Chicken pies
Chicken pies are just great and this recipe is for 6 small pies or about 20 ramekin sized pies which are excellent for a snack instead of the usual snack types. Just load them onto a tray with teaspoons and believe me your guests will love them. I had similar little pies at the opening of a shop earlier this month and they were a real hit. You could also try a mini version of chicken lasagna for a change.
What you need
1 whole chicken
1 liter chicken stock
1 onion roughly chopped
Pinch of whole black peppercorns (about 8 or so)
2 whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
salt and black pepper
2 egg yolks lightly beaten
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 punnet mushrooms chopped(250g)
1 packet bacon chopped into small pieces
Handful of chopped fresh parsley
1 roll froxen puff pastry (400g)
1 egg
Milk
The process
In a large pot on a medium to high heat, heat the stock, add the onion, peppercorns, mixed spice and cloves. Pop in the chicken and allow to simmer for about 40 minutes. You want the stock to be bubbling slowly, so adjust the heat down if it is boiling.
Remove the chicken and allow to cool until you can handle it with your hands. Leave the stock on the stove and allow it to continue simmering until it has reduced by about half.
Now peel off the skin and remove as much meat as you can, making sure there are no bones or cartilage in your pie of chicken meat. Toss out the bones and the skin and break up the meat into morsel size pieces.
Fry the bacon pieces in medium until well cooked, remove and set aside.
Add your mushrooms to the simmering stock and leave to simmer for about 5 minutes until soft. remove from the heat, get a whisk add the egg yolks and whisk fast until the mixture turns creamy and thickens. Add the lemon juice, stir, taste and season a little with salt and pepper.
Now add the chicken, parsley and the bacon to the creamy mushroom sauce and mix to combine everything.
Cover and allow the mixture to cool.
Take 6 small ovenproof bowls of about 6cm deep and 10cm diameter, butter them lightly and share the mixture evenly between them. If you are using ramekins fill them to 3/4 full.
Now place a piece of pastry over the top of each bowl, brush with a mixture of egg and milk, pierce the center with a knife and place in a 200 Celsius oven for 15 to 20 minutes until the pastry is beautifully browned.
You are going to love these folks. Try some of the other festive recipes.
I moved to Canada 2 years ago and was feeling homesick. I just tried this recipe and it’s amazing! Tastes like home. The only thing is, the puff pastry here just doesn’t taste the same (especially for this recipe). If it’s not too much to ask, could you direct me to a good homemade recipe for the pie crust? Thanks!!
Hi Sharon, here are 2 pastry recipes for you:
Shortcrust pastry which is very easy
http://britishfood.about.com/od/recipeindex/r/scpastry.htm
Puff pastry you need about 2 days to make
http://homecooking.about.com/od/breadrecipes/r/blbread85.htm
Hope that does the trick
G
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Hi Graham, I tried your chicken pie on Saturday. It came out beautifully and tasted really good.
Thanks for the help.
Barry
Fantastic Barry, good old pub style chow.. Have a lekker day G
Hi Graham
Firstly, thanks for all your stunning recipes!! 🙂
Tell me, can these be frozen?
Hi Sal, pies do generally freeze well but it would be better to use the method of the steak pie and make small ones in foil containers for easy freezing, have a wonderful easter, G
https://cookbook.co.za/meat-recipes/beef-recipes/steak-pies/
Hi Graham.
Would really like to get hold of a really tasty chicken & prawn pie.
Got any ideas.
Hi Louis, thats quite a tough one where you have significantly different cooking times for the prawn and the chicken but I will give it a think. Cheers for now G
Hi Graham
This looks so delicious, am definately trying it. My hubby loves delicious snacks on a Saturday. Thank you for all your recipes.
You are welcome Liba, enjoy it, it’s a keeper. Cheers for now G
Thanks Graham, will try that! Will let u know how it turns out. Tonight though I’m making the Easy Beef Stew for winter! 🙂
Great stuff, enjoy it Laura, Cheers for now G
Do u need to use the egg? I have a son who is allergic to egg and would love to make this pie but dont know if it would work without the egg?
Hi Laura, the egg yolks are for thickening, so you could leave them out and use a mixture of flour and water to thicken, make up about 2 tablespoons flour to 4 tablespoons water and whisk in half first to see how well it thickens, if needed add the other half and whisk, enjoy it G