Chicken Pot Pie

by Jessica Nguyen

This is my go-to chicken pie recipe that uses seasonal vegetables. I love making the chicken stock from scratch and then shredding the chicken from the stock for the pie filling. For this recipe, I’ve used a tray of chicken drumsticks, but can also use a whole chicken depending on what you prefer or if you’re short on time, you can even skip the chicken poaching and stock steps and simply shred a Lilydale Free Range hot roast chicken and buy some pre-made chicken stock and skip to the pie filling part of the recipe.

 I love making the pie filling with wintry vegetables like leek, mushrooms and corn which give the pie filling a beautiful sweetness and complement the chicken so well, but feel free to change up to whatever is in season or you prefer. This is the perfect dish to clean out your fridge and use up any wilting vegetables and herbs.

In terms of serving, you could make this recipe into two big pie dishes or various small ramekins to serve as individual pies for each person, it just depends on what you have on hand.

Makes- 1 large pie and 4-5 small individual ones or 2 large pies.
Ingredients- 20
Cooking Time- 2 ½ hours if you’re making your own stock, 1 ½ hours if not.
Skill Level- Easy

Ingredients

Chicken & Stock

If you don’t have the time to poach the chicken and make the stock from scratch, you alternatively just buy the following and skip steps 1-4:

Pie Filling

  • 1 onion, finely diced
  • 4-6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 2 leeks, white sections only, washed, halved and finely sliced
  • 2 sticks of celery, finely diced
  • 8 white mushrooms, roughly sliced
  • 1 tablespoon of salt
  • 1 tablespoon of white pepper
  • Your choice of herbs:
    • 1 small bunch of parsley, roughly chopped
    • 1 large bunch of chives, finely chopped
    • 6 sage leaves, finely chopped
    • 4 sprigs of rosemary, finely chopped
  • 1 ½ cups of cream (milk can also be used as a substitute)
  • 2 tablespoons of corn flour or tapioca flour dissolved with 2 tablespoons of cold water into a slurry (this will help thicken the soup.)
  • 2 sheets (500g) of frozen puff pastry, thawed
  • 1 egg, whisked for the egg wash
  • Flakey salt

Watch the process

 

 

Method

Preparing the Chicken and Stock:

  1. Place your Lilydale Free Range Chicken Drumsticks in a large pot of boiling water, and boil for 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked half way through. Remove the chicken and place in a separate bowl. Pour out the water, clean your pot and fill it back up with boiling water. Boiling the chicken first helps get rid of any impurities, and will allow for a clearer stock.
  2. Place your chicken back into the pot with the boiling water and add in your carrots, onions, leeks, corn and celery and simmer for 30 minutes. Skim any impurities or foam sitting on the top of the stock with a spoon and discard.
  3. Remove all of the ingredients from the stock, placing the corn in a bowl and the chicken in another to use for the pie filling.
  4. Strain your stock, reserving 1 litre for the pie filling. Store any leftover stock in your fridge and use up within a week.

Preparing the Pie Filling:

  1. Heat your oven to 180 degrees, fan force.
  2. Prep all of your pie filling ingredients. Using your hands, shred the cooked chicken from the bone and place the pulled chicken pieces into a bowl. I like to keep medium size chunks of chicken for the best texture in the pie.
  3. Shave the kernels off the corn cob with a knife  inside a bowl or dish with a lip (this catches the kernels without mess).
  4. In a hot pan with a generous glug of olive oil, sweat your onion on medium heat. Add in your finely chopped celery, leeks, rosemary and sage and stir through for a couple of minutes until soft.
  5. Add in the sliced mushrooms and cook for another 2-3 minutes until they become soft. 
  6. Then add in your corn, little by little breaking any large chunks with a wooden spoon. 
  7. Now add in your pulled chicken, and the chicken stock and give everything a good stir. 
  8. Season the mixture with salt, a tablespoon of white  pepper (you can adjust this to your liking). 
  9. Add in the cream and stir through, leave to simmer for a couple of minutes. 
  10. Dissolve 2 tablespoons of either corn flour or tapioca powder into a bowl of 2 tablespoons of cold water and stir into a slurry. Add the slurry to pie mixture to thicken it up. Make and add more of the slurry if you want your pie filling to be extra thick.
  11. Then add in the soft herbs- chopped chives and parsley and give it a final mix through. This pie filling will make just over 3L in volume. This filled 1 big pie dish and 4-5 smaller individual portions for me. It should be enough to fill 2 large pie dishes.

Filling the Pie:

  1. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celsius fan forced.
  2. Spoon the mixture into your pie dish, and cover with a sheet of puff pastry. I like to wrap my puff pastry sheet around a rolling pin or a bottle of wine first, this helps you easily unwrap the pastry over your pie dish. Just make sure you have a bit of flour sprinkled on top of your rolling pin to prevent it from sticking.
  3. Trim off the excess edges, then roll the edge of the pastry to create a crust, and then using your fingers press along the edge of the crust to create small indentations along the edge. 
  4. Using a knife, cut 4 small slits in the middle of the pie to allow the filling to steam through.
  5. Brush the whole pie with your egg wash, and top with some flakey salt.
  6. Place into the oven, and cook for 30-40 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is hot and bubbling underneath the pastry.
  7. Serve and enjoy immediately for best results. Otherwise you can make these pies in advance and reheat them in the oven at 180 degrees celsius for about 20 minutes before serving.

Watch the step-by-step process:

If you are looking for more Chicken Recipes, you can find some of my favourites below; 

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