In the North Caucasus, such flatbreads are prepared with different fillings. But in the presented selection we will talk about khychin with cheese, which are fried in a dry frying pan, baked in the oven or deep-fried until golden brown. The choice of cooking method is based on your tastes and preferences.

The basis for the dough in classic khychins is kefir. Although any fermented milk drinks will do.

Required Products:

• flour – 400 g;
• salt with soda – 1/2 tsp;
• garlic – 2 cloves;
• kefir – 180 ml;
• lubricating oil;
• salted cheese – 210 g;
• dill – 3-4 g.

Recipe step by step:

1. Sift the wheat flour into a bowl. Add salt and baking soda. Mix the mixture with a spatula or hand.
2. Make a well in the middle and pour in cool kefir. Knead soft unleavened dough. Sprinkle the table with flour. Lay out the mass, then roll out the rope.
3. Cut it with a spatula or knife into 8 pieces. Grate the salted cheese into a separate container. Add crushed garlic and chopped dill, mix everything thoroughly.
4. Roll out flat cakes (diameter 5-6 cm). Place 1-2 tablespoons of the resulting filling in the middle. Gather the edges and pinch them to form a kind of bag.
5. Very carefully roll out the dough into a flat cake. Do this in such a way that the dough does not tear.
6. Heat a dry frying pan. Place the products one by one on the hot surface of the dish. Fry for 2-3 minutes, then turn over and repeat the process.
7. Transfer the finished dish to a plate, generously brushing with fresh butter.

For khychin with cheese, you need to take a brine or curd product. Hard varieties are not suitable. But you can use any greens.

From yeast dough with herbs

In addition to unleavened dough, you can use yeast dough for khychin, which will need to be prepared in advance and kept warm.

To get delicious products, you must have:

• flour – 390 g;
• active yeast – 1 tbsp. l.;
• sugar – 1 tbsp. l.;
• salt – 1/2 tsp;
• refined oil – 1 tbsp. l.;
• warm kefir – 170 ml;
• feta cheese – 200-210 g;
• cilantro and parsley – 4 g each;
• green onions - 3-4 arrows.

Step by step recipe:

1. Sift the wheat flour into a large bowl a couple of times. Add sugar, active yeast, and salt there. Mix everything in a circle.
2. Pour warm kefir and a spoonful of refined oil into the dry mixture. Knead the dough on a wooden surface. Form a ball, which is lightly greased with vegetable fat. Cover the container with film.
3. After half an hour, knead the risen mass. Turn on the oven. Finely grate the cheese, which is immediately mixed with chopped parsley, green onions and cilantro.
4. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. In turn, roll out round layers from each part. Place the minced meat with cheese and herbs.
5. Pinch the edges, then go over with a rolling pin again. Place the tortillas on a baking sheet. It is recommended to cover its surface with parchment, which is greased with oil.
6. Bake the khychin with cheese and herbs for 5-6 minutes, then turn over and continue the process for another 4-5 minutes. Temperature – 180-185 degrees.

If all the products do not fit on the baking sheet at once, you need to cook one at a time or on two sheets. After turning off the oven, be sure to grease the product with a piece of butter.

Cooking with kefir

Usually salted cheeses are used for the filling. But for traditional khychins made with kefir, cottage cheese combined with sour cream for juiciness is quite suitable.

Products you will need:

• kefir – 155 ml;
• flour – 350 g;
• salt/soda – 1/2 tsp each;
• cottage cheese – 195-200 g;
• garlic cloves – 2-3 pcs.;
• dill – 10 g;
• sour cream – 2 tbsp. l.;
• butter for greasing.

Step-by-step instruction:

1. Place the cottage cheese in a deep plate and mash with a fork. Add chopped garlic, a couple of spoons of sour cream and a lot of chopped dill. Carefully combine the filling ingredients.
2. Add sifted flour with baking soda and table salt. Pour in kefir. Immediately knead into a tender and very soft dough.
3. Cut the product into pieces (about 8 pieces). Roll out circles, on the surface of which place portions of minced curd. Pinch the edges of the dough into a pouch and gently “flatten” each ball with your palms.
4. Roll them out a second time. Fry in a dry frying pan until done. Heating time for one side is 2-3 minutes.
5. Remove the flatbreads from the container and brush each portion with aromatic butter. Serve hot, stacking the food.

Since cottage cheese does not melt, you need to add a little sour cream or other dressing to the filling, which will “bind” it with garlic and herbs. This is how we prepare delicious products with kefir and cottage cheese!

Balkar khichina with cheese and potatoes

Balkar housewives prepare khychin with cheese and potatoes on unleavened dough without butter. In this case, the cakes should turn out thin and soft.

