Baking | Cheesy Chicken Pot Pies … comfort food for the holidays with #bigbanyanwines

 “Pie makes everybody happy.”
Laurie Halse Anderson

These Cheesy Chicken Pot Pies were waiting to happen for really really long. I haven’t made a chicken pot pie in years, and it’s the one thing that is oft requested by the kids. Maybe it was pure ‘make the pastry’ laziness, or just too much to do, it just kept getting postponed. Then yesterday, these very comforting pot pies puffed up in the oven. Funnily enough, the impetus came from a bottle of wine!

The Chardonnay from Big Banyan Wines sat calling my name. I’ve read about wine marinades for poultry and lamb, and the idea is always intriguing. I had some chicken waiting for a marinade, and one thing led to another. Soon I had a concoction in a bottle, a wine marinade/dressing! The rest of the partners in crime in the Cheesy Chicken Pot Pies were staple favourites like garlic, thyme and cheese, and seasonal favourites carrots and kohlrabi. Sweetcorn too.I use a basic marinade most of the time and various permutations and combinations of it depending on time, and then mood of course. A 3:1 extra virgin olive oil and lime juice always works well to begin with. Garlic is a must in my food, so naturally the same follows for dressings. I always have a jar of peeled garlic in the fridge because I do believe freshly minced garlic offers the best flavour. Then I add and subtract pantry basics at will. Honey and mustard add a nice touch to vinaigrette, as do dried herbs. Remember to gently rub the herbs between the palms of your hands to make the flavours come alive a little more. You could always add a dash of Tabasco or then roasted chili flakes. As I said, I do keep my food simple and basic. This time I decided to go with wine instead of the lime juice for the marinade. It’s the same way that you can use a vinegar instead of lime juice. Time is a great luxury. It allows you to endlessly play around with ingredients, also endlessly shoot images if you enjoy that. That is just what I did.The rest was quite straightforward. I made a wholewheat rough puff pastry dough for Cheesy Chicken Pot Pies. Tossed the idea back and forth. Did I want a ‘pot pie’ or did I want a crossover pastry? It’s tough when you get caught in the middle of silly indecision like this. A little wine always helps to clear the mind, which it certainly did! Some in a glass, some in the marinade and it was pot pie with a tiny lattice on top.

There is something intrinsically therapeutic about weaving a lattice for a pie if you know what I mean. Even the unbaked version feels so rewarding it’s amazing. Revising pastry weaving after what feels like ages, I was a bit unsure. However once I began, I felt I could practically weave the world! Happily enough, my wholewheat puff pastry also behaved really well. The result, a bowl scraping good delicious Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie!

Cheesy Chicken Pot Pies

With a filling of chicken marinated with @bigbanyanwines, carrots, kohlrabi and cheese of course, these Cheesy Chicken Pot Pies turned out wickedly good! Did I tell you that the rough puff pastry is wholegrain? Yes it is and worked very well especially with the wine marinated chicken.

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Prep Time 30 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr

Course Main Course, Snack

Cuisine Italian

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  

Marinade

• 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1/4 cup Big Banyan Wines Chardonnay
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• 1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard
• 1/2 tsp rock salt

Pastry

• 100 g wholewheat flour
• 100 g plain flour
• 100 g butter 1/4" pieces
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• Pinch salt
• Ice water as required

Filling

• 4 chicken thighs
• 1 tbsp clarified butter/ghee
• 3 cloves garlic chopped
• 4-5 garlic greens chopped
• 1/2 tsp roasted red chili flakes
• 1 tsp dried thyme, or few sprigs fresh
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 carrots chopped
• 2 kohlrabi chopped
• 1 cup frozen sweet corn
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1 cup milk
• 100 g smoky Gouda grated

Instructions

 

Marinade

• Marinade: Place in a bottle and shake well. Use as required.

Filling

• Take approximately 1/2 cup of the dressing and marinate the thighs for a couple of hours, preferably overnight.
• Place flat in a heavy bottom pan over medium high heat and cook until done, turning once. Reserve pan juices if any.
• Remove the cooked chicken from the pan, chop up and reserve.
• Wipe down same pan, and heat 1 tbsp clarified butter.
• Add garlic, garlic greens, roasted red chili flakes, dried thyme and onions to it.
• Saute until fragrant. Add the carrots and kohlrabi and give it a good stir. Then add 1 tbsp plain flour and give it another good stir.
• Lower heat to minimum, and pour in pan juices if any and 1/2 to 3/4 cup of whole milk, stirring constantly. Increase heat and continue to stir until the sauce thickens.
• Add chicken and sweetcorn. Taste and adjust seasoning. Take off heat and stir in grated cheese.
• Divide into 4 X 4" baking dishes. Allow to cool.
• Preheat oven to 200C.
• Divide the chilled pastry into two. Work with one half at a time, keeping the other covered and chilled.
• Roll out into a long thin 12" by 6" rectangle. Cut into strips with a fluted pastry cutter and weave a lattice on top of one bowl then another. Repeat with the remaining dough to make a lattice for the other two pies.{Can be readied until this, cling-wrapped and chilled. Pop into the oven just before the meal}
• Reduce heat to 180C and bake for 30 minutes until the lattice is crisp.
• Serve immediately or at room temperature.

Pastry

• Sift the flours and salt. Grate 80g of the frozen butter into this and mix lightly.Add the lime juice and enough chilled water using a knife, stir the flour and water together until a dough begins to form. Now use your hands to bring it into a ball {You might need a little more water}. Press into a neat square, wrap it in cling film, and chill for 30 minutes.
• Roll out on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle with a long edge 3 times its width. Grate the remaining butter and spread it evenly over 2/3rds of the rectangle.Take the third which is not sprinkled, and fold it over the middle of the buttered part, then fold the two layers over the remaining single layer. You will be left with 3 layers of pastry and 2 layers of butter separating them.
• Turn the pastry by 90 degrees. Dust with flour and roll out into same proportions as first rectangle.Take one of the short sides and fold it over to reach the middle of the remaining part of the pastry. Fold the remaining third on top of the first one to get 3 layers on top of each other. Wrap pastry in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.
• Repeat again 2 more times, and chill for at least an hour. The pastry will keep in the fridge for 4 days, and in the freezer for a month.