dough 1 around it.

Flatten carefully with a rolling pin, then roll the dough up.

Flatten and roll again so that the two doughs begin creating visible layers.

The goal here is similar to making spiral curry-puff pastry: the layers of dough and fat separate slightly during frying and produce that pretty flaky appearance.

5. Fill and shape

Roll each portion into a small circle.

Place some cooled chicken filling in the center.

Fold the pastry over the filling into a half-moon shape.

Seal the edges firmly and pinch or twist the edge, similar to making Indonesian pastel.

6. Fry

Heat enough cooking oil for deep frying.

Fry the tarts over medium heat until the pastry becomes crisp and golden.

Remove and drain on paper towels or a wire rack.

Serve while warm.

 

A Few Notes I Would Keep in Mind, I think the most important thing with this recipe is to make sure the filling is quite thick and completely cool before putting it inside the pastry. A wet or hot filling could make the dough difficult to seal.

I would also fry these over medium rather than very high heat. The pastry has several layers, so it needs enough time for the layers to cook and become crisp before the outside gets too dark.

And because the filling contains milk, chicken and peas, I wouldn't overfill them. A small spoonful should make them much easier to seal.

This Recipe Reminds Me of...

Finding recipes like this always makes me curious about similar foods from other countries. Fried stuffed dough seems to be one of those ideas that appears almost everywhere, but every country makes it a little differently.

🇲🇾 Malaysian Karipap Pusing

This is probably the closest relative to the Fried Tart.

Karipap pusing—or spiral curry puff—also uses two doughs, commonly called a water dough and oil dough. The doughs are wrapped together, rolled and folded to produce those beautiful flaky layers after frying. The filling is usually much more strongly flavored, often with curried potatoes and chicken.

The Nyonya Cooking version is particularly useful because it shows the layered-dough process step by step.

Spiral Curry Puffs (Karipap Pusing) — Nyonya Cooking

There is also another version here:

Malaysian Curry Puff — Rasa Malaysia

The similarity is quite striking. The biggest difference is that this old Fried Tart recipe uses a mild creamy chicken filling, while Malaysian curry puffs usually have a dry, aromatic curry filling.

🇧🇷 Brazilian Pastel

Brazilian pastel is another fun comparison.

Like this recipe, pastel is filled and deep-fried, and fillings can range from beef and cheese to chicken and creamy combinations. However, Brazilian pastel dough is normally rolled very thin rather than laminated with a second dough, so the finished pastry is thin, blistered and crispy rather than visibly flaky.

Brazilian Pastel with Three Fillings — Olivia's Cuisine

I think this would be a particularly interesting recipe to try next because the idea is similar, but the pastry texture would be completely different.

🇦🇷 Argentinian Empanadas

And of course there are empanadas.

The familiar half-moon shape makes them look very similar to pastel-style snacks. The dough and filling vary greatly, and Argentinian versions can contain seasoned beef, vegetables, eggs, olives and other fillings. Some styles are fried while many Argentinian versions are baked.

Beef Empanadas — Saveur

Unlike this Fried Tart, empanada pastry generally doesn't use the two-dough spiral technique, so again the texture is quite different even though the basic idea—pastry + savory filling + folded edge—is familiar.

🇮🇳 Indian Samosa

Samosas are a slightly more distant cousin, but I think they belong in the same family of comforting fried snacks.

Traditional-style samosas use a flour-and-oil dough wrapped around a filling, often potatoes, peas and spices, before being deep-fried until crisp. Their triangular shape and heavily spiced filling make them quite different from this creamy chicken tart, but the basic cooking method is similar.

Vegetable Samosas — Good Food

So What Exactly Is This “Fried Tart”?

After looking at the other recipes, I think the funny thing about this recipe is that “Fried Tart” probably doesn't describe it very well to modern ears.

To me, it looks much closer to a flaky fried chicken pastry or spiral chicken puff.

It combines several familiar ideas:

Indonesian pastel-style shaping + Malaysian spiral pastry technique + creamy chicken-pie-style filling.

And maybe that's why I like these old recipe cards. Sometimes the recipes don't fit neatly into one category. They show how ingredients and cooking techniques get adapted into something slightly different.

I may eventually try this one with other fillings too. A curry chicken filling would bring it closer to Malaysian karipap pusing, while mushroom and chicken could make the creamy version even richer.

For now, though, I think the original creamy chicken-and-pea filling is interesting enough to try exactly as written.

Another little recipe rescued from an old card—and added to my growing collection. 😊