Creamy Chicken Mushroom Pie: Homemade Goodness and Comfort for the Soul

As you are well aware, my family meal preparations tend to veer towards the one-pot creations or one-dish creations, due to reasons that are quite obvious.  So if you’re like me and you are pressed for time but still want to serve your family that yummy dinner at the end of the day that will have them rubbing their tummies in satisfaction, this might be just what you need: Chicken Pie…in all its homemade goodness and yumminess.

Last week, I decided to bake the chicken pie pastry from scratch.  Ambitious?  Maybe.  Crazy (because I also had to care for a baby)? More likely.  I found this Butter Flaky Pie Crust recipe that looked simple enough, so I waited till my baby took her nap and I proceeded to make it.

The beauty of this chicken pie recipe is that you can prepare the ingredients and its components in sections, which means that if you have toddlers to care for, you can take like 10 minutes to chop some stuff, stash it away.  And then an hour later, go back to where you left off and continue on, with absolutely no effect whatsoever on the final outcome of the dish.  This pie pastry recipe could even be prepared a day in advance and refrigerated!

I made the pastry first though, and refrigerated it hours in advance…see, that’s what I mean….then I slowly chopped up the ingredients in several “sessions” for the pie and baked it about 30 minutes before serving.

Chicken pie that night was served with a side serving of homemade coleslaw (another yummy and quickie dish you can whip up in no time).  My colesaw was just sliced onions, bell peppers, cabbage, shredded carrots and coriander, with some coleslaw dressing.

Here’s the chicken pie recipe I used.  You can use almost any other kind of vegetables for the filling but I used whatever I found in my refrigerator.

Creamy Chicken Mushroom Pie with Butter Flaky Crust
(Makes one 9″ round pie)

Ingredients

For the Pie Crust

• 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup butter, chilled and diced
• ¼ cup ice water

For the Chicken Pie

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 chicken breast cut into cubes (you can also use chicken thighs if you wish)
• 1 brown/yellow onion, chopped finely.
• 1 carrot, diced.
• 1 celery stick, sliced and diced.
• 5-6 white buttom mushrooms, sliced.
• 1 cup chicken stock, or 1 chicken cube mixed with some warm water.
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• ¼ cup cream or milk
• 1 egg, whisked.
• 2 sheets ready-made rolled pastry or made from scratch (see above for ingredients).

Directions

For the Pie Crust

1. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  I used my fingers to rub the butter cubes with the flour mixture, till they looked grainy.
2. Stir in water, a tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight.

For the Chicken Pie

1. Heat oil in the pan over medium heat.  Add in onions and fry till translucent.
2. Add in the chicken and fry till golden brown.
3. Add in carrot, celery, mushrooms (or whatever other ingredients you have, e.g.; corn, peas, etc).  Add in the flour and fry for about a minute or so.
4. Add in chicken stock or chicken cube with some water.  Bring to boil.
5. Add in the cream and reduce heat to low, stir occasionally till the sauce thickens.
6. Remove from heat and set aside.
7. Preheat oven to 220°C.
8. Line the base of a pie pan with the pastry and trim off the edges.
9. Line with baking paper and place some beans or rice in the middle of the pastry and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes, till lightly golden.
10. Remove pie pan from oven and scoop chicken pie filling from no. 6 on top of pastry.
11. Cover with another layer of pastry, seal off the edges and use a fork to lightly pierce the surface of the pie crust.
12. Lightly brush the pie crust with the whipped egg mixture
13. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until pastry is puffed and golden.
14. Remove from oven and serve immediately.