CHICKEN & MUSHROOM PIE

 

A Little Note

You can swap the chicken and mushrooms for other vegetables/meats like ham and leeks, as long as you change the stock – everything else stays the same! You can also use vegetable stock if you can’t find the right one.

You need an oven proof pie dish and then preheat the oven to 180 degrees like a pro 

 

Ingredients

 

Chicken breasts - chopped into bite sized pieces

Chicken stock – granules or cubes

Mushrooms –chopped as big/small as you fancy

A roll of puff pastry

A small mug of flour

Half a block of butter

Half a pint of milk 

 

Method

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Boil the kettle then mix some stock in a saucepan (not too thick). Put the chicken and the mushrooms in the saucepan to boil/poach on a medium high heat. Don’t panic, this is normal!

 

For the filling sauce:

Melt the butter in another saucepan on a very low heat and slowly add the flour. KEEP STIRING LIKE A MANIAC! It should form a thick smooth paste – if it looks like it’s drying out, add more butter, but make sure you keep stirring it quickly, with a spatula or wooden spoon. 

 

Slowly add milk, continually stirring, and you will see the sauce thicken. Don’t add too much milk – use your best judgement and stop when it has a nice thick constituency. 

 

This sauce is called a Roux – this is the basis for a lot of dishes and I will likely refer back to it in other recipes! Congrats, it’s a bloody nightmare to get right, but once you’ve got it once, you’re sorted for life.

After 15 minutes, fish out the mushrooms and chicken (either sieve or spoon it out, but keep the stock), then add this to your roux. Add in a cupful of the stock, stir again, then pour into the pie dish.

 

Spread out the filling in the dish, dribble a little more stock on top, then roll out your pastry. Carefully place this on top, pinching the pastry around the edges of the pie dish.

You can then write something stupid/pretty/dirty on top with any left over pastry.

 

Stick in the oven for 30-45 minutes, until the pastry is golden on top – the fillings are already cooked, so don’t worry about taking it out too early!