Chicken pies
Makes 12
Preparation time 1 hour, plus cooling time for the filling Baking time 25 minutes
You need
• 1 big potato, cut into 1 cm cubes • 1 cup chicken stock
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup milk
• 2 cups flaked roast chicken
• 1 cup frozen vegetables (we used mielies, peas and carrots) • 1 teaspoon hot mustard
• small handful of parsley, chopped
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 roll (400 g) frozen short crust pastry, thawed
• 1 egg, beaten
Here’s how
1 Cook the potato in the stock for about 5 minutes or until soft. Remove it from the stock and set aside. Reserve the stock. Melt the butter in a pot over a medium heat. Add the flour and whisk until smooth. (This mixture is called a roux.) Fry the roux for a minute until foamy.
2 Remove the pot from the heat and gradually beat in the milk and stock until smooth. Return the pot to the heat and add the cooked potato, chicken and vegetables. Cook over a medium heat until the mixture thickens. Add the mustard and parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper. Let the filling cool down while you preheat the oven to 180° C.
3 Dust a surface with flour and flatten the pastry with a rolling pin. Use a glass or cup to cut out circles that will fit in small aluminium foil pie dishes. ( The ones we used were 7 cm in diameter and 3 cm deep.) Cut two circles for each dish – one for the crust and one for the lid. 4 Line each dish with a crust and add some chicken filling. Brush the edges with the egg and gently press the lid on top of the filling. Cut off any pastry that hangs over the sides and seal the edges by pressing down with a fork. Make a small hole in each pie to allow steam to escape. 5 Put the pies on a baking sheet and brush the tops with the egg. Bake for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Small pies work great as padkos, but require a lot of pastry and effort. It’s tricky to estimate how thick you should roll out the pastry so keep a second roll on hand in case you need an extra circle or two.
If you don’t have enough pastry, place a spoonful of filling in each circle and fold over to make half-moons. Adjust the baking time according to the size of your pies.