CHICKEN PILLOW PIE

DESCRIPTION:

This is a recipe for my chicken pillow pie. I love chicken pies but homemade is best, Cutting into the crumbly pastry and its bottomless filling with chunks of chicken, You may or may not have made the pie topping yourself. I am not sure it matters if the puff pastry is homemade or comes ready-made. I have taken the trouble to make my own which does take a lot of love and time but I didn't really notice a lot of difference. What matters is that there is enough, and that it is crisp and flaky on top and its underside is slightly soggy with the juices from the filling. I have omitted the butter in the recipe to reduce the fat content and again I didn't notice a lot of difference (I lie)

Not wishing to teach you to suck eggs BUT did you know that 1 gram of fat has 9 calories while 1 gram of protein has just 4 calories. so by cutting off the fat from the bacon its been reduced by at least 90 calories and the butter would have been another 45 calories. Yes I know the rest has fat and carbs BUT its been reduced.

INGREDIENTS:

3 chicken thighs

3 chicken legs

8 peppercorns

1 Red onion

1 bay leaf milk (enough to cover chicken pieces)

6 rashers of smoked streaky bacon with the fat removed, cut into a stamp size.

30g butter

12 Mushrooms

3 tbsp plain flour

3 tsp Dijon Mustard

pinch of Kosher salt to taste

2 x 375g packs of puff pastry

1 egg, beaten, for glazing

parmesan grated, for topping

DIRECTIONS:

Pre-heat the oven to 200 °C 180 °C fan oven

Seal and brown the chicken over med heat in a little olive oil. Remove from pan add the bacon, sliced mushrooms, onion and allow to soften. Add the peppercorns and chicken plus bay leaf. Cover with milk. Bring to the boil and simmer for 25 minutes until the chicken is cooked. When the chicken is cooked remove from the milk and flake the chicken meat into the bowl with the contents of the pan excluding the bayleaf and peppercorns through a sieve.

Add the flour and salt to your pan and cook through for two minutes before returning the milk. Add the Dijon mustard. Stir constantly to make a thick sauce.

Place your shredded chicken, mushrooms and onion into an oven proof dish. Roll out the sheets of puff pastry to a rectangular shape at a pound coin thickness. Lay the filling on one sheet and then cover with the second sheet and crimp the edges.

Brush the pie with a beaten egg and sprinkle the grated Parmesan over the top. Bake in the oven for 35-45 minutes or until golden brown.