precarious panther

There is a chain of bakeries/cafes in Aus called “Pie Face” which I frequent (especially when I was working in the city) who make delicious chicken and mushroom pies. Chicken and Mushroom compliment each other really well in cooking – covering them in pastry is heaven. If you’re not interested in the fiddly cooking yourself, I’d heartily recommend trying them from Pie Face if you’re ever near one.

I couldn’t find any similar recipes online so as usual opted to come up with my own one. They turned out amazing – the shitake and enoki mushrooms strengthened the flavour giving them a rich earthy taste, perfectly combined with the sweetness of the pastry. This recipe goes through two stages of cooking, first the slowly cooking filling and then the entire pies in the oven. This gives the chicken a chance to absorb the flavours of the mushrooms, onion, garlic and white wine and helps avoid cooking the pastry for too long (I *hate* dry, lifeless pastry).

Initially I had planned to make 20 small pies in muffin pans, but as I overestimated the amount of filling needed we ended up with an extra large (flan dish) sized one. I’d suggest reducing the quantities of the fillings if you want to stick to the original 20!

Ingredients

Chicken & Three Mushroom Pie (Makes one large and 20 mini pies)

100g Shitake Mushrooms 100g Enoki Mushrooms 250g Swiss Brown Mushrooms 2 Diced Brown Onions 300ml Sour Cream 1.5kg small diced chicken breast 2 tsp crushed garlic 1 tsp crushed lemon grass 1 cup Sauvignon Blanc White Wine 500ml Chicken Stock 5 sheets short-crust pastry 4 sheets Puff Pastry 100g butter 3 Tbs corn flour 2 Cups Water 2 Tsp Pepper Strips of Aluminum foil

Directions:

The cooking times for each of the ingredients in the filling is quite important as overcooking the mushrooms causes them to shrivel up and loose their texture. To avoid this it is best to prepare (slice, etc) the ingredients first. If you are making small/mini pies make sure you slice everything smaller to avoid losing the balance of ingredients.

1. 

   Sliced Shitake

   Slice the Shitake, Enoki, and brown (or whatever mushrooms you’re using) into small pieces. The mushrooms will shrink somewhat when cooked so keep this in mind when deciding how think to slice them.Dice the chicken breast into small cubes/pieces. Finally chop the onions into small pieces – the onion is to add to the flavour so you don’t want the pieces to be noticeable in size once in the pies.

2. Melt a small amount of the butter (20g depending on the size of your pan) in a large pan over medium heat, and add the onion and crushed garlic, until the garlic has become somewhat transparent and soft.
3. Add in all of the mushrooms and mix them through the onion. Cook until the mushrooms have only just softened and started to change colour (they should appear ‘moist’ – they will cook further later).
4. 

   Roux Base (Butter & Cornflour)

   Melt the remaining butter in a large pot. All of the ingredients will be added to this pot so make sure it is large enough to hold everything. Once the butter has melted, take it off the heat and mix in the corn flour to make the base of a roux. The butter and cornflour mixture will thicken, so use a fork to mix it thoroughly and eliminate any lumps. You will end up with a smooth yellow paste.

5. *Very* gradually mix in the chicken stock. If you add too much liquid too quickly you will end up with lumps, so add a splash at a time, mixing it into the paste well before adding more stock.
6. Add the two cups of water, chicken breast, mushroom & onion mix, lemon grass, and pepper, mix together well and simmer for about 20 minutes over low-medium heat until the chicken is cooked. The chicken will evenly turned white when it is cooked  (however it will cook further in the oven).
7. 

   Shortcrust Pasty

   Whilst the filling is simmering, prepare rounds of both the shortcrust and the puff pastry for the number of pies you are making. To do this, cut the shortcrust pastry into circles about 20% bigger than the size of the pies you are making (and when it is folded into the tins it needs to cover the sides), and cut the puff pastry into circles about the same size as the tins. To do this, we traced around a bowl on the shortcrust pastry with a sharp knife, and a mug for the puff pastry.

8. Grease the tins/muffin pans you are using well using either butter or olive oil spray – and then place a single strip of aluminum foil into the bottom of each tin. Each strip should stick out on each side of the tin and will make it easier to lift the pies out. Alternatively you could use foil pie tins which are usually available at the supermarket (I forgot to pick some up though!)
9. *Gently* push the shortcrust pastry rounds into the tins, folding the pastry slightly at the sides where needed to get it to fit comfortably. Each pastry should come out of the tin slightly around the edges making it easier to attach the lid after we have filled them. See the pictures for an example.
10. 

    Filling Mix - Cooked

    Once the chicken and mushroom mix is cooked, add in the white wine and sour cream and mix it through well. Allow it to simmer gently for another five minutes to combine wine and cream.

11. Fill each of the shortcrust pastries with the chicken and mushroom mix. Fill them to the top (as the mix shouldn’t expand much) leaving an edge to each pastry to attach the lid to.
12. Place each of the puff pastry lids over the filled pies, and using a fork press the two pastries together around the edge to seal the pie. Prick two holes in the top of each pie with a sharp knife to allow steam to escape.
13. Brush the top of each of the pies with milk to help brown the puff pastry, then place them in the oven at 200*C for approximately 30 minutes (or until the pastry lids brown slightly and puff up.
14. Remove the tins from the oven and allow to cool for five minutes to make the pies easier to remove from the tins. Use the aluminum foil tabs to lift the pies out of the tins.
15. Enjoy!

Gallery: