Africa → Mozambique → Maputo
🍢 SNACK
Chamuças (Mozambican Beef Samosas)
Crisp triangular pastries of thin homemade dough filled with minced beef cooked with onion, garlic, ginger, curry and fresh coriander, fried golden and sold on every street corner.
Mozambican · medium · serves 8
prep 60 min · cook 55 min · plus 30 min hands-off time
~344 cal · 17g protein · 30g carbs · 16g fat · 2g fiber · 2g sugars · 7g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Chamuças, also written chamussas, are the Mozambican samosa, and they are among the most sought-after flavours in the country. They came with the Indian communities that have lived and traded on the Mozambican coast for centuries, and today they are sold on street corners and in cafés everywhere, filled with beef, chicken, fish or vegetables.
Mozambican cooks make their own pastry rather than using filo. A simple dough of flour, water, vinegar and oil is rolled very thin and the sheets are marked briefly on a hot griddle so they are pliable and dry, then cut into strips, filled and folded into triangles and sealed with a paste of flour and water. The filling is minced meat fried with onion, garlic and ginger, seasoned with curry powder and lemon and finished with a bunch of fresh coriander.
They are eaten warm or cold, as a snack at any hour and as a starter at parties.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 8
- 270 g (about 2 cups plus 1 tbsp) plain flour, 260 g for the dough, 1 tbsp for the sealing paste
- 150 ml (2/3 cup) warm water, plus 2 tbsp for the sealing paste
- 1 tbsp vinegar
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil, for the dough, plus oil for deep frying
- 1 tsp salt, plus more for the filling
- 50 g (3 1/2 tbsp) butter
- 2 onions, finely chopped
- 4 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
- 1 tbsp curry powder
- 400 g minced beef or lamb
- from 1/2 lemon lemon juice
- 1 bunch fresh coriander, chopped
- to taste black pepper
Instructions
- 1Make the dough: mix the flour and salt with the water, vinegar and oil and knead to a smooth, soft dough. Cover and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
- 2Meanwhile make the filling: melt the butter and fry the onions, garlic and ginger for 5 minutes until soft. Stir in the curry powder, then the meat, breaking it up, and season with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Cook gently for 25 minutes, adding a splash of water if it catches, until dry and well flavoured. Stir in the coriander and leave to cool.
- 3Divide the dough into 8 balls and roll each out as thinly as you can into a round. Lay each sheet on a hot dry griddle or frying pan for a few seconds a side, just until it is marked and dry but still pliable. Cut each round into strips about 7 cm wide.
- 4Mix the 1 tbsp flour with 2 tbsp water to a paste. Put a spoonful of filling at one end of a strip, fold the corner over to make a triangle and keep folding along the strip, then seal the end with the paste.✎ Chef’s notePress the corners well; any gap lets oil in and filling out.
- 5Heat oil for deep frying to 175°C (350°F) and fry the chamuças a few at a time for 3 to 4 minutes, until golden and crisp. Drain on paper and serve warm or cold.
Mozambican street and café tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Maputo. Two arrivals shaped this coast. The bird's eye chilli came with Portuguese ships after the Atlantic crossings, and the coconut-and-spice register traces to Goan and wider Indian Ocean trade, which is why a Maputo curry can taste closer to the Malabar coast than to anywhere inland.
🗺️
Mozambique. Matapa is the dish that shows what the Indian Ocean did to this coast. Young cassava leaves are pounded in a wooden mortar, then cooked slowly with ground peanuts, garlic, onion and coconut milk, often with crab or prawns folded in, and served over rice. It is a cousin of Cameroon's ndole and of Brazilian vatapa.
🌍
Africa. Much of what reads as timeless African cooking is younger than the Atlantic crossings. Maize, cassava, groundnut, chilli and tomato all arrived from the Americas after 1500 and pushed older crops aside; millet, sorghum, teff, yam and fonio are the ones that were already here, and the map still shows the join.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Mozambique
Frango à ZambezianaChicken marinated in lemon, garlic and piri-piri with coconut milk, then grilled slowly over calm coals and basted with more coconut until it is gold outside and soft within.
Frango Piri-PiriButterflied chicken grilled under a lemon-garlic piri-piri baste, the original of a dish the world now queues for.
BadjiasCrisp Mozambican chickpea-flour fritters flecked with onion and served with fiery piri-piri.
Browse all Mozambique recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Skillet or frying pan, Griddle or flat pan.
Storing it: Store in an airtight container. Most keep 2 to 3 days at room temperature, and longer refrigerated.
Make it a Mozambique meal
Sumo de MúcuaDrink
Bolo PolanaDessert
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Cuisine
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Frequently asked questions
What is Chamuças (Mozambican Beef Samosas)?
Crisp triangular pastries of thin homemade dough filled with minced beef cooked with onion, garlic, ginger, curry and fresh coriander, fried golden and sold on every street corner.
Where does Chamuças (Mozambican Beef Samosas) come from?
Chamuças (Mozambican Beef Samosas) is a Mozambican dish from Maputo, Mozambique.
Can Chamuças (Mozambican Beef Samosas) be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Chamuças (Mozambican Beef Samosas) recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions. Treat the substitutions as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Chamuças (Mozambican Beef Samosas) safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we still count coconut as a tree nut to be cautious, although the FDA stopped listing it as one in 2025), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Chamuças (Mozambican Beef Samosas) take to make?
About 2 h 25 min in all: 60 minutes prep and 55 minutes cooking, plus 30 min of hands-off waiting the method needs, serving 8.
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