Mushy Chicken Pie

If you ask me what my most vivid memory is from High School, I would ashamedly have to admit that it would be my lunch breaks, when I would swap my healthy salad that Mum made religiously for me for a measly 1 dollar coin from a friend of mine so that I could go to the school canteen and by a mince pie. Sadly, my mother put much effort into making those salads as interesting as she could, using different ingredients and dressings to encourage me to eat them. These days I would be incredibly grateful for them. But back then my friend was the only one to appreciate my Mother´s culinary skills, while I preferred to queue with my 1 dollar coin to buy a soggy reheated mince pie.

Later on I came to appreciate the difference in quality between those reheated atrocities and a real pie, the likes of which you can find in any half decent New Zealand bakery (I´m happy to point you to my two favorite pie shops in the Wellington region if you are interested!) and moved on from mince pies to steak.

Mushy Chicken Pie …

Ingredients

1/2 cup flour (tarwebloem)
salt & pepper
4 chicken maryland pieces (leg & thigh in one piece, with skin and bone)
olive oil
25g butter
1 onion finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, crushed and finely chopped
125g mushrooms cut finely
1/2 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup cream (slagroom)
1 tblspn wholegrain mustard
1 tbspn fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tspn fresh thyme, chopped
puff pastry (see my “Simple Puff Pastry” blog post)
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Instructions

Poach the chicken pieces for 25 minutes in a large pot of water seasoned well with salt and pepper. Make sure when poaching your chicken that the water simmers rather than boils.
Shred the chicken into strips using two forks, then add to a bowl with the flour and lashings of salt and pepper.
Add a good slosh of olive oil plus the butter into a wok or non stick frying pan and sautee until the flour is cooked and slightly golden. Set aside.
Using the same wok or pan, add another good slosh of olive oil and cook the onion until softened. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook for a further minute.
Pour in the wine and allow to boil for a minute before adding the stock, cream, and mustard (use the leftover stock from your poached chicken and freeze the leftover stock for another time …). Cook for another minute.
Remove from the heat and add the herbs and chicken. Set aside to cool while you preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and start rolling out and cutting out your pastry into bottoms and tops to fit your pie tins.
Place your pastry bottoms in your pie tins, and fill with spoonfuls of the chicken filling. Cover with the pastry tops and using a fork, crimp the edges together. Use the fork to pierce the tops multiple times to let the steam out.
Brush the egg mix on top of the pies to help them turn golden in the oven.
Cook for about 25 minutes or until the pies look nice and golden.