Simply Delicious

Chicken pie is one of my ultimate comfort foods. Probably because my gran made a killer chicken pie and always had an enormous one standing proudly amongst the roasts and delicious vegetable dishes for our Sunday lunches.

My gran’s chicken pie was always something rather majestic. She made sure the edges were beautifully crimped but ensured me she did so in a casual manner; the filling was always rich and fragrant with hints of nutmeg, cloves and white pepper. I also loved how she wasn’t shy with the filling and made sure that there wasn’t a ton of pastry compared to the amount of filling. I’m a pastry lover but I hate cutting into a pie only to find it contains barely any meat. On that note, there are two options when it comes to how much pastry you need for your pie. If you want a ‘pot-pie’ style pie, you only need a ‘lid’ of sorts to cover the filling. If you want an ‘encased’ pie, you need to line the baking dish with pastry as well as top it with a ‘lid’. The latter will need two rolls (about 400g (14.11 ounces) each) of ready-made puff pastry.

For this Chicken & Chorizo pie I wanted a filling that packed serious flavour and wanted the chicken to be moist and tender. I used skinless chicken thighs and drumsticks and poached them with bay leaves, cloves, peppercorns, lemon peel and onions until the meat was falling from the bone. Not only does this give great depth of flavour to the chicken, but it also leaves me with a batch of home-made chicken stock.

When the chicken is cooked, I remove the meat from the bones when the chicken has cooled down slightly. I mix this with sauteed onion, garlic and chorizo, ground cloves, nutmeg and white pepper and coarse sea salt before pouring in some cream and a few tablespoons of flour. This helps to thicken the sauce and leaves you with a delicious almost-gravy which keeps everything moist. It really couldn’t be simpler yet everytime I make a chicken pie my guests fall over themselves to get to it first.

For the recipe for Chicken & Chorizo Pie, Visit Simply Delicious