John Torode's chicken, mushroom and mustard pie
Monday nights call for comfort food and John's just made things that little bit easier with his chicken pie and the easiest homemade pastry - made with just three ingredients, it's a guaranteed crowd pleaser!
Chicken and mushroom pie
Ingredients
For the pastry
250g plain flour
good pinch of salt
200g butter
125g sour cream
For the filling
4 chicken breasts and 4 thighs
2 bay leaves
thyme sprigs
2 large onions, chopped
1 clove garlic
1 chicken stock cube
1 litre milk
3 diced leek
300g button mushrooms
100g butter
60g plain flour
100ml double cream
Chopped parsley
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Tomato ketchup, to serve
*We use a 1.1 litre pudding basin*
Method
1. Put the flour, salt and butter in a food processor and pulse until it turns to bread crumbs. Add the sour cream and pulse again until it forms a paste.
2. Form into a ball and wrap into cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes OR line a tin with the pastry and place the lined tin in the fridge whilst you make the pie filling, keeping some of the pastry for the top
3. Take a really large pot that fits the chicken. Drop in the chicken with the bay leaves, thyme, chopped onion, garlic, stock cube, salt and pepper. Cover the chicken with the milk - top up with water if needed.
4. Bring the chicken to the boil and slowly simmer for 20 minutes. Take from the liquid and leave to cool, breast side down. Keep 500ml of the cooking liquid and throw the rest away.
5. Meanwhile, cook the leeks and the mushrooms in the butter until they are soft with loads of seasoning. Add the flour and stir to make a paste (roux). Slowly add the reserved cooking liquid and bring to the boil to make the sauce.
6. Peel the skin off the chicken and cut into thumb size pieces and add to the sauce, add the cream and return to the boil. Finish with chopped parsley and season.
7. Heat the oven to 200C. Line a pie dish with the pastry and place some of the pie mix into the pie dish, or little pie dishes and leave the mix to cool and little.
8. Roll out the pastry and cover the pie with a decent thick lid with dimples. Brush with milk and stab the middle.
9. Put the dishes on a flat baking sheet and in the oven they go. Cook for 50-60 minutes for a deep pie, or until golden brown and the filling is piping hot.
10. Have a large bottle of sauce on hand but be careful, these pies are hot