For the flatbreads you will need:

• potatoes – 320-330 g;
• feta cheese – 295 g;
• greens to taste;
• flour – 345-350 g;
• rock salt - a pinch;
• kefir – 125-130 g;
• water – 125 ml;
• soda – 1/2 tsp.

Recipe step by step:

1. Peel the potatoes, cut them and wash them well, getting rid of starch. Pour the cubes into a saucepan. Pour in cold water and lightly salt it.
2. Cook the tubers for up to 20 minutes. During this time, knead a soft dough using water, kefir, salt, flour and soda. Wrap the product in film.
3. Drain the hot liquid from the saucepan. Mash the remaining potatoes until pureed. Immediately add coarsely grated cheese and chopped herbs. Mix everything with a spatula.
4. Separate small pieces from the dough one by one and form circles. Place the filling on top and carefully pinch the edges of the cakes.
5. Roll them out a second time, now quite thin, and then fry them on a hot, dry surface of a frying pan until golden brown.
6. Place the pieces on top of each other, coating each with soft butter.

To prevent the potatoes from tearing the thin dough, you need to rinse them well after slicing, removing the starch. In this case, the puree for Balkar flatbreads will not be sticky, but tender and soft.

On mineral water

If you don’t have kefir or other fermented milk products on hand, it is recommended to make khychin with sparkling mineral water (table water, not medicinal!).

Required ingredients:

• wheat flour – 470 g;
• a pinch of table salt;
• mineral water - 230 ml;
• soda (baking) – 1 tsp;
• frying pan oil;
• suluguni – 265-270 g;
• fresh cilantro – 10 g.

Step by step instructions:

1. Combine baking soda, flour and table salt in a large bowl. Mix lightly and then use your fingers to form a well in the middle.
2. Pour in cool table water with gases. Actively knead the unleavened dough. Divide into 8 equal parts.
3. Immediately grate the suluguni coarsely. Sprinkle the cheese with chopped cilantro. Shake several times to evenly distribute all components.
4. Roll out pieces of dough into round pieces. Place the same amount of filling. Pinch the edges tightly and press with your palm, forming a flat shape for the product.
5. Carefully roll out the khychins in mineral water. Thickness – 1 cm. Fry, thinly greasing the hot bottom of the pan with vegetable fat.
6. Cook until the surface is lightly browned, which will take about 1-2 minutes.

There is no need to grease the flatbreads additionally, as they are fried in oil. This amount will be enough.
Since the dough is kneaded in water, albeit mineral, it will end up being tougher. Therefore, it is recommended to add a little oil when frying, which will soften the surface of the baked goods.

With Adyghe cheese

Adyghe cheese is excellent for filling flatbreads. But it is proposed to knead the dough using yogurt.

To prepare the dish, you need to take:

• wheat flour – 390-400 g;
• curdled milk – 160-170 ml;
• table salt;
• soda – 1 tsp;
• Adyghe cheese – 220 g;
• dill and parsley – 7-8 g each;
• a piece of butter.

Step-by-step instruction:

1. Finely grate the salted fermented milk product. Combine with chopped parsley and dill. Shake, mix the composition, leave in the cold for a while.
2. Now mix the flour, salt and baking soda with the curdled milk in a large bowl. Having received a homogeneous elastic dough, divide into 8-9 pieces.
3. Pour 2 tablespoons of cheese filling onto the surface of the rolled out round layers. Bring up the edges and pinch tightly.
4. For the second time, roll out the khychin with Adyghe cheese, then fry one by one in a dry frying pan until crusty. Finally, brush each flatbread with butter.

Serve hot or warm.

Curdled milk in the dough and Adyghe cheese in the filling will fill the Caucasian dish with pleasant milky tones, and greens will provide a bright aroma.

Karachay Khychins

Unlike Balkar ones, Karachay khychins are prepared on yeast dough. They are also fried in a large amount of oil, which makes them fluffy and very appetizing.

Required Products:

• yeast dough – 500 g;
• jacket potatoes – 400 g;
• salted cheese – 300 g;
• refined oil for deep frying.

