Mary Berry knows what she’s doing when it comes to good old-fashioned comfort food as it doesn’t get much better than a scrumptious homemade chicken pie recipe and you can whip up one yourself quicker than you’d think.
Mary Berry’s chicken and bacon pie is a slice of heaven that only requires 45 minutes of prep time before it spends 30 minutes cooking in your oven.
Speaking about this dish, Mary said: “This chicken and bacon pie would make a wonderful centrepiece for a family meal.”
Whipping up this showstopper is simple, and it’s guaranteed to win hearts at the dinner table, pleasing both grown-ups and little ones with its sumptuous taste.
For this recipe, you will need a 1.75 litre shallow, wide-based ovenproof dish, about 25cm in diameter.
Ingredients
Six skinless chicken legs (thighs and drumsticks)
Four celery sticks, diced
Four bay leaves, roughly sliced
200ml dry white wine
300ml chicken stock
250g smoked back bacon (about seven rashers), cut into small pieces
One large onion, roughly chopped
50g butter
60g plain flour, plus extra fro dusting
Two tablespoons creme fraiche
One tablespoon grainy mustard
Two 375g packets of ready-rolled, all-butter puff pastry
One egg, beaten
Salt and pepper
Method
Begin by preheating the oven to 160C/140 Fan/Gas 3 before putting the chicken legs, celery and bay leaves into a large ovenproof saucepan. Pour over the wine and stock and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Bring to a boil on medium-high heat, cover with a lid and transfer to the oven for 30 minutes, or until the chicken legs are cooked and tender. Set aside to cool.
Once cool, remove the meat from the chicken bones and break the meat into bite-sized pieces before transferring it to a bowl. Strain the stock, reserve the celery, discard the bay leaves, and measure out the liquid. You should have about 750ml, but if not, make up for this amount with a little extra stock or white wine.
Heat a large frying pan and fry the bacon pieces on a medium-high heat for three minutes. Add the onion, cover with a lid and fry for a further 10 minutes until the onion is softened.
Next, add the butter, stir until melted, and then sprinkle in the flour to make a roux. Pour the reserved liquid into the roux a little at a time, whisking as you add, and stir over high heat until thickened to a smooth sauce consistency.
Add a little salt and pepper, the reserved celery, creme fraiche and mustard and mix to combine before adding the chicken pieces. Spoon the filling into the ovenproof dish and level the top. Leave until cool and then chill.
Meanwhile, prepare the pastry for the pie. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out each of the pastry sheets to about 3mm thick. Cut each piece into long, thick ribbons, about 3cm wide. You will need to make enough to cover the top of the dish – about 16 in total.
Weave the ribbons together on a piece of baking paper, until you have a pastry top that is large enough to cover your pie. Chill in the fridge for 15 minutes to firm up or, if time allows, freeze until solid.
Take the filling out of the fridge and brush the edges of the dish with a little beaten egg. Carefully slide the pastry lattice from the baking paper and lay on top of the chilled filling. Trim the excess pastry around the rim and lightly press to seal.
Increase the oven temperature to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Brush the pastry with the remaining beaten egg and bake for 30 minutes until the pastry is golden and cooked through, and the chicken is bubbling.
