Chicken Thigh Pie with Red Pepper, Baby SweetCorn Surrounded by Rosemary Flaky Pastry – Made with Chicken Cuppa Soup

At one of the dog agility sessions with my dog Ellie, my trainer asked if I had any ideas what to make for dinner.

 She’d some chicken in the fridge, so of course, as is my way and love of the bird that is the chicken, edible of course, I suggested for her to make a pie.

 Nothing else was heard about the chicken or a pie, although my trainer could hear me huffing and puffing around the arena as I tried to keep up with my energetic and always full of woofs, dog.

 Lo and behold, in my fridge I had some chicken thighs, no joke!

 If you don’t know me you’d probably think this wasn’t true, but yes, the chances are more than likely (I’d say a 7 out of 10) that I’ve either cooked or ready to be cooked chicken in the recesses of my cold fridge.

Thighs this time!

 Not much time to get stuff together, so a batch of my 30-minute flaky pastry, some packet chicken cuppa soup mix and I was ready to go.

There always seems to be just a little pastry left.

Those bits left over from rolling out, and i cant bear to waste them, so i always have to find something else to use them for and what i wrap the pastry around depends on what i have lying around .

This time i grabbed a little cheese and bits of ham, threw on some chili oil, sealed the whole thing by just bringing the edges together, brushed with the egg wash and baked.

Hey presto, an extra goodie!

Something that the lovely Mr G can take to work for his lunch.

 Note to self, ask my agility dog trainer what she did with her chicken?!

 Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!

Such a pretty pie

What You Need

Chicken Thigh Filling

• 4 Chicken Thighs – Skinned and de-bones

• 80g Baby Sweet Corn

• 1 Red Pepper

• 1 Large Onion

• 2 x Sachets of Powdered Chicken Cuppa Soup

• 3 Tbsp Worcester Sauce

• 1 Chicken Stock Cube

• 500ml Boiling Water

• 2 Tbsp Cornflour – Plus 50ml Water

Try to cut the vegetables similar size for cooking

30 Minute Rosemary Flaky Pastry

• 250g Butter – Cold and cut into small cubes – See Tip Box

• 250g Plain Flour

• 2 Tbsp Dried Rosemary – Finely Chopped - See Tip Box

• 1 Tsp Salt

• 150ml Cold Water – See Tip Box

•  1 Egg plus 1Tblsp Milk for the Egg Wash

Use a blunt knife to bring the flour and butter mixture together t=with the cold water

 How It’s Done

30 Minute Flaky Pastry

• Place the flour, salt and finely chopped rosemary into a bowl and give it a good mix together.

• Add the cold chopped butter to the flour.

• Using a pastry cutter or a blunt knife, cut in the butter to the flour until the flour resembles lumpy breadcrumbs. – See Tip Box

• Make a well in the centre of the flour and butter mix and add the 150ml of the cold water

• Use a blunt knife to start to bring the mixture together. – See Tip Box

• Once the pastry starts to come together, use hands to finish off the mixing and bring it together, as quickly as possible, into a soft dough ball– See Tip Box

Line the pie dish. See those butter pieces, they will help the pastry have lovely layers

• Dust a clean work surface with a little flour

• Lay out the dough into a rectangle shape

• Start to roll out the dough until the size increases by half

• Fold the top 1/3 down into the middle of the dough

• Fold the bottom 1/3 up over the top of the first fold

• Turn the dough ¼ turn clockwise

• Roll out the dough again so that it increases by half again

• Repeat the folds again,

Crimp the edges to seal the pie

• Repeat the rolling out and the folds another 2 times - Making a total of four turns of the pastry.

• Wrap the dough in cling film and place into the fridge for no less than 30 minutes to rest.

• While the pastry rests, make the filling and let the filling cool completely.

Add the cold filling mixture to the pastry lined dish

Filling

• Chop the chicken into approx. 1/2-inch cubes – See Tip Box

• Chop the red pepper into approx. ½ inch cubes

• Roughly chop the onion into approx. ½ inch cubes.

• Slice the baby sweet corn into ¼ slices

• Pour the vegetable oil into a frying pan that has sides, and let it heat up on a medium heat

• Add the cubed chicken thighs to the warm oil, add salt and pepper and mix it all together.

