Chicken Pie Recipe

Golden pastry and luscious tender chicken in a creamy sauce, what could be better than a home-made chicken pie on a cold winter’s night? It is the ideal solution to left-over roast chicken, when you want a hot warming meal rather than a salad. Chicken pie is so very versatile. You can make the chicken go further by combining it with mushrooms or leeks, add potato and peas or a few rashers of bacon for a change.

This recipe is for a double crust chicken pie with home-made rich shortcrust pastry, but to save time you could use bought puff pastry instead and just make a top crust. This pastry is well worth the effort though and, being made in the processor, doesn’t take too long at all.

Chicken Pie Recipe

Ingredients
For the pastry
450g /1lb plain flour
225g /8oz cold butter
3 eggs

For the filling
60g / 2oz butter
50g / 1 ½ oz plain flour
1 chicken stock cube
625ml / 1 ½ pints milk
150g / 5oz frozen peas
375g / 12oz cold cooked chicken (or 250g chicken and 100g mushrooms)

First make the pastry. Put the flour and cubed butter into a bowl and chill in the freezer for 10 minutes. Beat 2 eggs with one tablespoon of iced water and put into the fridge till you are ready. Blitz the chilled flour and butter in the processor until it is the texture of fine breadcrumbs. Add the beaten eggs a little at a time, with the processor running, until the dough starts to come together. You may need a little more iced water but add it just a drop at a time. When the dough clumps around the blades, switch off and form the pastry into two balls, one slightly larger than the other. Wrap them in cling film and rest them in the fridge for half an hour.

Now make the sauce. Melt the butter in a heavy based saucepan. Stir in the flour and the crumbled stock cube and keep stirring for a minute to let the flour start to cook, but turn the heat down if it looks like it is browning. Now stir in a little of the milk and beat until it is incorporated. Keep adding a little milk at a time, stirring in well before adding the next bit. When all the milk is added, keep stirring over a medium heat until the sauce thickens, about 5 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200C / 400F.

Prepare the cooked chicken, by dicing it into bite sized pieces. Defrost the peas in some hot water and drain. Mix the chicken and peas with the sauce off the heat. Check the seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed.

Roll out the larger ball of pastry to line the base of one large (about 1200ml capacity) or two small pie dishes. Pour in the filling, Roll out the smaller ball to form a lid. Dampen the edge of the base and press the lid all round the edges to seal. Trim the edges and use any leftover pastry to make a pattern on top of the lid.  Beat the last egg and brush the top with it to glaze. Make a cross or slit in the top to let steam escape. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the pastry is golden and the filling sizzling. Rest the pie for five minutes or so before serving.

In the mood for chicken pie but want it now? Head out to Lord Nelson restaurant in Nottingham for great pies and classic British food.