J's Chicken Pot Pies

I would like to share the recipe for my little chicken pot pies. There is only top crust used for the pies, so you have to use a spoon to scoop the filling. This recipe is for guidance only, there is no exact measurement. heheh. You just use your own instinct to adjust the amount to suit how many pies you want to make okay?

Some people thinks its hard to make pies, maybe because the tedious task of making the crust. If you didn't have the time, you can always buy the ready made crust. But for me, it is more "meaningful" to make everything with your own hands.

Chicken pie is one of my fave food, that is why I took the time to try making them on my own. As much as I love these pies, I rarely make them, I can say I only do it about once or twice a year because in my home, one pie is just not enough. hahaa. But I can say that it is one of my specialty *tehehehe* But i hope to make them more frequent since family and friends seem to enjoy them.

Usually I made the "big" pies, the one with double crust, but recently, I made the chicken pies for my nephew's birthday party so I decided to make the small ones for easy consumption. I only put on the top crust, too lazy to make extra crust for the bottoms, so you have to eat it with a spoon.

Since some of my friends have asked for the recipe, so here it is:

Short crust pastry

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup of unsalted butter (straight out of refridgerator)
1/2 teaspoon salt
6-7 tablespoons of ice cold water

Method:

1. Combine flour and salt. Mixed them well.
2. Cut the butter in small cubes, about the size of peas and put in the flour
3. Rub the butter cubes and flour, use your fingers until they combined and look like grains or sand, something like that
4. Sprinkle ice cold water in the mixture and knead
5. Make into balls (depends on how big your pie is) and then roll them out

This recipe is for double crust pie, the normal pie dish (dont know the exact measurement). I used muffin/tart cups for my pies and only for the top crust and this recipe probably makes about 8 pieces.

Rolled out, ready to be put on the cups

Filling

Ingredients:

1 cup of chopped large onions
5 cloves of chopped garlic
1 inch of ginger, chopped
1 cup carrots, diced
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup button mushroom
1 cup potatoes, diced
2-3 chicken breast, cut in cubes
milk (depends of how creamy you want the filling to be)
Some flour for thickening
Seasoning - salt & pepper, mixed herbs (i used the mccormick dried herbs)

Method:

1. Sauteed the onions, garlic and ginger until fragrant
2. Put in the chicken, cooked it well and then put the potatoes with some water to form a little gravy
3. When the potatoes are half cooked, put in carrots
4. lastly put in peas and mushrooms, mix everything well
5. Season with pepper, salt and mixed herbs, according to your taste
6. Put in about a cup of milk, adjust if necessary, depends on how thick or creamy you want the filling to be, but for pot pies i recommend it to be a little bit wet, like very thick soup
7. Combine some flour with water and pour into the filling, for the ingredients to stick with each other
8. Once everything is cooked, take the pot off the fire and let it cool down



To form the pot pies

You can use ramekins, (thanks Ngah for introducing me to this word hehe) or small bowl bakeware or you can use the aluminium muffin cups or tarts like me. Put in the filling until the brim, and then put the crust on top. Make tiny holes patterns (up to you) and then brush with egg yolk. Bake for about 30 minutes, until golden brown, in about 190 degree celcius oven.

Ready for baking, in the aluminium muffin cups

It's all golden brown and yummy! (this is the pies made with the tart aluminium moulds.

Happy baking friends! Good luck!