Chicken, Spring Onion & Mushroom Pie

For many years, my username on some sites has been Kaveypie, rather than Kavey. That’s all down to my having introduced the members of one particular website to the delights of Weebl & Bob, back when the cartoon had just a couple of episodes to it’s name.

“Mmmmm, Pie!” became a common refrain and I became indelibly associated with it! Even today, some 7+ years later, I still find myself mimicking Weebl & Bob and singing out loud about loving donkey almost much as pie!

So, what a travesty then, that I’d never made pie myself!

I recently got my mitts on a book I’ve been eyeing up for quite a while: John Torode’s Chicken and Other Birds and decided on the chicken, leek and mushroom pie as the first recipe to try from it.

We had many of the ingredients already to hand: In the freezer, leftover roast chicken, home-made stock and home-grown leeks (peeled, sliced and frozen raw). In the fridge, most of a pot of double cream (which I figured I could substitute for single).

Our amounts didn’t match up to the recipe, and we realised only once we peered more closely at the contents of the defrosted box that what we’d thought were “leeks” were actually home-grown spring onions, so I’m providing the recipe as we ended up making it.

Kavey's Chicken, Spring Onion & Mushroom Pie

Inspired by John Torode's Chicken, Leek and Mushroom Pie

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes

Ingredients

  • 50 g unsalted butter
  • 2-3 spring onions both green and white parts, cut quite small
  • 50 g plain flour plus extra for rolling pastry
  • 300 ml chicken stock
  • 100 ml double cream
  • 250 g brown mushrooms
  • 415 g roast chicken meat
  • 4 tbsp flat-leaf parsley
  • 375 g ready-made puff pastry
  • salt
  • pepper

Instructions

  • Melt the butter in a large saucepan, add the spring onions and cook for 5 minutes, stirring constantly.

  • Add the flour and mix into a paste.

  • Stir in the stock and the cream.

  • The instructions suggested bringing to the boil and then reducing the heat to simmer for 15 minutes, but once I'd brought it nearly to the boil and reduced the heat for a few minutes, it was already a really thick consistency. I tasted to ensure the flour taste had cooked out and decide it didn't need another 12 minutes cooking.

  • Remove from the heat and stir in the chicken, mushrooms and parsley. Season to taste.

  • Heat the oven to 220C.

  • Take a suitable pie dish (recipe suggests 1.2 litre) and roll out the pastry to 5mm depth and 5cm larger than the pie dish. Place the pie dish upside down onto the pastry and cut around it leaving a 3cm border.

  • Use the remaining pastry cut into 2cm strips and fit the strip around the top edge of the pie dish, using water to help it stick, if needed. I found the instructions for this a little confusing with no pictures to illustrate what was required; luckily Pete was able to decipher them!

  • Transfer the pie filling into the dish, piling it more deeply in the centre than around the edges.

  • Set the pastry lid on top, using water to help it stick, if required. Our ready-made pastry was quite sticky so we didn't need any water.

  • Use a fork to press the edges down onto the existing pastry strip and seal the pie.

  • I added extra pastry to spell the word PIE. The recipe suggests marking decorative patterns or leaving plain as desired.

  • Cut a small vent in the pie lid, at the centre.

  • Bake for 25 minutes, reduce heat to 200C and bake for another 15 minutes until the pastry is crusty and golden.

  • If the pastry browns too quickly, cover it with a sheet of damp baking parchment.

  • Serve hot straight from the dish.

I was soooooo pleased with this pie! We really enjoyed it, especially given how often we have leftover roast chicken meat and home-made stock to use not to mention leeks grown in our back garden! The spring onion substitute worked fine, though the flavour was a touch stronger than I think leek would have been, so we would use leeks next time. And I loved the brown mushrooms, but might cut them in half next time, as they were a touch large, though perfectly cooked and very tasty!

And what do I think of the book? It’s a book I’ve enjoyed reading – I like Torode’s writing style. Many of the recipes look delicious! But I found myself bookmarking less of them into my mental queue of things to make than I usually do when I get my hands on a new cookery book – I never cook half of them but I love the idea of doing so! There are also a couple that don’t seem to fit the rest – the idea of using leftover roast chicken in a simple sandwich is probably one anyone who’d contemplate the rest of the recipes has probably worked out already! But the book has given me some ideas, and been an enjoyable read.

Thanks to Quadrille for the review copy of John Torode’s Chicken and Other Birds.

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6 Comments to "Chicken, Spring Onion & Mushroom Pie"

  1. Kristen In London

    I can't wait to see John Torode's book, but I'm awfully glad to have your commentary! Leeks and spring onions? Hmmm! Sounds like comfort food in any case, thanks for the heads-up.

    Reply
  2. Rita

    just reading through your posts again…
    chicken pie is one of my favorite but I never use leeks, just the chicken and mushroom, so this really sounds interesting..

    Reply

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