Recipe step by step:

1. Combine wheat flour (350 g) with a spoon of sugar, a pinch of salt and active yeast (8-9 g). Pour a spoonful of oil and water (150 ml) into the mixture. Knead elastic dough. Keep warm for about an hour, kneading the fluffy mass three times.
2. Remove the skins from the boiled potatoes and grind them together with the salted cheese in a meat grinder. Mix the filling ingredients well and divide into 5 parts. Form each into balls.
3. Take out the suitable mass, knead it again, separate 5 identical pieces (weight - up to 100 g). Using your hands, carefully stretch them into round layers.
4. Place the filling in the form of a ball on top. Pinch the edges of the dough well. Carefully roll out equal flat cakes 1-1.5 cm thick.
5. Heat quite a lot of oil in a wide saucepan. As soon as it boils, lay out each piece in turn.
6. Fry for approximately 5-6 minutes, turning the circles once during the process. Drain fat with paper towels before serving.

- a national and very honorable dish of Karachay-Balkar and Nogai cuisine in the form of a very thin pie, more like a flatbread, with filling. At the same time, each nation has its own peculiarities of preparing Khychin. Balkar ones are rolled out very thin and baked in a dry frying pan, while Karachay ones, on the contrary, are rolled out thicker and fried in oil.

By the way, Dagestan flatbreads are also very similar in preparation, only they are called.

I offer you a recipe for making very tasty thin Balkar Khychins stuffed with potatoes, cheese and herbs. The proportions of cheese and potatoes can be changed, or you can make the filling only from cheese with herbs (as in, just grate the cheese smaller) or potatoes with herbs.

Balkar khichina with potatoes and cheese

Compound:

Glass – 250 ml

Dough:

• 1/2 cup kefir (yogurt)
• 1/2 cup water
• 2.5-3 cups flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. soda

Filling:

• 4 things. medium potatoes
• 300 gr. cheese (brynza or Adyghe, or a mixture of both)
• greens (optional)

How to cook khychin - recipe:

1. Mix kefir, water, salt, baking soda and add enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead it well, you can even beat it on the table a little. The dough should be soft, elastic, and not stick to your hands.

   Khychin dough
   

2. Cover and leave it alone while the filling is prepared.
3. Boil the potatoes until soft, drain the water and, while still hot, mash them well until there are no lumps. It is very important that the puree is homogeneous, since lumps will tear the dough and it will not be possible to roll out the flatbreads thinly. Therefore, it is better to even pass the potatoes through a meat grinder immediately along with the cheese.
4. Or grate the cheese and add to the hot puree. Mix.

   Potato and cheese filling for Balkar khychins

5. Add finely chopped herbs (dill, parsley) and salt if the cheese is not salty enough.
6. There should be no less filling than dough (by volume).

   Dough and filling

7. Divide the dough into balls Ø 4-5 cm (I got 12 pieces). And divide the filling into the same number of parts.
8. Roll out the dough ball a little and put the filling in the middle.

   Cooking Khychin

9. Gather and pinch the edges of the dough over the filling.

   Dough ball with filling

10. Make a flat cake from the resulting ball with your fingers.

    Forming the cake

11. Gently, without sudden movements, roll it out with a rolling pin to a thickness of 3-5 mm on a floured table.

    Rolling out Balkar khychins

12. Place the cake in a preheated dry frying pan (preferably cast iron) and bake over medium heat. There is no need to grease the pan with oil.

    

13. After 1-2 minutes, turn over to the other side and bake for the same amount. If the tortilla begins to swell too much (as in), pierce it with something sharp.

    Khychins inflate like balloons

14. Immediately grease the finished hot khychin generously with butter and place in a closed container (for example, a pan), and cover with a towel on top. Then they will remain warm until serving and will become soft and tasty.

Before serving, the entire stack of khychins can be cut into four parts with a cross (hence the name of the dish - “khych” is translated as “cross”).

These mountain flatbreads are very tasty to eat with sour cream or kefir, although they are traditionally served with ayran.

That's all! If you liked the Khychin recipe, blog so you don’t miss new delicious dishes.

Bon appetit!

Julia author of the recipe

Khychins are a dish of Balkar and Nogai cuisine; they will definitely appeal to lovers of various flatbreads. In Kabardino-Balkaria, thin flatbreads are prepared by the Balkars, while the Kabardians have thick khychins and fry them in oil in a frying pan.

I came up with the filling from fresh herbs and cheese myself, which made my work more difficult. Usually Balkars use soft pickled cheeses, combine them with mashed boiled potatoes, and then the filling turns out tender and homogeneous, it is easier to roll it into a very thin flat cake. The more uniform the filling, the easier it is to work with.

If greens are used for the filling, they are usually optionally added to cheese or potatoes, finely chopped, to maintain the necessary uniformity. In my case, with such a mass of greens and cheese, it is much more difficult to roll out the flatbread thinly due to its heterogeneous structure. Therefore, we make allowances for this nuance)). Khychins turn out to be very tasty; they can be combined with fermented milk drinks, sauces, and tea.

