Chicken and Mushroom Pie
Units
Temperature
Servings
Ingredients
Chicken and mushrooms
- 800 g boneless chicken thighs, skin on if available rounded
- 30 ml neutral oil, divided rounded
- 400 g mixed mushrooms, sliced or torn rounded
- to taste fine salt rounded
Sauce
- 50 g butter rounded
- 150 g onion, finely chopped rounded
- 50 g flour rounded
- 600 ml chicken stock rounded
- 150 ml heavy cream rounded
- 10 g fresh thyme rounded
- to taste black pepper rounded
Pastry
- 500 g puff pastry, ready-rolled, store-bought rounded
- 1 egg, beaten, for egg wash rounded
Method
Method
- Heat half the oil in a wide pan over high heat until just short of smoking. Season the chicken thighs and sear skin-side down for 5 to 6 minutes, until deeply golden, then flip and cook for 4 minutes more. Set aside.
- Wipe out the pan. Add the remaining oil and heat until very hot. Add the mushrooms in a single layer, without crowding, and leave undisturbed for 3 minutes before stirring. Cook for 8 to 10 minutes total, until deeply browned and any released liquid has evaporated. Season with salt and set aside.
- Chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces once cool enough to handle.
- Melt the butter in the same pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook for 6 minutes, until soft.
- Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Gradually whisk in the stock, then the cream, until smooth. Simmer for 5 minutes, until thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Stir in the chicken, mushrooms and thyme. Season with black pepper. Let cool for 15 to 20 minutes, until just warm rather than hot.
- Preheat the oven to 200°C (fan). Transfer the filling to a deep pie dish.
- Roll the puff pastry slightly larger than the dish and drape it over the filling, pressing the edges to seal against the rim. Trim the excess and crimp.
- Brush with beaten egg and cut a steam vent in the centre.
- Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until puffed and deeply golden brown all over.
Notes
- Fry the mushrooms hard, dry and without crowding the pan. Mushrooms are mostly water; a crowded or cool pan steams them grey and rubbery before they get the chance to brown. A hot, single layer left alone for the first few minutes is what lets them actually caramelise.
- Sear the chicken skin-side down until deeply golden before it goes anywhere near the sauce. That browned crust is where the roasted flavour comes from in a dish that’s otherwise a simple white sauce; skip the sear and the chicken just tastes boiled.
- Let the filling cool to just warm before topping with pastry, so the butter in the puff pastry doesn’t melt before it hits the oven.
- It keeps and reheats well for 3 days.
Ingredient substitutions
- Chicken breast works in place of thighs, though thighs stay juicier and take the hard sear better.
- A splash of white wine, added after the onion softens and reduced by half before the flour goes in, deepens the sauce.
- Tarragon in place of thyme gives a more classic French-leaning flavour.