I can’t even imagine how many pies I have made in my years…but they are a staple to my family. Served with lots of fresh veggies and mashed potatoes (of course!) they are always a hit. You can buy ready-to-go pastry, a rotisserie chicken and even a package of white sauce mix to cut down the prep time, but here goes with the Full Monty. I usually make two and freeze one. They freeze well.
Pastry
1 cup all-purpose
flour
½ cup Crisco
½ teaspoon salt
Mix all
ingredients together with a fork and enough cold water to bind the dough
together. Sprinkle flour on a worktop and knead the dough lightly using your
fingertips (the coolest part of your hand) and cut into two pieces. Roll pastry
the pastry out until about the thickness of a quarter and line a 9” pie pan. Be
careful not to stretch the dough otherwise it will shrink during baking. Prick
the bottom of the pastry well. Set aside with the other half of the dough.
Filling
2 cups of
cooked chicken (made easier by buying rotisserie chicken)
1 cup of
mixed vegetables of your choice (cooked)
Two cups of thick
white sauce (see below)
Method
Mix chicken,
vegetables and sauce together in a bowl with salt/pepper to taste. When cool,
place in the pie pan. Roll out the second piece of pastry to roughly the same
size as the pan. Damp the edges of the pastry in the pan and place the second
piece of pastry on top. Cut off any excess pastry. Using a fork, bind the two
pieces of pastry together or “cut and fluke” (look it up)
Coat the top
of the pie with beaten egg or milk and bake in a hot oven 400 degrees for about
30 minutes until golden brown. Decorate the top if you wish with cut outs of
spare pastry.
Sauce: Place ¼ cup of butter and ¼ cup of cornstarch together in a medium saucepan and stir over a low heat for approximately 3 minutes until blended. Slowly add 1 cup of chicken stock and half cup milk to the saucepan and stir continuingly. This should make a thick sauce. If you want to add a little double cream, it will be even better.
Note: Place
the pie on a baking sheet so that is it does boil over…it’s easier to clean up.