To prepare khychin with herbs and cheese, we will need the following products. The proportions of the filling can be changed to suit your taste. My greens included: green onions, sorrel, lettuce, a little cilantro and dill. It is advisable that most of the greens have a neutral taste, and only add a little spicy greens.

Pour kefir into a bowl, add soda, salt and mix well.

Add two cups of flour and knead the dough with a spoon.

Place the dough on the table with the remaining flour and knead it until completely smooth. Attention! The dough should be very soft, slightly sticky, but not sticking to the table or hands. To do this, take the time and knead it well, for at least 10 minutes, without adding more flour. Cover the dough with a towel and let rest on the counter for 30 minutes. Do not neglect this advice, otherwise it will be very difficult to work with the dough.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Finely chop the greens and grate the cheese.

Combine herbs, cheese and spices. Taste the filling. The cheese may be salty enough that you won't need to add salt.

The rested dough becomes smooth and even softer. Divide it into equal pieces, roll into balls and leave under the towel for another 10 minutes. I got pieces of 80 grams.

Dip each ball of dough into flour and roll it into a thick flat cake, placing the filling in the center. There should be the same amount of dough and filling.

Bring the edges of the dough together from the edges to the middle and secure. Do not use a lot of flour when working. I usually lightly spread a thin layer of flour on the counter and that's enough.

Form several of these blanks and let them rest for a while again. This is done to make the dough more manageable and easier to roll out.

Then carefully, without jerking, roll out the workpieces into the thinnest cake until transparent. If bubbles inflate while rolling, carefully pierce them with the tip of a knife and press down with your palm, expelling the air from inside.

Fry the flatbreads in a dry frying pan on both sides, without adding oil. Fire is medium.

The tortillas will puff up when flipped. You can press them with a fork to ensure they cook evenly.

The flatbread is considered cooked if there are no raw spots on its surface. Immediately grease the khychins with butter and be sure to cover them with a deep bowl.

Thus, when ready, stack all the cakes on top of each other, not forgetting to grease them with oil on both sides.

Serve ready-made khychin with herbs and cheese with ayran, kefir or sour cream.

Let's visit the Caucasus without leaving home: let's prepare their national, very tasty khichina with cheese - flatbread with a lot of filling. Khychins are baked with meat, cheese and herbs, or potatoes and cheese. In the Caucasus, they are considered both bread and a separate snack. Not a single feast goes by without them: a dinner without khychin is considered poor. Every housewife, when preparing these flatbreads, puts into them her love, warmth and affection, which she wants to bestow on her family and friends. Let us once again remind our loved ones of our love and present it in the form of delicious khychin with potatoes and cheese. In addition, they are prepared very simply and quickly - with a little practice, you can sculpt them with your eyes closed!

Ingredients:

• flour - 500 grams;
• kefir (yogurt) - 300 milliliters;
• soda - 0.5 teaspoon;
• salt - 0.5 teaspoon;
• butter - 20 grams.

For filling:

• potatoes - 700 grams;
• hard cheese - 150 grams;
• salt - to taste;
• butter for lubrication - 20-30 grams;
• flour for rolling out flatbreads.

Very quick khichina with cheese. Step by step recipe

1. Add soda to kefir or yogurt and stir well.
2. In a separate bowl, combine sifted flour, salt, and butter at room temperature. Knead everything slightly and gradually pour in kefir - knead a soft elastic dough. If it seems tight to you, then add a little more kefir.
3. After kneading well, wrap the dough in cling film and leave at room temperature for at least 30 minutes, preferably an hour. During this time, the gluten will swell well, the dough will become more elastic and will not tear while working with it.
4. Prepare the filling: peel and boil the potatoes until tender in unsalted water. Next: drain the broth completely, salt the potatoes and pass them through a meat grinder, mash with a masher or blender. Leave the puree until it cools completely.
5. Grate the cheese on a fine grater, combine with potatoes and mix well.
6. Divide the rested dough into 8 equal parts and form them into balls. Place them on a board and cover with cling film while we prepare the filling in portions. This will take about 10 minutes.
7. We also divide the filling into 8 equal parts and roll them into balls the same size as the dough pieces. To make it easier to form balls from grated potatoes, first wet your hands in warm water.
8. Cover the filling, as well as the dough, with cling film (so as not to dry out) and take them out as you work.
9. Roll out the dough into a flat cake with a diameter of approximately 15 centimeters. Place a ball of potato filling in the center of the flatbread, and gather the edges of the dough at the top, into a fold. At first you will get a product very reminiscent of khinkali, but after that we will squeeze this bunch well again and flatten it on top.
10. Carefully, without pressing too hard, so as not to tear the dough, roll out the cake to the desired thickness (you can adjust it as you wish: personally, I like thin ones and always roll them out to 1 centimeter).
11. Fry in a preheated frying pan without vegetable oil, about 2 minutes on each side (until golden brown). To prevent flour from burning in the pan, shake it off before you start frying the cake.
12. As soon as you remove the khychins from the frying pan, quickly grease them with a piece of butter on both sides.

