Comfort Food: Chicken Pie
Just like how your mama makes it
Confession: I had to phone my mom years ago to help me with this. It takes a while to make, but it is absolutely worth the effort. I have made this chicken pie over and over again and it never flops. If you don't have all the ingredients, improvise. Add spices or bulk it up with peas or mushrooms for extra filling. Either way, it's a real winner.
DIFFICULTY: Medium
SERVES: 4 to 6 people
PREP TIME: 20 minutes
COOK TIME: 2 hours
1 full chicken
1 egg
2 carrots, diced
2 onions, diced
2 trays of mushrooms, chopped
500g peas (fresh or frozen)
3 garlic cloves, chopped
Fresh thyme
1 tablespoon allspice
Puff pastry (store-bought)
500ml crème fraîche
Salt
Pepper
Chilli flakes
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees.
- Season chicken well, place in a baking dish and roast for approximately one hour.
- While the chicken is roasting, chop up all the fresh ingredients.
- For the filling, use a frying pan to start frying the onion on medium heat. Add garlic, mushrooms and allspice and cook for about 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add the frozen peas and crème fraîche, then add a bit of water. Be careful not to make the sauce too runny.
- Remove chicken from the oven and debone into chunks. Add chicken to the filling and place in an oven-friendly dish.
- Roll out the puff pastry – you can do fancy things with it if you like, but it’s not necessary. Brush the puff pastry with beaten egg.
- Use half the pastry to line your pie dish, fill it with your chicken filling, then cover the filling with the remaining half of the pastry.
- Place in the oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until pastry is ready.
The smell of fresh chicken pie will fill the entire house and you will be a huge hero. PS It keeps really well, too.