The other day I watched Masterchef Australia S3 and saw Ellie made a beautiful chicken pie using suet as the combining agent. I had never used suet before and was not sure where to get it in my neigbourhood. But I was very certain that I would be churning out a chicken pie soon!
Please feel free to make your own version of chicken pie filling. It could be sweet, savoury or spicy. Um... I decided mine to be savoury. I thought it would take a long time for the filling to cool, so I made the filling first. As it turned out, the pastry took a long time to chill . Next time, I will make the pastry dough first.
I made an error of using 250g butter instead of 200g. No wonder it took so long to chill and was difficult to roll out nicely. But the error was beautiful (LOL!) as the sour cream pastry turned out very buttery. Yummz!
Sour Cream Pastry (adapted from Maggie Beer)
Ingredients (I made double portions)
200g cold butter, cubed
250g plain flour
125ml sour cream (I used light sour cream)
Methods
1. If you have a food processor, great! It will save you lots of time. Just pulse butter and flour to resemble bread crumbs and add sour cream to pulse to form dough.
(I do not have a food processor, so I used 2 forks to help me cut the butter into flour. As I am making double portion, I needed a longer time. Do not overwork the dough after adding the sour cream)
2. Cling wrap pastry dough and chill till hard enough to be rolled out, about 20 minutes. (Somehow I needed to chill much longer than 30 min)
Chicken Pie Filling
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| in the end, I omitted cream, Worcestershire sauce and garlic |
Ingredients (please feel free to use your own versions)
1kg boneless chicken leg, washed and cubed into 1.5 inch pieces
1 broccoli, washed and cut into florets
1/4 pumpkin, cubed
2 sticks carrots, cubed
300g mushroom, stem removed, washed and pat dry
1 medium onion
1 can green peas
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried thyme
1 tbsp dried rosemary
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 cube Knorr chicken stock cube
1/2 cup red wine
1/4 cup Shaoxing wine
50g butter
2 tbsp plain flour
3/4 cup water
Oil for stir frying
Pepper and salt to taste
Egg wash: One egg mixed with 2 tbsp milk
Methods
1. Marinade cubed chicken leg with some salt, pepper and shaoxing wine for 20 minutes.
2. In a hot wok, pour some oil and stir fry chicken till browned. Remove meat and juice separately, set aside.
3. Melt butter in hot wok. Add mushrooms and fry for a few minutes. (Make sure wok is hot before adding mushroom so that the mushroom will not lose its liquid)
4. Sprinkle flour on the mushroom and keep stirring for a minute. Add in the juice from step 2. As the juice starts to thicken, slowly add water, wines, and oyster sauce. (You may wish to add some cream to thicken the sauce, which I intended but omit)
5. Add carrots, pumpkin, meat, broccoli, dried herbs, onion and stock cube and cook until carrots are soft and meat is tender. Stir in canned peas.
6. Add pepper and salt to taste.
7. Keep cooking until the liquid has reduced to become sauce.
8. Leave to cool completely.
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| still cooking to reduce liquid to sauce |
Assembly
1. Roll chilled pastry out into 3mm thick. Cut and line into greased pie pan or spingform pan, leaving a "lip" over the edge. (Make sure there is no hole and patch up thin areas)
2. Fill with filling to the full.
3. Cover the pie with pastry lid and seal the edges. Chill for 20 minutes.
4. Score the top lid to make a cross. Egg wash the lid. Place pan on a baking tray (thankful that I heed the advice because the pastry is very buttery) and bake at 220C until pastry turns golden brown.
5.Serve while warm.
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| served with homemade mashed potatoes with sauce, cherry tomatoes and lettuce |
The sour cream pastry compliments the savoury dish very well. It is a very filling dish, so next time I will use a s.maller pan
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