Eat khichina with potatoes and cheese while it’s still steaming - it’s so delicious! Serve them with any meal or as a separate appetizer. And I love eating them with tomato juice. And I advise you to try it! Make your family and friends happy. Stay with us: and we will share many delicious, original, intercontinental step-by-step recipes with which you can easily and quickly prepare wonderful dishes at home.
Bon appetit with “I Love to Cook”!

Khychins are an indispensable attribute of alpine skiing in the Caucasus: at any ski resort, be it Dombay, Elbrus, Cheget or Arkhyz, you will definitely be offered them in a cafe. Many people like the flatbread with filling, many try to cook khychin at home upon their return - but few succeed. Journalist and traveler Inna Metelskaya-Sheremetyeva prudently brought with her from the Caucasus a recipe for Balkar khychin with cheese and potatoes and shares the secrets of their preparation in the “Cookbook of an Optimist”.

Do you love Elbrus or Cheget? No, you don't love them as much as I do. Because you are normal! You go there to ski and snowboard, and only I go there to ride the ski lifts, drink scalding mulled wine in the cafes at the “stages” and wolf down the most tender, delicious, incomparable khychin, dipping them in ice-cold ayran.

Having tried khichins for the first time, I remember exclaiming “Half a kingdom for a horse!”, or rather, for the recipe, but was expelled in disgrace from the local kitchen, where they explained to me that no matter how many Russians were taught to cook khichins, there was no point.

But I'm persistent. Therefore, before entering the cafe, every time I was interested in whether they served khichina with or without a recipe. Because I only like it with a recipe.

The third time it worked, and I became the owner of the treasured recipe. But it didn’t take us long to become friends with the Khychins. I was too impatient. I discovered my own secrets only with time.

Secret one: khychins, dough and filling

The dough for khychins needs the simplest thing: a glass of kefir or ayran, two glasses of flour, a pinch of salt. No eggs or soda. Add salt to kefir and slowly add flour. Mix first with a fork, then with your hands.

When the dough becomes an elastic lump, continue kneading it for another five to ten minutes, periodically slapping it loudly on the countertop. It turns out especially great for men. In the end, you'll end up with a nice piece of dough that's a little softer than dumplings. Place it in a saucepan, cover with a lid and leave for at least thirty minutes. I leave it while I prepare the filling.

For the filling, I take a pack (200 grams) of feta, suluguni or even feta cheese, if it is not wildly salty. I boil a couple of large potatoes directly in their skins. When the potatoes are ready, I grate them; on a fine grater, I grate the cheese, do not add salt (the cheese is already salty), pepper, and according to my mood, add finely chopped herbs - the ones that are in the refrigerator. Actually, that's all.

After mixing the potatoes with cheese and herbs, I try to roll twelve equal-sized balls. I cover them with a towel to prevent them from getting airy.

I also make twelve balls from the dough. Moreover, the dough balls sometimes turn out even smaller than the filling balls. But it's not scary.

Now we heat the frying pan, pour vegetable oil into it, and dust the table with flour. We turn the dough ball into a flat cake with our palm, put a ball of filling in the center, lift the edges and connect them into a kind of “bomb” in the center. We pinch it and begin to carefully and very gently roll out the cake.

We don't push! Let's take our time! We don't speed up the process! At first, the flatbread rolls a little stiffly, and then, at one fine moment, it suddenly gives in and rolls out into a thin pancake three or four millimeters thick. Place the pancake in a frying pan, fry on one side, turn over, fry on the other. If the pancake swells, pierce it with a knife.

Secret two: how to cook khychin

I also call the second secret “mom to help you.” In fact, I always call my mom so that one of us can ride and the other bakes.

Grease the finished khychin on both sides with butter, which we don’t regret!

Secret three: how to serve khychin

Well, the third secret is presentation. Balkars, for example, if not in a cafe, but at home, serve khichina as a cake. That is, they stack them all on top of each other, and then cut them the way we cut Napoleon.

But most importantly, don’t eat everything while it’s cooking. I had such a sin. But what was there... Even today, if the khichina is not taken away, all that will remain for my relatives is the smell!