• Let the chicken cook until all the raw colour has disappeared from the outside of the meat

• Add the rest of the vegetables, and let them cook together for 10 minutes on a medium heat.

• While the vegetables and chicken mixture are cooking, place the 2 packets of cuppa soup powder along with the crumbled stock cube and Worcester sauce into a jug and add the 500ml of boiling water.

I used some pastry offcuts to decorate the lid

• Mix really well until the stock cube and powder has dissolved.

• Add the soup mixture to the chicken and vegetables, and turn the heat up until the mix comes to a gentle rolling simmer.

• Let it simmer until the liquid has reduced by half.

• Adjust the season with more salt & Pepper to taste – See Tip Box

• While the chicken filing is reducing, place the cornflour into a small jug or cup along with the cold 150ml of water. Mix the cornflour until it is dissolved into the water.

• Once the chicken filling has reduced by half, reduce the heat

•  Give the cornflour slurry another mix, and slowly pour it into the chicken filling mix – DO NOT STOP MIXING or it will go lumpy

• Keep stirring and mixing until the chicken filing becomes thick and smooth

• Once the chicken filling is thick, remove the filling from the heat and let it cool completely - See

  Tip Box

Delicious

 Assembly

• Heat the oven to 180c

• Place an oven proof tray into the oven

• Beat the egg and milk together for the egg wash and set it aside until later

• Dust the work surface with some flour

• Unwrap the pastry and cut it so that there is a divided into two pieces of 1/3 and 2/3

• Set the smaller piece aside and roll the larger piece out to line a 10-inch X 18-inch pie dish leaving an over hang of pastry

• Pour the cold filling into the pastry covered pie dish

• Brush some of the egg wash around the pastry edged

• Roll out the smaller piece of the pastry and lay it over the pie.

• Using two fingers, push the edges of the pastry together to seal it.

• Brush the egg wash all over the pastry

• Use a sharp knife the cut two slits in the middle of the pie lid to let the steam out during cooking.

• Place the pie onto the hot oven proof tray and back into the oven to bake until the top of the pie is a rich golden brown approx. 50 minutes -1 hour – See Tip Box

• Let the pie sit for 10 minutes before eating

• Serve hot or cold.

Don’t waste any leftover bits of pastry

Tip Box

Butter – Keeping the butter as cold as possible throughout the pastry making process, helps the layers of the pastry develop during the folding and during the baking process.

Rosemary – 1) Fresh or dried is perfect to use in the flavoured flaky pastry, it’s just good to remember that if dried, the flavour may be a little more intense - If you don’t have any, just leave it out,

2) Having the rosemary chopped finely will ensure it will mix better into the pastry.

Off cuts to decorate

Cold Water for Pastry- Using water as cold as possible when making the pastry, helps the pastry stay cold and aids with the rising process.

Pastry Cutter / Cutting In – 1) Use a pastry cutter to repeatedly cut the butter up and into the flour mixture is called cutting in

2) Using a pastry cutter is a way of helping everything stay cold including the butter.

Blunt Knife – Using a blunt knife to mix the pastry at lots of levels throughout the pastry process, helps everything stay as cold as possible. Using hands too much to mix and bring together the pastry transfers the heat from hands to the pastry.

Serve hot or cold

Mixing with hands – When bringing the pastry together with hands, work very quickly to stop the heat of hands impacting on the pastry

Chopping vegetables – Chop the vegetables into approx. ½ inch cubes. Don’t be overly precious with the measurements, but having the vegetables chopped to almost the same sizes will help them cook at the same rate

Salt & Pepper - To Taste- ‘To Taste’ means to your taste, so when adding salt and pepper to taste, make sure that both are added a little at a time.

Cool the filling – The filling has to be completely cool before assembling the pie. If not, the heat from the filling will melt the butter in the pastry before it heats the oven, undoing all the hard work of keeping the pastry cool when making it.

Make ahead – It’s possible to make this pie ahead in several stages.

1)    Make the pastry and let it sit and rest, wrapped in cling film in the fridge until needed

2)    Make the chicken filling, let it cool completely and then sit it in the fridge, covered, until needed the next day.

3)    Make the pie and assembling it ahead, using the cold but cooked elements, and then let it all sit in the fridge until the next day. To cook, place straight into the hot oven while still cold from the fridge.

Baking – All ovens are different so adjust the cooking time accordingly

A pie using chicken cuppa soup