Keef Cooks logo
British food-lover Keef shows you how to cook amazing food with easy to follow recipes and videos. So stop wasting your time and money on takeaways or supermarket ready meals, and Get Cooking!

Chicken and Mushroom Pie

Introduction & method

Chicken and mushroom must be one of the favourite UK savoury pie fillings. The creamy sauce enveloping the tender chicken and mushroom chunks, all encased in crispy pastry is just wonderful.

Chicken and Mushroom Pie Recipe

Make the Hot Water Pastry


Cut the lard into small cubes, place it in a saucepan with water and simmer until the lard has melted. Try not to let the water boil - it'll spit fat everywhere and it spoils the flavour of the lard.

Stir the salt into the flour in a large bowl. Pour over half of the fat/water and stir it in until the water has been incorporated. Do the same with the other half of the water. Tip the dough out onto a worktop and knead it by hand to get any final bits of flour mixed in. Wrap it in plastic film and leave to cool. It needs to be about room temperature by the time you use it.

Make the Chicken and Mushroom Pie Filling


We start by making a simple sauce. Melt the butter in a saucepan, and stir in the flour until it is well mixed in. Add the stock, oregano and pepper, stir well and simmer until it thickens. Once thickened, you may want to take it off the heat for a bit if you haven't got the chicken and vegetables ready.

Peel the onion and chop into small pieces. Heat some oil on low in a frying pan. Add the onions and cook until softened - do not brown them. Add the onion to the sauce. Wash the mushrooms and cut them into small pieces. Heat some more oil in the frying pan and cook the mushrooms until they just start to release moisture, then add them to the sauce. Chop the chicken breasts into small chunks, a bit over a centimetre (half an inch). Add the chicken to the sauce, stir well, and cook for about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it cool down. Stir in the cream and place the filling in the fridge to cool completely.

Assemble the Chicken and Mushroom Pie


Pre-heat your oven to 190°C (374°F) if it's a fan oven, or 210°C (410°F) if it's not.
In this recipe we are making a family-sized pie, so you'll need a pie dish or tin about 23cm (9 inches) in diameter. Generously smear butter all over the inside. Take half of the pastry and roll it out into a disc about 3-4mm thick (just under a quarter of an inch). Place the tin, upside down, on the pastry, and cut around the edge to form the lid. Set aside and roll out the rest of the pastry. Carefully place the pastry into the tin, pressing down so it fits snugly into the edges of the dish. Trim off any excess pastry, and if you have any gaps around the top, just moisten the edges and press a bit of spare rolled-out pastry into the gap.

Spoon the filling into the case, saving a bit of the sauce to use as gravy when you serve it. Moisten the rim with cold water, and place the lid on. Press it down all around with your thumbs, then lift up the edge of the pie, work it between your fingers to get it nice and smooth, and crimp it any way you like. Make some holes in the top with a fork, paint the top and the crimp with beaten egg, and sprinkle some random bits of oregano around the edge for decoration. You could also decorate it with thinly-sliced, sauteed mushrooms.

Place in the oven and bake for about 40 minutes, but check it after 30 minutes just to be sure it's not overbaking.



The video above is from the Keef Cooks YouTube channel. Click here to see the video recipe of Chicken and Mushroom Pie on YouTube.

 

Ingredients & Info


PASTRY
 500 grams plain (all-purpose) white flour
 200 grams lard
 250 ml hot water
  FILLING
 2 chicken breasts
 1 medium onion
 500 ml chicken stock
 1 tbsp double cream or labneh
 1 tsp oregano
 half a tsp white pepper
 50 grams unsalted butter
 50 grams plain white flour
 150 grams mushrooms

PLUS

Beaten egg for glazing. Water for sealing. Oil for sauteeing.


UNITS:
Metric
US Customary/Imperial

Makes 1 family-size pie
Prep time: 15 minutes.
Cooling/resting time: 1 hour.
Cooking time: 1 hour.
Total time: 2 hours 15 minutes.