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!
Cheesy Chicken Pot Pies
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.
Delicious recipe! Thank you for sharing.
Delicious recipe! Thank you for sharing.
Amazing stuff
Wonderful Recipe by admin.. Thanks
Really nice Recipe, thanks for the update
Really Impressive
My Favourite.. I will try to make this