Chicken pie

Most of the time, I don't plan what to cook and I don't like to wait when I want something done. :) So today while out running errands, I had this 'brilliant' idea to bake mini chicken pies because I remembered that I still had puff pastry in the freezer. I say brilliant because I am super impulsive.Traits of a bad cook, I suppose.

The chicken pie filling is relatively easy to prepare, and it's easier still if you didn't have to make the pastry from scratch. Yeah I'm that lazy, but I'm just trying to simplify some things at hand. Given lots of time, there are plenty of recipes and methods from search engines that teach you how to make flaky crust from scratch. Best of all, the pies can be frozen after baking to be enjoyed at another time so I suppose that will be my dinner one of these days. My ingredients were enough for 20 mini pies.

Ingredients:

5 large potatoes, diced

1 large carrot, diced

1 large yellow onion, diced

1 piece of deboned chicken breast meat, sliced into small bite-sized pieces

Half a clove of garlic, chopped 

1 cup of frozen peas

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 can of Campbell's mushroom soup

1 box of puff pastry (the one I bought had 40 pieces)

1 egg yolk beaten + some milk (to brush over the pastry)

Directions:

1. Saute the garlic and onions in about 5 Tbsp oil till fragrant.
2. Mix in the potatoes and carrots to the pan and continue sauteing until the potatoes and carrots are tender. Add in a little water while sauteing.
3. Add in the chicken meat into the mixture and fry till it's cooked. Stir in the frozen peas. Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. In a separate pot, cook the mushroom soup as per the directions from the can.
5. Pour the soup into the vegetable mix and let it simmer till the mixture thickens. Remove pot from the stove and let it cool completely. The ready mix should look like thickened clam chowder.

6. Fit in the puff pastry squares into aluminum foil molds. Scoop about 1 1/2 Tbsp mixture into the mold and top with another puff pastry square. Flute the edges of the squares together so that they look nice and pretty.
7. Preheat the oven to 200C. Snip a cross over each individual pie so that the filling is able to expand. Brush the tops of each pie lightly with the beaten egg mixture so that the pies look nice and golden after they are baked. Bake pies for about 20 minutes or until golden brown.
8. Serve immediately.

I served the pies with a cup of hot Lipton tea, and later we had pears and persimmons for dessert. Weird combination I know, but it was indeed a truly delicious meal. And I'm looking forward to defrosting the remaining pies for dinner another night soon.