I saw this recipe on ITV’s This Morning earlier this week and decided to give it a go. I’ve adapted the recipe a little as I wanted to include more veg in the pie (the original only has chicken and peas). I made my own shortcrust pastry but ready-made pastry is just as good, and its the egg wash with added salt that makes the pie go a nice glossy brown in the oven. Chef Phil Vickery added gold leaf to the pastry top in his recipe, but I didn’t have any gold leaf ‘lying around’ so I left this out!
Ingredients: 500g block short pastry, 8 chicken thighs, skinned, 2 chicken stock cubes, 1 tsp ground turmeric, 200g frozen peas, 1-2 tbsp tarragon, 2 egg yolks. Plus I added 3 diced carrots and a chopped onion. For the thickening paste: 70g butter & 70g plain flour
1. Place the chicken thighs, stock cubes and turmeric into a saucepan and just cover with water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 35-40 minutes.
2. Make a thickening paste by melting butter in the microwave and mixing in flour really well (pictured above).
3. Once the chicken is cooked, strain the chicken off and measure the liquid that’s left – you will need a roughly a pint. Place this stock back into the pan and bring to the boil. Once simmering whisk the flour and butter mixture in and re-boil until you have a thick sauce.
4. Pull the chicken off the bone and add to the sauce, then add the peas, onion, diced carrots, tarragon and finally the egg yolks when the mix has cooled for a few minutes.
5. Cut the pastry into 2/3rd and 1/3rd then roll out the 2/3rd piece to fit a 24cm x 3-4cm deep pie tin. Spoon the filling into the pastry base then roll out the top and brush the top lip with beaten egg. Lay the top onto the base and pinch around the edges to seal then brush pastry with egg yolk.
6. Make a small incision in the center of the pie and bake on a metal tray in a preheated oven 180C gas 4 for 35-40 minutes.
Happy Pieday Friday – a new feature requested by avid blog reader Andy Clarke
