Chicken and Mushroom Pie

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This is a wonderful and tasty way to use up leftover chicken, served up in a pie, with succulent mushrooms in a lovely creamy sauce. Eat it with steamed green beans and lots of mashed potato, with any leftover sauce served on the side.

Serves: 3-4 people

Ingredients

Filling:

  • 2 banana shallots, finely chopped
  • leaves from a small sprig of thyme
  • 1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely grated
  • 1 rasher of back bacon, cut into lardons
  • 100g button mushrooms, cut in half
  • 300g cold cooked chicken, torn into mouthful size pieces
  • 300ml chicken stock or gravy
  • 1 tbsp plain flour
  • 1 tbsp crème fraîche
  • 1 tbsp olive oil

Pastry:

  • 125g plain flour
  • 60g cold butter, cut into cubes
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 tbsp cold water
  • pinch of salt and white pepper

You will need:

  • a small pie dish approximately 18cm in diameter.

Method

Pastry:

  1. Add the flour and butter to a food processor and blitz it for a few seconds, until you have a fine crumb.
  2. In a small bowl, mix half the beaten egg with 1 tbsp cold water, and add a pinch of salt and pepper. Keep the other half of the beaten egg for glazing the pastry.
  3. Turn on the food processor and add the egg and water mixture. After a few seconds it will start to come together in a ball of pastry. Now stop and remove the ball of pastry and any stray bits that haven't attached themselves to the main ball.  Don't be tempted to keep processing until all the bits come together or else the pastry will become over worked, and end up tough.
  4. Form the pastry into a flat disk about 1cm thick, wrap in cling film, and put in the fridge for at least 20 minutes, while you make the filling.

Filling:

  1. Heat a non stick sauté pan over a medium heat, and add the bacon lardons and half of the oil, and cook them until they start to brown - about 2-3 minutes.
  2. Now add the chopped shallots and thyme leaves, stir them into the bacon, and cook until the shallot starts to turn translucent.
  3. Take the onion and bacon out of the pan and set aside.
  4. Add the remaining oil and mushrooms to the pan and cook until they are nicely browned and cooked through.
  5. Return the onion and bacon to the pan, also stir in the chicken and grated garlic and mix well.
  6. Now sprinkle, the flour over the mixture and stir in so everything is well coated with the flour.
  7. Pour the stock into the pan, mix well, and continue to stir until the mixture thickens and starts to bubble.
  8. Turn down the heat, cover the pan and simmer slowly for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  9. Turn off the heat, mix in the  crème fraîche, and leave to cool for 20 minutes.
  10. When the mixture is cool, use a slotted spoon to put the mixture into the pie dish. This will leave  the creamy gravy in the sauté pan - use this to top up the  the pie dish. Any gravy left over can be served on the side.
  11. Roll out the pastry on a floured board and cover the pie dish. crimp the edges with a finger and thumb and brush the remaining beaten egg over the pastry. Don't forget to make a small hole in the middle of the pastry to let out the steam.
  12. Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C  fan/Gas 400°F, and bake the pie in the middle of the oven for 30 minutes or until the crust is golden.

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